THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources is seeking an amendment to the expanded protected areas law to give it the power to demolish illegal structures in these ecologically critical locations.
However, Environment Undersecretary for Legal and Administration Ernesto Adobo said the agency’s hands are tied in this regard. “Under the law, we have to go through the courts before demolition…. We have a position paper to have the power to demolish.” Senators also learned that 95.5 percent of Chocolate Hills, the Philippines’s first Unesco Global Geopark, are A&D lands, of which 5,652 properties are privately titled covering 7,860 hectares. Aside from Captain’s Peak, there are two other resorts within the popular destination—all of them have no ECCs either.
She stressed that the Senate hearing didn’t intend to have officials point fingers at each other, “but we want to know where the policy gaps are, the gray areas in laws and ordinances, the failure in coordination and implementation, and why mandates were not faithfully carried out.” At the beginning of the hearing Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said, “There are 100-147 members of PAMB, and the while the chair is the regional executive director, he doesn’t vote. So in the case of Chocolate Hills, the barangay officials voted for the resolution .
For his part, Bohol Gov. Erico Aristotle Aumentado, who was also present at Wednesday’s Senate committee hearing, said his administration “takes its role seriously” in preserving sites such as Chocolate Hills, so the next generations can enjoy these as well. He noted that the tourism boom in his province has benefited its residents, has become insurgent-free, and is no longer among the poorest provinces in the country.