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Blaans want armed groups in tribal enclaves disarmed

TOKYO, Japan — An online booking system for Mount Fuji’s most popular trail was announced on Monday by Japanese authorities trying to fight overtourism on the active volcano.

Japan’s highest mountain has become increasingly crowded during the summer hiking season, raising concerns over safety and environmental damage.

To ease congestion on the Yoshida Trail, the preferred route for most hike rs, the Yamanashi region is planning to cap daily entries to 4,000 people, who will be charged $13 each.

But to address some climbers’ fears that they will be rejected once the daily limit is reached, th is year online bookings will also be introduced for the first time.

The s ystem will guarantee people entry through a new gate, “allowing them to plan ahead,” Katsuhiro Iwama, an official from the Yamanashi regional government, told AFP.

Online bookings open on May 20 for the July-September hiking season. Each day at least 1,000 places will be kept free for on-the-spot entry.

Mount Fuji i s covered in snow most of the year, but in the summer more than 220,000 visitors trudge up its steep, rocky slopes, many climbing through the night to see the sunrise.

Some attempt to reach the 3,776-metre (12,388-foot) summit without breaks and become sick or injured as a result.

Tourists are also flocking to surrounding areas to snap the majestic mountain, which is seen as a symbol of Japan but whose popularity is proving a burden to locals.

In one photo spot where Mount Fuji emerges behind a Lawson convenience store, exasperated officials are constructing a huge black mesh barrier to block the view.

People who work and live nearby had complained about mostly foreign tourists trespassing, littering and dangerously cro ssing the street to get the perfect Instagram post.

Record numbers of overseas tourists are travelling to Japan, where in March monthly visitors exceeded three million for the first time.

Residents of Kyoto’s geisha district have also banned tourists from private alleys after complaints that some were rudely demanding selfies with the kimono-clad entertainers.

KORONADAL CITY — The Department of the Interior and Local Government is now acting on reports by ethnic Blaans in Tampakan, South Cotabato about the presence of private armed groups in their domains, mostly led by settlers identified with certain local officials.

The National Barangays Operation Office (NBOO) of the DILG’s central office had also assured the Blaans in Tampakan, through their Indigenous People’s Mandatory Representative to their Sangguniang Bayan, the tribal chieftain Domingo Collado, of its appropriate action on the issue.

Radio reports here and in nearby cities on Monday stated that the reported presence of private armed groups in Tampakan is “bothersome” for local tribespeople, among them families who had complained of maltreatment by armed men employed by settlers supporting barangay and municipal officials.

Blaan tribal leaders told reporters on Monday that they have also sought the intervention of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on the issue, apprehensive of possible harassment by local private armed groups if they do not support candidates they favor during next year’s local elections.

Reporters received from South Cotabato provincial officials on Monday morning a copy of a letter from the DILG’s central office to Collado, signed by lawyer Kevin Carpeso, dated March 18, 2024, stating that the NBOO shall soon report to the complaining Blaans in Tampakan the result of their initial deliberations on the issue.

Senior officials of the Police Regional Office-12 had earlier announced that efforts to document the presence of private armed groups in Tampakan are underway.

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