A Puerto Princesa City-based non-government organization asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to investigate the alleged use and occupation of untitled lands in areas under the Malampaya Sound Protected Landscape and Seascape by certain individuals and groups, including billionaire Beatriz Zobel de Ayala.
“We respectfully request the DENR to look into reclamation activities and tourism-related construction activities in El Nido and Coron, Palawan which apparently have not undergone the appropriate consultations, environmental impact assessments/studies and have led, among others, the destruction of mangrove areas [particularly in El Nido],” Environmental Legal Assistance Center Inc. executive director Grizela Mayo-Anda said in a letter to DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu on June 5.
Malampaya Sound Protected Landscape and Seascape spans 200,115 hectares of both aquatic and terrestrial environment with diverse ecosystems in Palawan. It was declared a marine protected area in 2000.
Mayo-Anda said ELAC was in possession of two letters signed by a member of an indigenous people’s group, the Nagkakaisang Tribu Tandolanon Barangay Pancol, in the municipality of Taytay. The IP group complained about the cutting of big trees by the group of Ms. Zobel de Ayala in Sitio Maypa, Barangay Pancol, Municipality of Taytay, Palawan.
A certain Felipe Valones, chieftain of NTTBP and a member of the Protected Area Management Board, asked the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office of Taytay to look into the alleged permanent concrete buildings erected in Sitio Maypa upon the orders of Zobel de Ayala.
Asked for comment, Christopher Louie Ocampo, the legal counsel of Zobel de Ayala, said Valones “has withdrawn that complaint and the Council of Elders of NTTPB issued Resolution No. 37, Series of 2020 disowning the complaint for having been filed without its knowledge and authority”.
“Ms. Zobel de Ayala is a law-abiding citizen and respects the people of Taytay, Palawan, which is evident from her dealings with them. She will continue her endeavors in supporting the community. She is ensuring that all permits, clearances or applications for her lawful use of the property are in order. Ms. Zobel de Ayala has engaged counsel to advise and assist her on this matter and to coordinate with the authorities,” Ocampo said.
ELAC, however, expressed concern that the entry and occupation of untitled properties in protected areas and in ancestral domains in the province of Palawan would continue unless the DENR began to intervene and initiate the appropriate legal actions.
“We initially gathered information from concerned community leaders and other citizens that the concerned DENR-CENRO and PAMP offices were aware of these developments but have not done any concrete actions to address these problems,” the NGO said.
Clarissa Pador, the Protected Area Superintendent for Malampaya Sound, confirmed in an ABS-CBN Palawan report that said she received a request from a tribal group to investigate the alleged tree-cutting and construction activities in a protected ancestral land in Taytay.
Pador said her office would inspect the area to check if there were violations committed. “If the structures were built in alienable and disposable land and there were natural grown trees, they could not cut them without permits,” Pador was quoted as saying.
Pador, however, explained that private individuals could apply for special permits to use a part of a protected area as long as they would pay an annual rent to the government.