Resort allowed in Chocolate Hills after DENR agency gave clearance in 2018: Bohol LGU
The local government of Sagbayan in Bohol said it issued a building permit to the now-viral resort in Chocolate Hills after an agency in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) gave its clearance in 2018.
GMA's 24 Oras reported that Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort was given a building permit in light of the DENR’s Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) clearance.
“(The clearance) is presumed to be regular kasi nagsimula 'yan sa ibaba, mayroon namang PAMB resolution,” Sagbayan government spokesperson Felito Pon said. “Kahit ito'y isang protected area, mayroon namang tinatawag na multiple use zone.”
Handel Lagunay, Bohol provincial legal officer, said they requested for the DENR to take action in August 2023 after a board investigation.
"Since September, wala kaming narinig na update from DENR until na pumutok na naman ulit ito ngayon,” Lagunay said.
According to the report, the Bohol provincial government asked DENR to revisit its rules on the construction of structures within multiple-use zones in protected areas, but the agency did not supposedly respond.
The resort became a hot topic on social media after a vlogger posted about it earlier this month. Social media users and lawmakers questioned the DENR and the provincial government of Bohol why a resort was allowed to be built in a protected area like Chocolate Hills.
Resort manager Julieta Sables, in an interview on TV5's Frontline Pilipinas, stressed that they were permitted to run the business, which has been operational since 2019.
The DENR issued a statement saying it placed a temporary closure order on the resort in September 2023. It also issued a notice of violation to the project proponent in January 2024 for operating without an environmental compliance certificate.
The local governments of Bohol and Sagbayan said they only learned about the DENR order after the issue went viral on social media.
"Noon pa sana, had we known na may temporary closure order pala then we could have monitored the compliance," Lagunay told GMA's 24 Oras.
Pon said the Sagbayan government hasn't received the DENR’s temporary closure order yet.
Last March 14, the resort announced its temporary closure, citing “maintenance and environmental preservation efforts.”
Proclamation No. 1037 declared the Chocolate Hills a protected area, designating it as a National Geological Monument and a Protected Landscape.
Section 20 of Republic Act 7586, or an Act Providing for the Establishment and Management of Natural Integrated Protected Areas System, states that it's illegal to hunt, destroy, disturb, or merely possess any plants, animals, or products, dump any waste product, and alter, remove, destroy, or deface boundary marks or signs, among others.