Lawyer Gerardo Carillo, chairman of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told SunStar Cebu Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, that they inspected the area as part of the city’s “gubat sa baha” (war against flooding) program, but they were surprised to find that there were no more mangrove trees in the location.
Carillo said around 20 hectares of land containing mangrove trees had been illegally reclaimed by a company that operates a mall chain in the country.
During a meeting with the DENR on Tuesday, Carillo said the DENR already agreed to issue the cease and desist order and to conduct a further investigation on the issue.
He added that the investigation will uncover when the reclamation started and why the City Government was not able to immediately know about the destruction of the mangrove area.
“Mao nay entrance sa river, and sa una mangrove forest na. Karon amoang gi adto kay amoa unta palapdan ang bukana. Gi reclaim naman diay,” said Carillo.
(That’s the entrance of the river, and in the past, that was a mangrove forest. Now we went there because we want to widen the opening, but it turns out the area has been reclaimed.)
He further said they had asked the DENR to investigate why the private entity was able to own a property that should be environmentally protected due to the presence of the mangroves.
Because of the alleged reclamation, Carillo said the natural flow of water during downpours has been hampered, which can cause flooding.
Criminal charges
City consultant and former environment secretary Roy Cimatu lambasted the DENR during their meeting for not doing their job properly, said Carillo.
Carillo added that the DENR also mentioned filing criminal charges against the private entity for violating environmental laws.
“Are we (just) going to see as they continue destroying our mangroves nga wala tay gi himo (without doing anything)? So that is my question,” he said.
SunStar Cebu sought the statement of the DENR Central Visayas on the matter, but the agency had not responded as of press time.
In a recent interview, Carillo mentioned that they had conducted the tagging of around 4,000 structures that have violated the three-meter easement of the city’s major waterways.
The tagging of structures will be the first step before conducting the clearing operation that will lead to the recovery of the easement zones as a measure to mitigate the flooding problem in the city, he said.
Under Article 51 of Presidential Decree 1067, or The Water Code of the Philippines: “The banks of rivers and streams and the shores of the seas and lakes throughout their entire length and within a zone of three meters in urban areas, 20 meters in agricultural areas and 40 meters in forest areas, along their margins, are subject to the easement of public use in the interest of recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing and salvage. No person shall be allowed to stay in this zone longer than what is necessary for recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing or salvage or to build structures of any kind.”