Heads should roll in the viral issue of a private resort built within the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument (CHNM) in Bohol, Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda said.
In a statement issued Friday, March 15, the senator said it is time “to make local and national agency officials accountable for inaction, wrong decisions, and failure to manage protected areas.”
In the last few days, a viral post about a resort lodged between Haycock Hills in Sagbayan, Bohol, within the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument (CHNM) has earned the ire of both officials and netizens.
The drone video in the post clearly showed an operational resort and the extent of its development right on the foothills.
The CHNM is one of the protected areas legislated under the Expanded NIPAS Act, which Legarda principally authored.
It was originally proclaimed as a National Geological Monument and a Protected Landscape by then-President Fidel Ramos as early as 1997. It is also a declared geological park (geopark).
In an official statement released on March 13, 2024, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said it already issued a Temporary Closure Order last September 6, 2023, and a Notice of Violation to the project proponent last January 22, 2024, for operating without an Environment Compliance Certificate for the project.
DENR Regional Executive Director Paquito Melicor also issued a Memorandum on March 13, 2024, directing the Bohol Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Ariel Rica to create a team to inspect the resort for its compliance with the Temporary Closure Order.
Upon the recommendation of the DENR, Presidential Proclamation No. 333, Series of 2003 excluded all alienable and disposable lands and flat and rolling lands below 18 percent in slope from the coverage of CHNM but ensured the retention of 20 meters from the baseline of every hill going outward as part of the CHNM.
Legarda, however, stressed that DENR did not have to recommend the exclusion of alienable and disposable lands and that it is better to regulate activities in these areas.
“It is easier to manage national monuments if they are contiguous. Excluding parts in the middle from the coverage is unnecessary, as private lands can be part of protected areas. These may also be covered in the Protected Area Management Plan and all protected area rules,” she said.
“The DENR may mobilize uniformed personnel to enforce its orders. The issuance of a temporary closure order is insufficient without strict enforcement. [Also], the DENR and the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) should have delineated the 20-meter retention to guide local governments in their issuance of business permits,” Legarda pointed out.
“For such an important heritage site, several layers of government bureaucracy were unable to act or sound an alarm about this defilement,” she added.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #LegardasStandonEnvironmentalLaws #DENR #ChocolateHills