RESTORING LAHAR AREAS

 RESTORING LAHAR AREAS

It’s been 34 years since Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June 1991—an eruption that didn’t just change geography, but lives, industry, culture, land. Yet, ask most Filipinos (or our elected officials) what long-term progress has been made in restoring those lahar-shrouded lands, and you might hear uneasy silence. Are we simply too slow? Do we not care enough? Or is environmental restoration something we understand only in theory, not in culture or daily practice?

What has actually been done?

There have been some efforts. For example:

  • The Mount Pinatubo Hazard Urgent Mitigation Project (PHUMP) was launched to restore the Sacobia-Bamban river basin (Pampanga/Tarlac), rehabilitate major roads, and recover agricultural land covered in lahar.

  • Centuries of wear from rainstorms, flooding, and clogged lahar channels have been mitigated by constructing a “megadike” around critical areas (like San Fernando in Pampanga), as part of anti-lahar and flood control infrastructure.

  • In the town of Bacolor, Pampanga, farms buried and rendered barren by lahar are now becoming fertile again. The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has allocated P60 million to build a new irrigation system covering several barangays, for 566 hectares of land.

  • Also, there are laws: the Bacolor Rehabilitation Council Law (2008) gave institutional structure (and funding hope) to protect, dredge, and restore lahar-rendered areas around the town.

So yes, there is action. But is it enough?

Where we fall short

Here are my observations, and I think many will agree:

  1. Scale versus urgency mismatch
     PHUMP and other projects are vital, but what I’ve seen is that we often move with caution, delay, or stop-gap measures, instead of bold, comprehensive, multi-decade planning. Restoring hundreds of hectares, re-establishing entire river basins, bringing back biodiversity—the scale required is massive, yet our response tends to be piecemeal.

  2. Fragmented responsibilities, finger pointing
     NGAs, LGUs, DENR, DPWH, NIA—there are so many parties. Sometimes overlapping mandates, sometimes unclear jurisdiction. When disasters or delays happen, blame tends to bounce around. Who’s responsible for soil remediation? Who handles funding? Who monitors? Without clarity, accountability suffers.

  3. Cultural and economic priorities
     Restoration doesn’t immediately translate to profit. Politicians often focus on infrastructure, roads, bridges, visibility, short-term deliverables that show in campaign promises. Restoration is slower, more intangible: soil regeneration, ecosystems, forests. These are harder to sell to voters in three-year terms.

  4. Knowledge, science, and community integration
     Some lahar areas are now being studied more carefully (soil dynamics, native species, etc.), but many are not. Local communities often are not deeply engaged, or do not have full access to scientific/technical support or funding. Restoration that doesn’t involve those who live on lahar-affected land may fail or be unsustainable.

Recent developments: Private sector & NGOs stepping up

In all this, there is hope, and this is where I think our best lessons are:

  • De La Salle Philippines via the Lasallian Institute for the Environment (LIFE) is building a 24.4-hectare botanical garden in Alviera, Porac, Pampanga. Native species (cycads, bamboo, ferns) will be grown; part of the site will be left to self-restore (natural seed dispersal, insect pollination etc.). This is not just planting trees—it’s teaching ecosystems to heal themselves. (I’ve volunteered with LIFE in Laguna, and their work is serious, meticulous, grounded in science and community values.)

  • In Bacolor, the shift from barren lahar land to productive farmland (with proper irrigation) demonstrates that even heavily degraded land can bounce back, given the right support.

Questions & suggestions

Because I believe solving things begins with asking hard questions:

  • Was there ever a long-term, legally binding plan for restoring lahar-affected areas after the 1991 eruption that survived administrations? If yes, why has its implementation been so slow? If not, how do we create one now that is resilient to changes in leadership?

  • How much funding is actually allocated vs. needed? For example, P60 million for irrigation is good. But how many similar projects are needed to restore all the lahar-buried farmland across Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, etc.?

  • Can we build restoration into disaster risk reduction and climate resilience frameworks, rather than treat it as a separate environment issue? For instance, anti-lahar infrastructure could be combined with reforestation, watershed protection, livelihood development, native species plantations, etc.

  • What about incentives for local communities and farmers? If restoring lahar land can generate income—via agroforestry, native plants, ecotourism, botanical gardens—could that be turned into models that LGUs support actively (e.g. grants, technical support, land tenure security)?

  • Monitoring and public accountability: Are there transparent reports on how much lahar restoration has been done, its ecological results (soil health, biodiversity), social results (livelihoods), and what remains undone?

What should happen now

Here are some suggestions, in my opinion, if we really want to do more than pay lip-service:

  • The national government should adopt a Lahar Restoration Master Plan (30-year horizon) with clear targets, budgets, and roles for NGAs, LGUs, private sector, and communities.

  • Mandate and fund restoration science centers in lahar-affected provinces, where local universities, NGOs, and communities collaborate on plant nurseries, species trials, soil remediation, etc.

  • Use projects like the LIFE botanical garden as model replicable units—small but well-done labs of restoration that can be scaled or adapted to barangay‐level or municipality level.

  • Provide conditional grants to LGUs: funds that are released only if certain environmental restoration benchmarks are met (soil cover, species planted, community engagement). This encourages performance rather than just announcements.

  • Incorporate restoration into climate adaptation budgets: recognizing that restored landscapes buffer floods, reduce sediment flows, improve water absorption, etc.

Final thoughts

Restoration of lahar areas is more than ecological repair—it’s about justice. For farmers whose land was covered in ash, for communities whose rivers and homes were threatened, for future generations who will inherit what we leave behind.

It may be too late to undo all the damage from Pinatubo’s eruption in one lifetime—but far from too late to make restoration real, visible, accountable, and meaningful. If LIFE’s work in Porac can bloom, if Bacolor’s fields can yield rice again, then maybe we’ll prove that restoration is in our culture, if only we choose to let it be.

Ramon Ike V. Seneres, www.facebook.com/ike.seneres

iseneres@yahoo.com, senseneres.blogspot.com 

02-19-2026

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