DILG creates team to probe Boracay environmental crisis

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) set up a 12-person special investigating team to probe the ongoing environmental crisis in Boracay, and to file cases against government personnel and private individuals who might be held accountable for this.

“Sisiguraduhin naming mananagot ang dapat managot. Lahat ng may direktang kinalaman sa pag-iisyu ng permits sa mga lugar na hindi na dapat tayuan ng estruktura, pati na ang mga pribadong tao na ilegal na nagpapatakbo ng mga establisimyento at nakikipagkuntsaba sa mga opisyal ay hindi makakaligtas sa imbestigasyong ito,” DILG Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Año said in a media release on Friday, March 2.

(We will ensure all those who are responsible will answer for it. All with direct knowledge of the issuance of permits in places where structures should not have been built and those  private citizens who illegally ran establishments and were in cahoots with officials will not escape this invesitgation.)

DILG Assistant Secretary for Plans and Programs Epimaco Densing III will chair the Boracay Investigating Team (BIT), while Senior Executive Assistant Jerry Loresco of the Office of the Undersecretary for Peace and Order, Public Safety and Policy and Programs will serve as vice chairperson.

Año said he instructed the team to look into how environmental fees collected by the government were used.

“Their investigation shall cover a period of 10 years, reckoning from year 2008 up to 2018.  I expect them to submit a comprehensive report on the result of their probe as soon as possible,” he said.

In addition to representatives from the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Police Regional Office VI, other members of the committee are:

• Bureau of Local Government Supervision (BLGS) Director Odilon Pasaraba
• Legal and Legislative Liaison Service (LLLS) Director Romeo Benitez
• Trial and Investigation Division officer-in-charge Maria Elena Quebral
• BLGS Policy Compliance and Monitoring Division Chief Maria Rhodora R. Flores
• Frederick Lubuguin of the LLLS
• Benjamin Zabala of the Internal Affairs Service
• Richard Cruz of the Office of Project Development Services
• DILG Regional Director Anthony Nuyda Jr.

– Rappler.com