Panglao resort owners given 6 months

to demolish illegal structures 

PANGLAO, BOHOL, Mar. 21 (PIA)--Resort owners with illegal structures in Panglao island were given 6 months to demolish their structures along the 20-meter easement zone. 

No less than the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu issued the directive after inspecting the shorelines of Alona Beach in Barangay Tawala in Panglao town on Tuesday morning. 

Cimatu told Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) 7 Regional Director William Cuñado to send notices of violations to all resort owners whose structures already encroached the salvage zone in Panglao island and to submit a report to him. 

He told Cuñado “to clean” the island of violations to the 20-meter public easement zone. 

Cuñado bared on Monday during the Panglao Island and Tagbilaran Executive Council (PITEC) Board Meeting held at Bohol Tropics Resort that there are a total of 87 violators of easement area most of them are found in the barangays of Tawala, Danao, Doljo, Libaong and some barangays in Dauis. 

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general Ernesto Pernia, a Boholano, flown in to Bohol Tuesday early morning accompanied Cimatu in inspecting the almost a kilometer white sand of Alona beach. 

Pernia told the media covering the inspection in Panglao that the government is very serious in the protection and conservation of the natural resources. 

The inspection of the coastline of salvage zone violation in Panglao came following the waste water of Boracay erupted. 

Cimatu told media that he has already submitted his recommendation to President Rodrigo Duterte on Boracay’s closure for a year but the President has not yet act on it. 

The secretary said that the problem in Panglao island is not as bad as Boracay island, which was earlier described by President Duterte as a “cesspool.” 

According to Cimatu, he will also be inspecting establishments in Palawan and other provinces in between hiswork in Boracay. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol) 

DENR Sec. Roy Cimatu inspects the shorelines of Alona Beach in Barangay Tawala in Panglao town on Tuesday morning. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)