DENR ‘inaction’ drags villages’ flooding woes?
They (career officials) might lose their positions or titles and be placed on floating status if the whole department will be blamed for certain issues.
Daily TribuneThey (career officials) might lose their positions or titles and be placed on floating status if the whole department will be blamed for certain issues.
Despite the urgency to resolve the flooding problems in four Parañaque City subdivisions, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources appeared to be dilly-dallying as it could not give a position on the claims of the resort owner who is being blamed for the inundation.
DENR, in its reaction to a DAILY TRIBUNE query on 18 December, refuses to yield, for it insists that the case of businessman Selwyn Lao has been passed to its legal department for due measures.
Behind the scenes, however, a hushed insider at the DENR yesterday said that no other seasoned officials dare to step forward as they find themselves ensnared by the influence of politically appointed heads within the department.
"No other career officials wanted to do the talking as they are all 'beholden' to the politically appointed heads of the department," a DENR insider told the DAILY TRIBUNE.
The source added: "No one will risk their career that might inflict harm on the presidential appointee. They (career officials) might lose their positions or titles and be placed on floating status if the whole department will be blamed for certain issues."
On Monday, DENR Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna said the case of the Wing-An Garden Resort located in Multinational Village, owned by Lao, had been referred to the DENR legal department for appropriate action.
"Of course, he (Lao) will be given due process, and our team will conduct a thorough probe, ocular inspections, etc., things like that," Cuna said.
He said the law is clear that creeks and rivers are not for sale.
"Creeks and rivers are property of public dominion, not capable of being appropriated or owned by an individual," Cuna explained, pointing to the Civil Code as the legal basis.
The following day, on 19 December, the DENR refused to answer Lao's claim that it had sat for years on his complaints against real estate magnate and former Senate President Manny Villar.
A DENR officer also reached out to this paper to ask why the names of the Villars are being dragged into the case of the Wing-An Garden Resort and asked the latter instead.
The DENR officer said it should be enough that the department is investigating the case.
Lao earlier claimed that the affluent Villars, not him, should be blamed for the floodings because the latter reclaimed a large portion of the creek when it developed its Camella Classic Homes in Barangay Don Bosco, Parañaque City.
He added that his resort did not infringe on the Baloc-Baloc Creek, and the Villars reclaimed the original creek and turned it into a road and subdivision lots.
No action from government
Blamed for the flooding, Lao yesterday slammed the government for not taking action to demolish the houses built along and on top of the creek, which is now part of the Camella Classic Homes subdivision.
Lao, a civil engineer who also owns a construction firm based in Pasig City, questioned the office of the city building official of Parañaque City for allowing the illegal structures and issuing them building permits.
"Based on the survey conducted by the local government of Parañaque City, four houses were built on the top of the original creek," Lao told Daily Tribune.
20-year-old structures
"Those houses have been there for almost 20 years. The question is why they have not been demolished up to now. Why is the government still taking no action on this problem?" he asked.
Lao said his resort was built in 2011.
He said he had written letters to various government agencies, like DENR, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and local government, to resolve the issue, but none had acted on it.
"They are not just illegally grabbing land in the creek (the original creek); they also grabbed a portion of my lot," Lao said.
He said that about 400 square meters of his property were eaten up by the houses and the road inside CCH.
Lao also denied the allegations of the city building official that he put up a fence along the creek, saying this was just for protection from creek water entering his property.
"It's not a fence. We blocked it because all the water was coming in here," he said.
Offered solution ignored
Lao said that he offered a solution to the problem but that the family of Sen. Cynthia Villar and former Senate President Manny Villar had turned it down.
He added that in 2015, he wrote a letter to Senator Cynthia Villar because the DENR had not taken action on his complaint that a portion of his lot was eaten up by the Villar's subdivision and turned into a road.
"I was forced to write a letter to the Senate because the DENR told me to fix my own problem — not them — because all their appointments will go through the Senate," he said. "They didn't give me a chance to present the solution I offered," he added.
DAILY TRIBUNE has reached out to the Villars, Camella Homes, and the DENR for their comments but failed.
Lao said he wants to return the lots to their original boundaries, including his lot that was eaten up by the road and replaced with one inside the CCH.
He said that in August 2010, Camella Homes offered him P184,500, or P4,500 per square meter, for his 41-square-meter lot that was taken over by the subdivision road.
He said that as early as 2014, he had written letters to various government offices asking for assistance on the problem of the creek encroachment by Camella Homes and other lot owners near his lot.
