Garcia orders demolition of abandoned structures violating easement rules in Santa Fe, Bantayan

People are seen enjoying the beach in Sta. Fe town in Bantayan Island, Cebu on Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2021. | contributed photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has ordered owners and claimants of “abandoned, occupied, dilapidated, ruined, and obsolete” illegal structures on the beachfront of Sta. Fe, Bantayan, in northern Cebu to voluntarily demolish these until December 8, 2022.

The governor issued Executive Order (EO) no. 46 on Thursday, November 24, 2022, a day after she had a meeting with stakeholders at the Santa Fe Covered Court in Bantayan Island on Wednesday, to discuss measures to be undertaken against these illegal structures.

Garcia’s EO covers the illegal and abandoned structures that encroach the easement and foreshore zones in barangays Pooc, Poblacion, and Talisay in Sta. Fe.

Owners of these structures were given two weeks to voluntarily demolish said structures.

“In an inventory of these illegal structures conducted and prepared by the Cebu Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office…it has been discovered that most of these illegal structures have either been abandoned, unoccupied, dilapidated, ruined, or rendered obsolete by natural calamities, thereby causing unsightly nuisances on the beachfront of Santa Fe, in violation of the policies laid down in R.A. no. 9593 or the Tourism Act of 2009,” reads a portion of the EO.

These illegal structures, the EO said, also violate Presidential Decree No. 1067 as these were constructed along the established easements.    /rcg