This is one of the hilarious and yet outrageous decisions ever made by a Protected Area Management Board in the Philippines, this time in the Northern Negros Natural Park in Negros Occidental. The PAMB, composed mostly of Mayors and Barangay Captains covering the NNNP, voted not to approve the recommendations of its Technical Working Group regarding the demolition of private vacation houses and resorts that have been constructed in the area without prior permit. Some PAMB members opined that the construction of the structures shall now proceed in spite the existence of cease-and-desist orders issued by the Protected Area Superintendent, who at the same time the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer in Negro Occ. Three things (1) There is no point for the PAMB to make a vote since the issue at hand is a commission of an act, which requires a prior permit from it - hence subject to legal proceeding, either administrative or judicial; (2) The owners of the private vacation houses and resorts are not entitled to stay in the NNNP since they are not tenured migrants; (3) The action of the PAMB creates a precedent that will allow anyone just to enter the protected area, which will further endanger the conservation importance of the NNNP. This decision of the PAMB is subject for review of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and I am in the position that it should be overturned, since it is violative of the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act, of which the NNNP is covered. Any member of the PAMB that has committed acts prejudicial to the management of a protected area, as embodied in the NIPAS Act, is subject to removal proceeding.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 03:55:48 +0000
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