Chocolate Hills quarrying exposed

CARMEN, BOHOL, Phlippines — A concerned citizen of this town had posted on his Facebook account exposing the “rape of the Chocolate Hills.”

“Unscrupulous people strikes again @ the famous Chocolate Hills. Just about a kilometer away from the resort’s viewpoint are piles of limestone quarried from a chocolate hill,” according to Roque Vaño in his FB.

Vaño continued: “After contractors bulldozed a hill to pave a road to a water system project, here’s another one to get anapog (limestone) for a barangay road. When will the devastation stop?”

In reaction to this matter, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources officer Nestor Canda said the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office has already taken steps to look into the quarrying at the world famous hills.

Canda said a report was already submitted to the DENR main office in Manila, but he did not say whether there was degradation of the hills in the area.

 In a separate interview, Barangay Chairperson Cecilia Tecion of Nueva Vida Norte said there was no such defacement of the Chocolate Hills in her barangay, and that the 18 hills in her barangay are intact.

The Chocolate Hills are classified as natural monument, thus protected under the Republic Act 7586, or an Act Providing for the Establishment and Management of Natural Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS).

Section 20 of the law prohibits the following acts within the protected areas: 1) Hunting, destroying, disturbing, or mere possession of any plants or animals or products derived therefrom without a permit from the Management Board; 2) Dumping of any waste products; 3) use of any motorized equipment without an MB permit; 4) mutilating, defacing or destroying objects of natural beauty; 5) damaging and leaving roads and trails in a damaged condition; 6) squatting, mineral locating, or occupying any land; 7) constructing or maintaining any kind of structure, fence or enclosures; 8) leaving in exposed or unsanitary conditions refuse or debris; and 9) altering, removing, destroying or defacing boundary marks or signs.  (FREEMAN)