Mount Makiling

Also known as: Mount Makiling Forest Reserve · Mount Maquiling (older spelling) · Makiling Volcano · Mount Makiling Forest Reserve (for the protected area) · Mariang Makiling (folkloric personification)

Places

Definition

Mount Makiling is a 1,090-meter dormant volcano at the boundary of Laguna and Batangas provinces on Luzon, rising over the towns of Los Baños, Bay, and Calamba and the city of Santo Tomas, and standing as the highest feature of the Laguna Volcanic Field. It has no eruption in recorded history — the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) describes Makiling as inactive, with the youngest dated volcanic deposit roughly 100,000 years old — although volcanism remains evident in the mountain’s mud springs and hot springs, and the Makiling–Banahaw Geothermal Plant operates at its southern foot. (Wikipedia — Mount Makiling, Philstar)

The mountain is inseparable from two institutions and one legend. Its forested bulk forms the Mount Makiling Forest Reserve (MMFR), a state-owned reserve spanning the Laguna towns of Los Baños, Bay, and Calamba and Santo Tomas in Batangas, administered by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), whose campus sits at its foot; declared an ASEAN Heritage Park in 2013, the reserve is managed for research, biodiversity conservation, and watershed protection through UPLB’s Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems (MCME). In Filipino folklore the mountain is the home of Maria Makiling, the diwata guardian who protects the forest and its creatures — one of the country’s best-known legends, whose namesake silhouette is said to be traceable in the mountain’s reclining contour. (Wikipedia — Mount Makiling, ASEAN Clearing-House Mechanism, Los Baños Times)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	Mount Makiling
Wikidata	Mount Makiling (Q1551536)
DBpedia	Mount_Makiling
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	Makiling, Mount (Philippines)
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	Mount Makiling Forest Reserve biodiversity conservation Laguna Philippines
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

Mount Makiling Forest Reserve
Mount Maquiling (older spelling)
Makiling Volcano
Mount Makiling Forest Reserve (for the protected area)
Mariang Makiling (folkloric personification)

Examples and Analogies

A university-owned volcano: Makiling is to Philippine forestry science what a teaching hospital is to medicine — a living laboratory where UPLB students and researchers study forest ecology, watershed management, and biodiversity on the mountain itself.
A sleeping, not dead, volcano: With no recorded eruption but active mud springs, hot springs, and a geothermal field next door, Makiling is like a hearth whose fire has long gone out yet whose stones still radiate warmth.
Legend mapped onto land: Filipinos read the mountain’s ridgeline as Maria Makiling reclining — a rare case where a national folk legend and a geographic landmark are the same object, so that conserving the forest is also conserving the diwata’s home.

Usage Scenarios

1. Forestry Education and Scientific Research

Under Republic Act No. 6967, UPLB holds control, jurisdiction, and administration of the reserve for forestry education and research; the MCME regulates research permits and runs long-term studies of the mountain’s flora, fauna, and ecosystems. (Wikipedia — Mount Makiling, Los Baños Times)

2. Biodiversity Conservation as an ASEAN Heritage Park

Declared an ASEAN Heritage Park in 2013, the reserve functions as a regional conservation node protecting lowland forest habitat and the watersheds of Molawin Creek, Dampalit Falls, and the Cambantoc River, which supply water to Los Baños, Calamba, and Santo Tomas. (ASEAN Clearing-House Mechanism, Los Baños Times)

3. Recreation, Pilgrimage, and Ecotourism

An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people visit the reserve each year, from hikers on the UPLB College of Forestry trail to Peak 2 (four to five hours) and the more difficult Maktrav route from Santo Tomas, to Lenten pilgrims and hot-spring resort guests around the mountain’s base. (Los Baños Times, Wikipedia — Mount Makiling)

4. Watershed and Geothermal Services

Beyond education and recreation, the mountain’s forests regulate water for surrounding towns, while the Makiling–Banahaw Geothermal Plant at its southern foot taps the volcanic field’s residual heat for power. (ASEAN Clearing-House Mechanism)

Strategies

Keep the reserve under science-based administration, pairing UPLB’s research mandate with structured participation of the four surrounding local governments in boundary and land-use decisions.
Demarcate the reserve’s boundaries with permanent physical markers and public information campaigns so that buyers, settlers, and local assessors cannot mistake reserve land for alienable property. (Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems)
Regulate tourism volume through permits, trailheads, and visitor caps aligned with the reserve’s carrying capacity, especially during Lent and other peak periods. (Los Baños Times)
Manage the buffer zone along the reserve edge, restricting adjoining land uses to environmentally compatible activities as provided under the applicable buffer proclamation. (Los Baños Times)

Security and Safety Measures

Hikers should register at the UPLB College of Forestry entry point, hire accredited guides, and observe posted trail closures — the Santo Tomas (Batangas) side traverse to Peak 2 is prohibited under UPLB rules. (Los Baños Times)
The mountain’s steep, forested trails become hazardous in heavy rain (flash floods and landslides along creeks such as Molawin); trips should be postponed during storms and monsoon downpours.
The Mud Springs area emits hot, acidic water and gas; visitors should view it from established platforms and never bathe in or approach the vents closely. (Wikipedia — Mount Makiling)
Wildfires, charcoal-making, and unregulated camping are chronic risks; visitors must follow no-open-fire rules and report intrusions to MCME or UPLB authorities. (Los Baños Times)

Historical Context

Makiling was among the country’s earliest formal protected areas: it was established as Mount Makiling National Park by Proclamation No. 552 on 23 February 1933 — regarded as the Philippines’ first national park — then decommissioned as a park by Republic Act No. 3523 on 20 June 1963 and transferred to the University of the Philippines for forestry education. Republic Act No. 6967 (1990) vested full control, jurisdiction, and administration of the forest reserve in UPLB, which manages it today through the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems; the reserve was declared an ASEAN Heritage Park in 2013, strengthening its regional conservation standing. (ASEAN Clearing-House Mechanism, Wikipedia — Mount Makiling)

The mountain’s cultural history is older than its legal history. Folk tradition holds that Maria Makiling, a diwata sent by Bathala to aid humankind, dwells on the mountain and guards its game and timber; scholars note that the “Maria” prefix reflects a Spanish-era recasting of an indigenous goddess in Catholic terms, and the legend of her withdrawal from human view — heartbroken or disillusioned — has been retold in Philippine literature ever since. In 2006 and again in 2021, PHIVOLCS publicly reminded the public that steam seen on the mountain came from hot springs, not an awakening volcano, confirming that Makiling has no record of historical eruption. (Wikipedia — Mount Makiling, Philstar)

Challenges and Controversies

Boundary Disputes and Land Speculation

Because the reserve spans Los Baños, Bay, Calamba, and Santo Tomas under a single university administration, jurisdictional friction with local governments recurs — and without visible boundary markers, land speculators have sold parcels of the reserve to private buyers. UPLB and DENR Region IV-A ratified a memorandum of understanding in March 2019 to delineate and demarcate the boundary against unlawful encroachment, poaching, and land conflicts. (Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems, Los Baños Times)

Resort Proliferation and Resource Extraction

Resorts in Los Baños and Calamba more than doubled from 508 to 1,026 between 2014 and 2020, drawing unregulated hot-spring water from the mountain’s flanks, while charcoal-making and informal settlements inside the reserve add pressure that MCME’s understaffed rangers struggle to contain. (Los Baños Times)

Volcano Classification: Inactive or Potentially Active?

Official statements from PHIVOLCS describe Makiling as inactive with no historical eruptions and deposits about 100,000 years old, yet some standard references — including the ASEAN Clearing-House Mechanism’s own site description — classify it as potentially active because of its mud springs, hot springs, and geothermal field. The discrepancy is a genuine source of confusion in hazard communication for surrounding towns. (Philstar, ASEAN Clearing-House Mechanism)

Access Rules and the Santo Tomas Entry Debate

UPLB prohibits the Maktrav entry from the Batangas side, disappointing trekking groups and tour operators whose communities border the reserve — a recurring debate over who may enter a national scientific reserve, from where, and under whose regulation. (Los Baños Times, Wikipedia — Mount Makiling)