DENR to tap Oposa in filing case against resort

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will file a case against Marlin’s Beach Resort even though the  management told reporters it is willing to take down its seawall in Sta. Fe town, Bantayan Island.

“Our direction really is to file a case. (We issued) two orders to them last year and until now, they haven’t complied,” DENR-7 spokesman Eddie Llamedo told Cebu Daily News.

The DENR-7 has asked environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa Jr. to file a case against the resort for its “continued defiance of DENR’s request for the demolition of their newly -reconstructed permanent structures” that are near the shore.

The case would likely be a motion to cite the resort in contempt of court, since there’s a standing order of the Mandaue Regional Trial Court prohibiting structures within a 20-meter public easement from the shoreline after beach structures of six resorts, including Marlins,  were demolished in 2010.

The DENR 7’s  legal division sent notices to the resort management in August last year ordering the immediate demolition of it’s newly built  deck propped up by rubber tires on a concrete  base.

In a June 20 letter to Oposa  DENR-7 Regional Executive Director Isabelo Montejo asked the private lawyer to file the “appropriate case in court” against the resort.

Oposa was sent a copy of the results of the onsite investigation headed by Ariel Rica, chief of the Protected Area and Wildlife Division,  last month which confirmed the resort’s seawall within the 20-meter easement zone.

Llamedo said  it would be more appropriate if Oposa files the case since he was the original  petitioner of the 2008 court case against DENR-7 over the beach encroachment and DENR’s issuance of environmental compliance certificates (ECC) without any land use plan in place in Bantayan island.

“Oposa didn’t give us a formal response yet, but he told us that he is willing to assist in filing the case,” Llamedo said.

Oposa was not immeidately available for comment.

The Mandaue  Regional Trial Court, which was designated to handle environment cases, ruled in favor of Oposa who represented the Bantayan Group of Islands.

In an earlier interview, resort owner Michael Sylvester said they are willing to take down their elevated deck on condition that  DENR-7 would provide solutions on how to prevent their resort property from being further eroded by sea waves especially during the monsoon or “habagat”.

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