BOHOL’s lady lawmakers in the House of Representatives are set to meet this week with the manager of the controversial Captain’s Peak Resort apparently to iron out kinks relative to its operations.
Congresswoman Vanvan C. Aumentado (2nd district) and Congw. Alexie B. Tutor (3rd district) bared that they needed to see Ms. Juieta Sablas, the resort manager, in person and conduct ocular visit of the resort site.
The meeting sometime this week has also something to do with the amendments of the E-NIPAS Act or Republic act No. 11038, as proposed by the lady solons and Rep. Edgar Chatto and a Palawan Rep. Alvarez.
Tutor told this writer that she needs to know if the resort owner is still willing to continue to improve the resort if given the chance to do so and to get the pulse relative to the tinkering of the said law, governing the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument as protected area.
Congw. Aumentado said in interview that she already made arrangement with the resort owner and Sagbayan officials.
In a huddle with the media, who revisited the resort site last week, Sablas said that she’s very much willing to talk to the lawmakers and other officials.
It will be recalled that Gov. Aris Aumentado ordered the investigation of the defacement of some Chocolate Hills in barangay Canmano, Sagbayan town.
The said probe was an offshoot to The Freeman’s published report on August 14, 2023 entitled: “Defacing a national treasure: resort, other projects ruining Chocolate Hills.”
The governor said that he directed the Bohol Provincial Environment and Management Office (BPEMO) and the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the province and the regional office to look into the reported violation.
The joint committees of environment and tourism chaired by Board Member Atty. Jamie Villamayor and BM Tita V. Baja, respectively, of the provincial board also conducted a separate ocular inspection of the resort sometime last year as part of their investigation in aid of legislation following the privilege speech of BM Nathaniel Binlod.
The ocular visit by the joint committees to the resort was prompted upon the instruction of then Vice-Gov. Dionisio Victor A. Balite as an offshoot of Binlod’s speech.
“The hills should not be altered nor defaced and extraction is strictly prohibited.”
This was one of the provisions of Resolution No. 01, series of 2018, executed by the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), governing the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument, for the Captain’s Peak Garden Eco-park Tourism resort in barangay Canmano, Sagbayan town.
The board members initially found that the resort has built some cottages and two water slides for a swimming pool constructed at the foot or sides of at least three (3) hills that may be considered chocolate hills.
The entire province has been designated in May 2023 as the country’s Global Geopark by the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (rvo)
