A GOVERNMENT agency is under pressure to account for what’s happening to a heritage site in Boljoon town, and it’s not the public works department this time.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas gave the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 10 days to inform the ombudsman what it did about a complaint against illegal extraction of limestone in Poblacion, Boljoon, Cebu.
The countdown will start as soon as the ombudsman’s follow-up letter reaches DENR.
In that letter to DENR 7 Regional Executive Director Isabelo Montejo dated Sept. 1, 2015, Acting Director Carla Juris Narvios-Tanco asked for updates on their referral letter dated April 27, 2015, on a request for assistance filed by Dr. Teofilo Silagan.
Silagan, a retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) doctor, is one of the owners of the lot that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and its contractor QM builders allegedly destroyed.
Silagan’s lot is where Ili Rock is located.
“The extraction has allegedly been done without his permission since August 2014 up to the present and has destroyed the heritage site,” read Tanco’s letter to Montejo.
The Office of the Ombudsman also wrote letters to Chairperson Alberto del Rosario of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines and Chairperson Maria Serena Diokno of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
The anti-graft office asked these two officials about the effects of the destruction of Ili Rock.
Montejo told Sun.Star Cebu that the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has acted on this concern.
“A notice of violation was issued was issued. The area is a private land and the violation is on compliance with the ECC (environmental compliance certificate) and quarry permit, which QM Builders should get from the provincial government,” Montejo said.
The DPWH explained in November last year that its slope benching project on Ili Rock—the transformation of vertical slopes into terraces to keep rocks from falling—was needed since some soil and rocks were loosened during the October 2013 earthquake.
Boljoon hosted a public consultation, also in November last year, after a petition was circulated asking DPWH to stop the project.
Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Czareem Joseph Estella also previously issued a certification that QM Builders has not been issued a waste disposal permit by the Cebu Provincial Government in relation to their DPWH road-widening project in Ilihan, Poblacion, Boljoon.
DPWH District Engineer James Dellosa has ordered QM Builders to proceed with the road widening project with a budget of P89 million, allegedly without a public consultation and without informing the lot owners.
Silagan said that although QM Builders and DPWH have violated his rights as one of the property owners, he is now too old to file a case against those responsible.
“At my age, I don’t want to fight them. We just want to be compensated for our property,” Silagan said.