The City Legal Office served a cease and desist order Wednesday, May 26, versus business operations in barangays Sum-ag and Pahanocoy in Bacolod City “that endanger/destroy the environment.”
Lawyer Reuben Mikhail Sabig, CLO Enforcement Unit head, issued the CDO to Engineer Andre Taculod, who was ordered to halt his operations and or business activities in the two barangays.
Initial facts gathered, especially on the basis of the report of Sum-ag Barangay Captain Rodney Carmona, show that Taculod’s activities have involved the cutting of mangroves in a two to three-hectare area, the building of a wharf (mini-port) and development of a beach resort, Sabig said.
The report shows that all these are causing destruction and endangering the environment, not to mention the consequential danger of flooding since the construction of the mini-port narrowed the water passage, Sabig added in the CDO.
The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod also approved a resolution Wednesday authored by Councilor Carl Lopez requesting the Office of the City Mayor, through the Office of the Building Official, City Planning and Development Office, City Engineering Office, City Environment and Natural Office, City Permits and Licensing Division, and the City Legal Office, to look into Taculod’s businesses along the shoreline of Sitio Aning, Barangay Pahanocoy, and Purok Mabinuligon, Barangay Sum-ag, and to report their findings to the SP Committee on Environment and Ecology.
Lopez told the SP operations in the two areas have no permits issued by the city government.
“Almost 384 mangrove trees covering an area of about 2,000 square meters have already been cut without any permits issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources,” he added.
There are also various other violations committed in the area, Lopez said.
Lopez also authored a resolution seeking a CDO on the Sum-ag and Pahanocoy projects, but Councilor Al Victor informed his colleagues that the CLO had already issued one.*