AS IT expressed alarm over "clear link" of forest and biodiversity loss to the emergence of future pandemics, environment group Green Alert said violations on environmental laws remain prevalent in Negros.
The group, in a statement, said there are violations and negligence on the part of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), particularly on allowing development projects and illegal structures like private resorts and concrete road inside the Northern Negros Natural Park (NNNP).
It is like virus-infectious and capable of killing the flora and fauna in park and destroying local communities, it added.
The Green Alert, in a statement, said "a little virus has shutdown global economy, restricted our mobility, altered the way we live and snuffed the livelihoods of millions."
"This pandemic, like climate change is not a natural, rather anthropogenic or caused by human activities which driven by economics and politics of greed," it added.
Green Alert reiterated that those structures at the NNNP are illegal because they were constructed inside a protected area as provided under Sections 3 and 4 Republic Act 7586 or the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992.
"The structures are also illegal because they can be categorized in Section 20 or the Prohibited Acts of Republic Act 7586 such as squatting, mineral locating or otherwise occupying any land and constructing or maintaining any kind of structure, fence or enclosures, conducting any business enterprise without a permit," it said.
The environment group recalled that in 2018, it filed a complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman, charging the DENR for allegedly failing and refusing to act or continue to refuse to take action against the proliferation of illegal structures with the areas of the NNNP totaling to 94 at that time.
The complaint, it said, was based on the alleged inaction of the DENR in 2014 after the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) head Andres Untal issued a cease and desist orders (CDOs) to 89 illegal structures owners inside the NNNP.
In the same year, former governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the DENR is ready to demolish the illegal structures at the protected area specifically in Salvador Benedicto.
"However, not a single illegal structure with a CDO was demolished. It has been observed that several structures issued with CDOs completed construction. New structures and new clearings inside the NNNP are also observed," Green Alert said, adding that it submitted letters to the DENR several times asking for a dialogue "but no response or action were taken."
The statement further stated that "while both the DENR and the Protected Area Management Board (Pamb) purposively disrespected the CDO by not acting on it, the latter has added to its callousness by allowing the road projects in Calatrava, Cadiz City and Barangay Patag in Silay City."
These projects are believed to pass through the NNNP and affect portions of its protected area.
The Green Alert feared that the said project is "a done deal because the Pamb approved the creation of the Patag Management Development Council (PMDC) instead of acting against the 36 establishments illegally operating in the area."
"In full finality and with no doubt, the structures are deemed illegal and CDOs were issued against the owners of the structures," it said, adding that "the CDOs and actions taken by the Penro were duly transmitted to the DENR regional director who is also the Pamb chairman."
Green Alert coordinator Elmeer Meeynard Calimpos said that to date, illegal structures are still mushrooming and expanding inside the NNNP and owners of these illegal structures are raking profits out of their business but not a single centavo goes to the coffer of the local government.
"Worst, it simply manifest the ineptness of the agency, the DENR and Pamb, and the political irresponsibility of local leaders to safeguard the environment for the enjoyment of its people which right is enshrined in no less than the Philippine Constitution," Calimpos said.
Green Alert demanded the Ombudsman to finally decide on the complaint by invoking appropriate judgment to the respondents, he added.
In a separate statement over the weekend, the Group of Environmental Socialists (Goes) said though there is already a CDO, there should be a resolution as to what is the next concrete plan whether to demolish the identified establishments at Barangay Patag, Silay City or just "legalize" them.
"We are hoping that what the Pamb is organizing will not be their means in justifying the act of legalizing the illegal inside the NNNP," the group said, adding that "no one is above the law."
The DENR and Pamb have yet to be reached for comment on this issue.