EDITORIAL - You reap what you sow

The magnitude of the death and destruction unleashed by Typhoon Tino in Cebu has drawn attention to a luxury property development carved along the mountain slopes in the city’s Barangay Guadalupe.

Probers are pursuing complaints of residents that they began experiencing unusual flooding as work started on the Monterrazas de Cebu, or The Rise at Monterrazas.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources said it would determine if the developers complied with the conditions set under its environmental compliance certificate. Why an ECC was issued in the first place must be answered, and the DENR should not take the lead in this probe. The local government, which issued the permits for the property development, must also provide a mere supporting role.

Apart from the Department of Public Works and Highways, the DENR is also in need of a housecleaning. This need was highlighted in March 2024 when several private resorts were found operating within the Chocolate Hills protected area in Bohol.

Last August, the Office of the Ombudsman recommended graft charges against 96 officials including Bohol Gov. Erico Aristotle Aumentado and former congressmen Edgar Chatto and Arthur Yap. The ombudsman also dismissed from the service Sagbayan Mayor Restituto Suarez III along with the zoning administrator and municipal building official, forfeiting their benefits and barring them from public office. The same penalties were imposed on several DENR officials including members of its Protected Area Management Board technical working group.

Similar findings may arise from an unbiased probe of the Monterrazas controversy, so the DENR cannot take the lead in the investigation.

The ombudsman, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the special team under Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon pursuing anomalous flood control projects can handle the investigation in Cebu.

A congressional probe will question DENR officials on the artificial dolomite beach in Manila Bay. And while a DENR official drew attention to continuing reclamation activities parallel to Circumferential Road 6 in Laguna de Bay, the department may also have to answer for its role in the project passed off as flood control.

The Monterrazas probe can tap the scientific expertise of geologists at the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute and its Project NOAH, to determine if allowing the property development to proceed damaged the ecosystem and constituted reckless endangerment.

Those behind Project NOAH have noted that their detailed geohazard maps have been largely ignored. After the catastrophe in Cebu, perhaps both government officials and property developers will take scientific data seriously. When dealing with nature, you reap what you sow.