RETURNING to office after serving only two months of his six-month preventive suspension, Bohol Gov. Erico Aristotle Aumentado has vowed to protect the environment in his home province.
The governor told reporters that his agenda will be to look into the environmental issues surrounding Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort in Sagbayan town and other business establishments that may have violated environmental laws.
He said he will not just rely on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in monitoring protected areas in Bohol.
Aumentado marked his return on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, by attending the kickoff of Cebu Province’s 455th founding anniversary celebration at the Capitol building in Cebu City.
Last May 22, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the six-month suspension of Aumentado and 68 other local government officials amid the ongoing probe into constructing a resort within the protected area of Chocolate Hills in Bohol.
However, the anti-graft office lifted on July 30 the preventive suspension of the governor along with 30 other officials. The preventive suspension of other officials remains.
Accusations
The officials have been accused of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service over their alleged involvement in the controversial Captain’s Peak resort in Barangay Canmano in Sagbayan, within the Chocolate Hills, a protected area and a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Aumentado’s lawyers received on Friday, Aug. 2, the Ombudsman’s order lifting the six-month preventive suspension imposed on the governor and 30 other officials.
“Nakita gyud sa atong Ombudsman nga wala gyud mi (Our Ombudsman really saw that we had no) participation,” Aumentado said.
He said he became a member of the province’s Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) as he is the governor.
“Ang second nga PAMB clearance nga na-approve on July 19, 2022, kay mopay pag-sit nako sa July 1, na-busy gyod sa pagpahiluna sa kapitolyo, ug wala usab ko ka-receive sa invitation to the PAMB meeting at that time. Katong...PAMB resolution sa 2018 kay congressman pa ko ato,” Aumentado said.
(The second PAMB clearance, which was approved on July 19, 2022, came when I took office on July 1. I was busy settling things at the Capitol and I also did not receive an invitation to the PAMB meeting at that time. The PAMB resolution from 2018...was from when I was still a congressman.)
In 2018, the PAMB, which is responsible for the administration of protected areas such as the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument, granted approval for the resort’s construction. Despite the absence of an environmental compliance certificate (ECC), this clearance from PAMB enabled the Sagbayan Municipal Government to issue a building permit.
Aumentado said his legal team had complied with all the requirements and submitted documents that were requested by the Ombudsman relating to the investigation.
He said the Bohol Provincial Government’s failure to submit papers requested by the Ombudsman may have contributed to his inclusion in the preventive suspension.
However, Aumentado said these documents, like clearances from the PAMB, are with the DENR, not with the governor’s office.
Social media post
The Bohol Provincial Government was put in hot water after a vlogger posted on social media a drone shot of Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort, located at the foot of the famous Chocolate Hills in Sagbayan.
Netizens slammed the construction of a resort, pointing out that the Chocolate Hills is a national geological monument and a protected landscape under Philippine law.
This prompted an investigation, which later showed that the Sagbayan Municipal Government issued a building permit to Captain’s Peak developers even without the required ECC.
The Municipal Government relied solely on a 2018 PAMB resolution.
Based on Proclamation 1037 of the late President Fidel Ramos in 1997, the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument has around 1,776 hills spread out over a land area of more than 14,435 hectares.
Ramos designated these hills as a national geological monument and a protected landscape due to their exceptional geological formations. These hills are in the municipalities of Carmen, Batuan, Sagbayan, Bilar, Valencia, and Sierra Bullones.
The Chocolate Hills National Monument is the only Unesco Global Geopark in the country. / EHP