Former-NGO exec sued in Leyte gets Capitol post

A former executive of a non-government Organization, who is facing charges in Southern Leyte, will assume as officer-incharge of the Cebu Provincial Planning and Development Office effective next week.

In a memorandum dated December 21, 2017, Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III designated Rodel Bontuyan as PPDO acting chief replacing Architect Florentino Nimor Jr.

Bontuyan also replaced Baltazar Tribunalo in November last year as OIC of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office.

Tribunalo, the head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, was earlier designated OIC of PENRO following the resignation of Atty. Czareem Joseph “Chad” Estellain 2016. Jayson Lozano will be the new OIC of PENRO effective January 16.

Bontuyan was the former area manager of Plan International-Philippines, one of the largest children's development organizations in the world.

He was among the executives of Plan International sued last year by Ocean-action Resource Center (ORC), a small environmental nonprofit organization based in Silago, Southern Leyte, for alleged abuse and intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement of a P37 million project proposal.

Other respondents are Plan International- Philippines country director Carin van der Hor, Plan grant specialist Arnold Divino, and the Executive Director of Leyte Development Center, Inc. (LCDE) Jazmin Jerusalem.

The ORC alleged that these officials had undermined their rights and legitimacy as the original project proponent and major contributor to the proposal Adaptation to Climate Change by Strengthening Natural Resilience.

Plan had secured funding from Germany's Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for a climate change adaptation project in Silago and St. Bernard, Southern Leyte.

Plan executives chose LCDE, a local nongovernment organization that focuses on disaster response, based in Palo, Leyte, to implement the project.