‘DENR complicit in Choco Hills resort brouhaha’

Senator Nancy Binay on Wednesday slammed the construction of a resort in one of the country’s declared protected areas — the Chocolate Hills in Bohol province.        

“At first glance alone, we already know something is wrong,” said Binay, who chairs the Senate Tourism Committee. She said she recognized the importance of development in certain areas but noted that “there should be boundaries.” 

She said it is the government’s responsibility, particularly the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, to maintain and protect the Chocolate Hills. 

Binay questioned how the Captain’s Peak Resort was allowed to be built in the protected area despite the existing policies under the National Integrated Protected Areas System, or NIPAS, Act.

“Why was a resort that has cottages, a swimming [pool], built in a classified natural monument,” she said. 

The Chocolate Hills was declared the country’s third National Geological Monument on 18 June 1988, recognizing its scientific value and geomorphic uniqueness. It was also declared a protected UNESCO Geopark.

“If the DENR continues to issue ECCs (environmental compliance certificates) in the guise of tourism development, I believe they have misunderstood what ecotourism is all about, and they have become complicit in defacing a natural monument they’re supposed to protect,” Binay said.

She cited a resolution by the DENR’s Protected Area Management Board endorsing the resort’s development within the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument.

The senator wants the agencies and other local offices — including the DENR and PAMB, the Bohol Environment Management Office, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office, and local government units — to explain “why the construction permits continue to be granted” amid the Chocolate Hills’ protected status. 

The DENR, in a statement, said it had issued a temporary closure order on the resort on 6 September last year.

“As of 13 March 2024, Regional Executive Director Paquito D. Melicor issued a memorandum directing PENRO (Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office) Bohol Ariel Rica to create a team to conduct an inspection at Captain’s Peak for its compliance with the Temporary Closure Order,” the statement said.

“The DENR-Environmental Management Bureau will continue to monitor,” it added. The DENR said that on 22 January, it issued a notice of violation to the project proponent for operating without an ECC.

The Department of Tourism, on the other hand, said it did not accredit the resort.

The Meta and X media have been filled since Tuesday with irate reactions from netizens who decried the resort’s destruction of the natural beauty of the hills of Sagbayan, Bohol.

“The Department of Tourism supports the preservation and protection of Bohol’s Chocolate Hills located within a declared UNESCO Global Geopark and a source of national pride for the Philippines,” the DoT said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Captain’s Peak Resort Development in Chocolate Hills is not an accredited tourism establishment under the auspices of the DoT’s accreditation system, and there is no pending application for accreditation of the same,” it added. 

In a report by Cebu media outlet The Freeman in 2023, Julieta Sablas, the administrator and sister of the owner of The Captain’s Peak, Edgar Buton, claimed that the resort had undergone the proper process for its construction. 

Sablas said they also presented a proposal to the Protected Areas Management Board of the DENR “when changes were made to the approved plan regarding the location of some of the amenities.”

The DoT maintained that it had been coordinating with the Bohol provincial government since August 2023 to express its concerns regarding the resort and the necessity of preserving the integrity of the hills.