THE Tagbilaran Baywatch thru its spokesperson Atty. Gertrude Biliran has discovered in what it called the “mother of all resolutions” issued by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) that paved the way of the construction of the controversial Captain’s Peak resort in Sagbayan town and all other structures within the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument (CHNM).
The Resolution No. 05, series of 2012, approving the rules and regulations on ecotourism development and management within the natural/cultural heritage of CHNM. It was approved on May 4, 2012, “which dangerously established the policy of the PAMB the development and management within the CHNM.”
The said Resolution was certified by one Marcial Ugay and signed by presiding officer Casimero Aceron and affirmed by DENR-7 regional executive director and PAMB chairman Maximo O. Dichoso.
The environment group alleged that the assailed Resolution “illegally provides a maximum of three structures shall be allowed within 20% portion of the hill from the baseline, provided, that the design and color shall blend with the general landscape.”
The 20% use from the baseline of the hill, as in the case of the Captain’s Peak resort, was provided in the assailed PAMB’s Resolution 01, s. 2018 and Resolution No. 21, s. of 2022.
The provisions of these Resolutions run counter to the provisions of Proclamation No. 1037, establishing the CHNM, Presidential Proclamation No. 333. The aforesaid laws require a buffer zone at 20 meters from the base of the hill outward. It also means that this area “is a no build zone which was affirmed in republic Act 11038, or the expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act,” the group pointed out.
The group said that the said Resolution No. 05, s. 2012, was allegedly the basis of the construction of Bud Agta resort within the CHNM in Carmen town, a neighboring town of Sagbayan.
Bud Agta resort in barangay Tamboan, Carmen, another controversial establishment visited by Interior Sec. Benjamin Abalos recently, was issued by DENR an Environment Clearance Certificate (ECC) to operate. But Carmen Mayor Conchita delos Reyes said she did not issue a mayor’s permit since the resort violated certain policies.
As this developed, Tagbilaran Baywatch urged for the revocation of PAMB Resolution No. 05, s. 2012 “to nullify the illegal 20% area from the base of the hill policy so that this illegal policy will no longer used by DENR-PAMB or any party to violate these existing laws enacted to protect the CHNM.”
It also urged for the demolition of all illegal structures built within the CHNM’s buffer zones as it calls for all the local government units and government agencies to avoid enacting policies for protected areas that bypass existing national laws. (Ric Obedencio)
