Chocolate Hills resort due for closure — Loyzaga

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga on Friday said the owner of Captain’s Peak resort only applied for an environmental compliance certificate after the resort was already built.

In an interview over DZRH radio yesterday, Loyzaga revealed that the local government of Sagbayan, Bohol issued a building permit without the necessary ECC to resort owner Edgar Buton.

Loyzaga is in New York for a United Nations Commission on Women speaking engagement.

Loyzaga said, “In 2018, Buton, a seaman, applied to construct the resort, and this was approved by the (local) Protected Area Management Board (composed of the mayor, representatives of the governor, barangay chairmen, non-government organizations, and members of the academe).”

The PAMB was created by Republic Act 11038.

“(It was) approved mostly by the barangay captains. The details are all there in their approval,” Loyzaga said.

She clarified that the DENR has no voting power in the Protected Area Management Board.

“We are only consulted in case there is a tie,” she said.

Loyzaga said that further research by the DENR showed that the mayor of Sagbayan, Restituto Q. Suarez III, issued the building permit in 2020.

On 14 July 2022, the Protected Area Management Board issued Buton another development endorsement for the construction of a pool resort with clearances from barangay chairmen.