DENR SEEKS COURT APPROVAL TO INTERVENE IN BORACAY SUIT
ILOILO CITY—THE Departmen to f Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has asked a court in Aklan province to include it asap arty in the civil case filed by property owners on boracay Island opposing the demolition of their residential and commercial buildings.
In a hearing at the Kalibo Regional Trial court( R TC) Branch 7 on monday, the DENR manifested before presiding Judge Ronal de xmun dot ha tt he agency, through the Office of the solicitor General, would file a motion for intervention. The court directed the DENR to file the motion within five days.
Priority project
According to lawyer Jiana Joselle de Guzman of t hed ENR central office, the environment departmen ti s seeking to intervene in the case to protec tt he interes to f the agency because it heads the B ora cay Inter agency Task Force, a body managing rehabilitation activities on the resort island.
Owners o f10 residential and commercial s tructures along Bulabog Beach have filed ac ivil complaint agains tt he municipal governmen to f Malay, asking the court to declare demolition order s as illegal and null and void.
The demolition order swe re among those issue do np roperties purportedly encroaching on the 30-meter beach easement.
The clearing of the beach easemen ti sam ong the priority projects in boracay’s rehabilitation efforts. The island was closed to tourists for six months, fro map ril to October last year, to give way to a massive cleanup, demolition of illegal structures and repairs of roads, drainage system and sewer lines.
But the property owners insisted that they built their properties after comp lying with building and other rules and regulations and afte rt hey were issue dt he required permit sand licenses by t he l ocal government an dt hed ENR.
Compliance
On Oct. 15, the Kalibo RTC Branch 7 issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) barring the demolition o f10 residential and commercial buildings along Bulabog Beach. The 20-day TRO directe dt he Malay government, led by acting Mayor Frolibar Bautista, to “cease an dd esist” from implementing its demolition orders.
Bautista has recalled the demolition orders to comply with t hec ourt order.
This was t hef irs tti me that a court barre dt he demolition of structures in boracay since the island’s closure last year.
Hundreds o fp roperty owner s ha d torn down sections of their buildings amid warnings fro mg overnment agencies that these would be forcibly demolished.