Photo Release

Keeping habitation and environmental conservation in harmony: Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, during Wednesday’s hearing of the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change April 3, 2024, explains that under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-NIPAS) law, which she authored, consideration shall be given to the intended protected areas for conservation and biodiversity as well as the objectives for protected areas to keep human habitation and environmental conservation in harmony. Legarda stressed that the principal objective of the law on protected areas, while these are alienable and disposable and could be titled, is biodiversity conservation. “You cannot reason out that because it is alienable and disposable (land) and it has a title, you can do anything in the protected areas. You have to respect biodiversity conservation,” Legarda said. The senator was fuming at the explanation of the members of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) that the construction of Captain’s Peak resort was allowed because “it has a title,” describing the rationale as “frivolous.” Legarda explained that it is the mandate of the chairperson of the PAMB, who is the regional executive director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), to guide his members who are barangay captains and has no knowledge in the conservation of protected areas. “The DENR must follow the soul and intent of the law... we are really frustrated on how the good law was implemented. You cannot say that the IRR (implementing rules and regulation) was defective, you cannot say that you were absent (during the hearing when the decision to allow the construction was approved), you cannot say that there was a quorum, etc. It is clear that the DENR has the mandate, through the regional executive director, to implement the law, with the sole objective of biodiversity protection and conservation,” Legarda added. (File photo/Senate PRIB)