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AMONG THE AUDIENCE of about 500 men, women and children at the assembly called by Kafcode, an NGO based in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, for orientation on the party-list system, was a group of Mangyans. They were led by Cinon Pungkok, barangay chair of Lantuyang in the town of  Bago, who approached me after the assembly to present to me an ordinance they had passed to regulate the activities of mountaineers. 

''Please use this in your column,'' Pungkok urged, ''so that other barangays in the mountains, especially those where we katutubos live, will know that they can do something about those mountaineers.'' 

Pungkok's expose about the mountaineers surprised me, for I had always thought of them as ardent environmentalists, bent on protecting the mountains that allow them to enjoy their soaring and challenging sport. But even Kafcode's officers averred that lately, mountaineering has attracted a different sort of sports enthusiast, less driven to protect the environment, less considerate of the rights and privacy of the communities they pass along their way to mountain summits, and bent only on achieving their own dreams of adventure. 

There was even talk, they said, that it was careless mountaineers who set off the forest fires in the Mindoro mountains, though officials keep blaming kaingineros for the disaster. 

HERE then are the regulations that the Lantuyang folks have drawn up to regulate the presence and behavior of the mountaineers in their area. 

First, they said, only groups of no more than 20 persons would be allowed to climb their mountains, and for no longer than three days. The reason for this, they said, was to avoid the destruction of the trail and steps carved into the mountainside, and to keep the clearing needed for camp as limited as possible. 

Every mountaineer would be charged P40, which would go into the scholarship fund as well as the maintenance of the trail and repair of the footbridges during the rainy season. 

Each group would also be required to hire three or four guides from the village so that less experienced hikers would not get lost, necessitating search and rescue operations by Mangyan guides themselves. Aside from the safety factor, they said the guides would also ensure that no environmentally destructive practices are carried out. 

Finally, the barangay officials imposed a penalty of P200 on all violators, along with a permanent ban on climbing their mountain again. 

Mountaineers should understand, after all, that they are merely ''guests'' of the people who live on the mountain, and who derive sustenance and shelter from it. And like all guests, they shouldn't trash the home they are visiting, or endanger everyone who lives in it. 

INDEED, the environment is very much an issue in the Mindoro elections, pitting real-estate developer and incumbent Gov. Rodolfo G. Valencia (or RGV as he is better known) against an array of environmental activists, community groups and political rivals. 

Valencia has come under fire for egregious violations of environmental protection laws. Without consulting local government officials, for instance, he allegedly allowed fishpens to be built on Naujan Lake in the interior, threatening the fish and water supply of the province. For some inexplicable reason,  RGV also had the power barge, moored at the Calapan pier since 1989, transferred to a cove in Puerto Galera. The transfer not only threatens the fragile ecological balance of Mindoro's prime tourist spot, but also doesn't make practical sense, since Calapan, being in the center of the province was the logical spot for distributing power throughout the province, instead of Puerto Galera up in the north. 

Mining and logging also run rampant in Mindoro, with Valencia appointing Erming Atienza, the same anti-environment mayoral candidate I mentioned in yesterday's column, as the officer in charge of granting mining permits in the province. Talks are rife about lucrative land rights and mining deals. 

MOST damning of all, Valencia is one of the few incumbent  Lakas governors who were actually expelled from the party before the elections. Instead, the ruling party has put up Rep. Jesus Punzalan as its gubernatorial candidate. 

Punzalan is the father-in-law of former Gov. Benjamin ''Chippy'' Espiritu, who lost to RGV in 1995 but still continues to pursue an electoral protest, even if he knows the outcome will be academic after the May elections. ''It's a matter of justice and fighting for what is right,'' Chippy shrugged when we met him at his Calapan residence. 
 
The latest word on the case is that the NBI has found more than 34,000 ballots from nine municipalities of dubious provenance, finding, for instance that as much as 799 ballots from one precinct in Naujan were written by one hand. 

Punzalan was present at the party-list orientation and promised, among other things, that he would work to protect the environment and natural resources of Mindoro, a land rich in resources and beauty, but under constant threat from officials whose vision of ''development'' is more oriented toward destruction and greed than sustainability and protection. 
 
Will the ''green'' vote prevail in Mindoro? Only if the people  wake up to the issue in time. 

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