MALOLOS City -- An environmental watchdog yesterday called on the government to immediately address  “a clear and present danger” at the watershed areas of Angat and Ipo dams in Bulacan.

As this developed Governor Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado urged the government to protect the Angat dam watershed from illegal loggers.

Alvarado made the call after the Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society and an ABS-CBN news team documented the present state of the watershed and other parts of the Sierra Madre mountain range.

SSMES chairman Bro. Martin Franscisco said Dumagat tribesmen showed them parts of the Angat dam watershed area where trees were recently cut by illegal loggers.

The Dumagats also pointed to Franscisco and ABS-CBN reporter Julius Babao some cracks in the mountains which they said are  getting bigger and deeper.

Franscisco said the tribesmen fear that the cracks may trigger landslides and could wipe-out communities or expose the 44-year-old Angat and the nearby Ipo dam in danger.

The SSMES chief told Alvarado that most parts of the Angat and Ipo dams watershed have already been severely denuded.

“These dams are nestled along the Marikina west valley fault line, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology,” Francisco said. Troy Gallardo, Manny Balbin