Here we go again.
The resort has been built – cottages, swimming pool and all – and only now is everyone crying foul.
This latest issue of the resort built at the foot of one of the famed Chocolate Hills in Bohol is certainly not the first time that some questionable, if not downright illegal, construction was done and then belatedly is made public and a big uproar happens. So the resort has stopped operations – temporarily or permanently? – and calls for investigations are echoing all over the place (DENR, DILG, Senate, local government, etc etc).
It’s quite obvious that some people had plenty of reasons – millions of reasons maybe? – to grant whatever permits were needed to build that and, it has come to light, many other resorts or structures in places they should not have built on, like the rice terraces in Banaue. Without all the necessary permits and certificates in hand they went ahead and built anyway, probably believing they were “safe” and “protected.”
But in this age of social media, it’s hard to hide anything, especially something as big as a resort. So, who is to be held accountable? Whatever the outcome of all those investigations, the damage to the Chocolate Hills, the rice terraces and others, has been done. All the outcry is, as they say, too late the hero. Kawawa ang kalikasan, kawawa tayo. — Marjo Marie Morales, Makati City