THE regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Davao plans to re-file the case against the illegal trekkers who climbed Mt. Apo last year despite the prohibition imposed by the Protected Area Management Board of Mt. Apo Natural Park (Pamb-MANP).
DENR-Davao regional director Ruth Tantawan, during the first quarterly meeting of Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force held last February 16, said she sought for the help of the Prosecutor's Office to re-file the case against Edgar Ian Tesaluna and 11 other mountaineers who illegally climb at the protected mountain amid the existing order.
“Since there is nothing in the decision that prohibits the DENR to re-file a case, then we will re-file a case against the perpetuators as soon as the designation of a Special Prosecutor is made,” Tawantawan said in a press statement.
All trails leading to the mountain are indefinitely closed from climbers under the en banc Resolution 1 Series of 2016 issued by Pamb, following the grassfire incident last March 26, 2016 which took 28 days for the firefighters to contain and damaged 115 hectares of grassland.
Despite this, some concerned citizens in the area reported to DENR-Davao that a certain local guide from Davao City brought 11 climbers to Mt. Apo on May 20, 2016.
DENR, through its Parks Operations Superintendent Eduardo Ragaza, validated the report and coordinated with the concerned local government units leading to a case filed against the trekkers at the Office of the City Prosecutor of Digos last August 12, 2016, after finding a probable cause for violation of Republic Act 9237 or the Mt. Apo Protected Area Act of 2003.
This was dismissed “without prejudice for the reason that none of its prosecutors is authorized to conduct preliminary investigation and prosecute violations under RA 9237.”
“As early as September 7, 2016, a letter from Digos City Prosecutors Office requesting for a designation of Special Prosecutor was already endorsed and personally delivered to the Office of the Prosecutor General Claro A. Arellano,” the statement read.
The request was also followed up by a letter from the Regional State Prosecutor lawyer Janet Grace Dalisay-Fabrero dated December 27, 2016, addressed to Undersecretary Antonio Kho, Jr. of the Department of Justice.
According to DENR-Davao, the designation of a Special Prosecutor is a requisite under Section 15 of RA 9237 which states that “within 30 days from the effective of this Act, the Department of Justice shall appoint a special prosecutor to whom all cases of violation of laws, rules and regulations in the protected area shall be assigned.”