Senator Cynthia Villar on Thursday, March 14 said she is keen on filing a resolution seeking an investigation into the reported construction of illegal structures within the vicinity of the Chocolate Hills, a protected area and major tourist attraction.

“The Committee on Environment and Natural Resources will be filing a resolution to find out how this came about,” Villar said.

Villar is chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change.

Sen. Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Tourism, had earlier on filed a resolution also seeking to investigate the resort lodged between Haycock Hills in Sagbayan Bohol, within the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument (CHNM) which became viral on social media and earned the ire of officials and netizens.

In filing Senate Resolution No. 967, Binay said it is imperative to hold a Senate inquiry on the matter “to help protect the Chocolate Hills from destruction due to the construction of illegal structures within its vicinity.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, in a separate statement, also bewailed the non-enforcement of environmental laws and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) orders.

She also slammed the construction of the resort noting that CHNM is one of the protected areas legislated under the Expanded NIPAS Act, which she principally authored.

It was originally proclaimed as a National Geological Monument and a Protected Landscape by then-President Fidel Ramos as early as 1997, and is also declared a geological park (geopark).

The DENR, on March 13, 2024, said it has already issued a temporary closure order (TCO) last Sept. 6, 2023 and a Notice of Violation to the prpoject proponent last Jan. 22, 2024 for operating without an environment compliance certificate (ECC) for the project.

DENR regional executive director Paquito Melicor also said they have issued a memorandum dated March 13, 2024 directing the Bohol Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Ariel Rica to create a team to inspect the vicinity for its compliance with the TCO.

Legarda commented the consistency and enforceability of DENR in all its decision, noting that the DENR did not have to recommend the exclusion of alienable and disposable lands and that it is better to regulate activities in these areas.

“It is easier to manage national monuments if they are contiguous. Excluding parts in the middle from the coverage is unnecessary, as private lands can be part of protected areas. These may also be covered in the Protected Area Management Plan and all protected area rules,” she said.

Nevertheless, Legarda said the DENR may mobilize uniformed personnel to enforce its orders as the issuance of a TCO is insufficient without strict enforcement.

Legarda also said the DENR and the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) should have delineated the 20-meter retention to guide local governments in their issuance of business permits.

“For such an important heritage site, several layers of government bureaucracy were unable to act or sound an alarm about this defilement,” Legarda noted.

“It is time to make local and national agency officials accountable for inaction, wrong decisions, and failure to manage protected areas,” she stressed.