THE Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) of Tagbilaran has issued statement that it did not issue an order for closure of business establishments but only a notice of violation (NOV) to those who don’t have environmental clearance certificate (ECC) in four towns as part of the Chocolate Hills National Monument protected area.
The clarification was issued to dispel news feeds and other unverified information as regards to the reported closure of business firms of the town, including other towns where Choco Hills are located.
This surfaced during the special meeting of the CHNM Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) held at the new Capitol and presided over by former PENRO Nestor Canda, who is now the barangay chieftain of Poblacion Sur, Batuan, Bohol.
The said unverified report of closure found its way to social media that went trending as shares are commonplace.
The CENRO, however, bared that they’re bound, if not pressured, to produce documentation via National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for case build-up against those who don’t have ECCs. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is said to be serious in filing cases against those ECC-less establishments.
And this worries the Batuan residents who have been here even before the crafting and implementation of the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas Systems (E-NIPAS) Act, Canda confirmed.
Governor Aris Aumentado, who personally attended the said meeting, assured the residents that his administration will exert more efforts for the resolution of the problem facing the residents.
Aumentado vowed to talk to DOJ thru its officer-in-charge to give ample time for the affected residents to reconsider its decision, if not give them chance to comply with the environmental requisites.
He said that people here need to be assisted so as not to deprive them of their livelihood. Bohol is now having 14% poverty incidence from 19%, he said. What if these people loss their livelihood? Will the poverty incidence go up, again?
The DENR thru its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has issued a total 434 NOVs in both Alienable and Disposable and timberlands. The town of Carmen has been issued 76 NOVs and 21 PAMB clearance; Batuan, 100 NOVs and 8 PAMB clearance; Bilar, 70 NOVs and one PAMB clearance; and Sagbayan, 188 NOVs and 14 PAMB clearance.
But Municipal Administrator Atty. Eliezer Cagol said that there are more NOVs issued to affected Carmen residents than the list of the DENR.
The approved law governing the CHNM is the Republic Act No. 11038 or An Act Declaring Protected Areas and Providing for Their Management, Amending for This Purpose Republic Act No. 7586, Otherwise Known as the “National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992” and for Other Purposes governs the CHNM, whose number of conical or dome-shaped like mounds are increased to 1,776 from 1,265 hills.
PAMB approved the definition of a hill considered to be a Chocolate Hill as “a karst geological formation with a conical to dome-shaped landforms characterized by rolling to very steep terrain, with an elliptical or circular base, either isolated or subtly interconnected with adjacent similar formations, predominantly covered with grasses/shrubs exhibiting seasonal color transition from green to brown and remaining largely unaltered from mid-slope to summit.” (Ric Obedencio)
