BAUANG, La Union—Tourism stakeholders and local chief executives in the Ilocos region slammed officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for having allowed encroachments on beach front areas declared as foreshore lands.
The DENR’s tolerance on illegal occupancy of beach heads has now become a big problem for the tourism industry and the government’s environmental protection and preservation program, the resort owners said in an open forum during the coastal management summit arranged by the DENR regional office last week at the Arianna Hotel here.
Mayor Marlon Sales of Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, told the forum that the failure of the DENR to issue guidelines on foreshore lands over the years has worsened encroachment problems in the town’s coastal tourism hub.
“LGUs are being pressed against the wall because of the DENR’s tolerance [on encroachment],” Sales said.
Sales’s sentiment was echoed by Bolinao, Pangasinan, Mayor Arnold Celeste, who admitted to newsmen in an interview that the non-issuance of guidelines on the use of foreshore lands has emboldened people to build structures contrary to environmental laws.
More often, the encroachments led to near bloody clashes between the beach lot owners and “invading” parties, Celeste said.
Tourism landmarks in Pagudpud and Bolinao are the considered the region’s favorites, apart from the Hundred Islands National Park in Alaminos City, Pangasinan.
Then-Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez was asked by resort owners in La Union to momentarily suspend the issuances of foreshore lease agreements (FLAs) in an effort to prevent the scramble over prime beach lots in the province, particularly in this town’s Barangay Pugo.
The coastal summit was called after Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu visited last week the beach front of Pagudpud in barangays Saud and Maraira and found for himself several illegal structures put up on foreshore lands.
Following a meeting with local officials and resort owners, Cimatu ordered the demolition of the structures and warned operators of tourism establishments of penalties should they be found violating environmental laws similar to the Boracay Island incidents.
The resort owners smeared at the covenant on environment watch dangled by the DENR for them to sign, but they finally agreed to cooperate after DENR Regional Director Reynulfo Juan vowed to immediately act on their complaints
“These things happened before I came. I will create a task force soonest to look into these unwarranted interventions and I assure you that heads will roll,” Juan told the forum.
The environment official also vowed to personally inspect a beach front property in Barangay Pugo in this town, which was declared “underwater and salvage zone” and reportedly “landgrabbed” by a group of real-estate developers in alleged collusion with some DENR personnel in the region.
Juan, who traced his roots in Ilocos Norte, was plucked out by Cimatu, a native of Bangui, Ilocos Norte, from his post in Region 12 to replace regional executive director Paquito Moreno in whose watch the “underwater” issue erupted.