DENR exec acquitted in Cherry Hills case

A high-ranking official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was acquitted yesterday of any criminal liability in connection with the Cherry Hills Subdivision landslide in Antipolo, Rizal that killed 58 persons and destroyed 378 homes in 1999.

The Sandiganbayan ruled that Antonio Principe, who was then regional executive director of the Provincial Environment & Natural Resources Office in Region 4, is not guilty of inexcusable negligence for unlawfully and criminally approving the application for Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) of PHILJAS Corp. regarding the development and construction of Cherry Hills subdivision.

In clearing Principe of criminal negligence, Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval of the Second Division said the “unfortunate landslide did not stem from any negligent or criminal act imputable to the accused.” Associate Justices Francisco Villaruz Jr. and Samuel Martires concurred.

“In the search to find explanations for what nature has unfortunately wrought, this court cannot for its part convict a man when his guilt has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt,” Sandoval said in the 69-page decision.

The anti-graft court said the prosecution failed to point out any rule or order stating that an ECC could only be issued when the project proponent satisfies mitigating measures for the project to insure the safety of the future residents of the subdivision.

“There is absolutely nothing in the rules that supports this stance,” the court said. “Indeed, such rule would give rise to the rather absurd situation of an ECC being issued to apprise the project proponent of mitigating measures it must enforce so the ECC could be issued in the first place.”

The DENR rules clearly did not contemplate such an absurdity in the ECC application process, the court said.

The court also said that a geological investigation report on the landslide explained that “a combination of forces acted on the whole subdivision areas.”

“Of what these forces exactly are, we cannot be sure. We cannot in our human capacity fathom. But one thing is for certain—the unfortunate landslide did not stem from any negligent act or criminal act imputable to the accused,” said the court.

The Cherry Hills subdivision is located in Barangay San Luis, Antipolo, Rizal, on a terrain described as “rolling hills.” It has a land area of 12.1 hectares or 121,000 square meters.

Cherry Hills is a low-cost housing project developed by PHILJAS Corp., a corporation of 60 percent Filipino and 40 percent Japanese ownership.  It began developing Cherry Hills Subdivision in 1991.