Bantayan folk file petition vs. DENR execs and staff

CEBU - Residents of Bantayan Island led by environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa filed a petition against the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) yesterday for destroying, instead of preserving the Bantayan Group of Islands, a protected area proclaimed by Law in 1981.  

In a 41-page petition filed before the Mandaue City Regional Trial Court, the petitioners accused DENR of issuing Environmental Compliance Certificates in a protected area even without the required Protected Areas Management Plan required by law.

The petition that they filed was for DENR’s patrimonial malpractice, mandamus, injunction and damages.

Under the Law (RA 7586, National Integrated Protected Areas System), the protected area must be zoned to limit the impact of human activities allowed in the area.

A scientific study must be conducted to determine its carrying capacity like freshwater source, waste disposal systems, human population, etc.

According to the petitioners, this has not been done by the DENR, as required by Law. In fact, petitioners said, the meets and bounds of the protected areas have not even been identified.

“How can DENR and the others protect an area if they do not even know where it is,” Oposa said in an interview yesterday.

Aside from Oposa, the other petitioners are Edgardo Caratao, Antonio Marabe, Mulino Putong, Ceasar Morandarte, Antonio Espina and Enrico Atienza.

Petitioners in the class suit are represented by lawyers Ben Cabrido Jr. and Santiago Ortiz Jr. – are residents of all three towns of Bantayan Island.

The named respondents were DENR Secretary Lito Atienza and DENR Regional Executive Director Reynaldo Sibbaluca and other DENR officials.

Petitioners said that despite the fact that these areas have not been identified and the Protected Area Management Plan has not been prepared, DENR has been indiscriminately issuing ECCs to establishments, including beach resorts that have glaring violations of Environmental Laws. 

Petitioners pointed that beach resorts have been allowed or tolerated by the DENR and by the local governments to put up dikes, seawalls and other structures on the seashore and on the foreshore without any permit.

This is a violation of the Water Code (PD 1067) and the NIPAS Law (RA 7586) and carries a penalty of up to 6 years imprisonment, but DENR has not taken action on these structures.

Since these ECCs were issued without jurisdiction, petitioners asked that all ECCs in Bantayan Island, a protected area, be revoked, cancelled, or suspended pending the preparation of the Protected Areas Management Plan. 

Petitioners also impleaded certain DENR officials in their personal capacity, tentatively identified as John and Jane Does.

Oposa alleged that DENR has been entrusted with the natural patrimony of the country’s protected areas and has been given all the powers to achieve this purpose. 

Instead of conserving and protecting these crown jewels of the country’s national treasures, it has instead wrongly used such powers resulting in the destruction of the Bantayan Island. — Jasmin R. Uy/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)