Aumentado vows to champion environmental protection

CEBU, Philippines —  “Lesson learned” is how Bohol Governor Erico Aris Aumentado described his preventive suspension over the controversial construction of a resort at the foot of Chocolate Hills, a national geological monument declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Aumentado was among the governors in the Visayas invited during the opening program of the 455th Founding Anniversary of Cebu Province yesterday. Incidentally, it was also Aumentado’s first day in office after the Office of the Ombudsman lifted his six months preventive suspension last week.

Aumentado said he received the official copy of the order from the Office of the Ombudsman last Friday, August 2.

The Bohol governor said the anti-graft office found his participation in allowing the construction of Captain’s Peak Resort within the protected area to be unclear prompting the lifting of his preventive suspension.

According to him, the second Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) clearance was approved during his first month in office as governor and did not reached his table.

He said when PAMB issued a resolution in favor of the resort in 2018 he was not yet governor of Bohol but a congressman.

Aumentado attributed the lifting of his suspension to the list of answers they provided on the Ombudsmen’s probe. According to him, they complied with all the documents asked from them.

He thanked his lawyers and friends who rallied behind his back when he was preventively suspended.

The experience, however, taught him a hard lesson.

“I learned some lesson nga kinahanglanon gyud nga ato gyung tutokan gyud ang kabahin sa protected area,” Aumentado said.

He vowed to champion the protection of environment, especially the protected areas, saying that they will no longer allow these to be disturbed. When asked if his suspension could have been politically motivated, Aumentado said he cannot comment on the matter as he only believed with the findings of the Ombudsman admitting that there were lapses committed.

On May 22, 2024, Aumentado along with 68 others were placed under six months preventive suspension without pay in connection with the investigation into the controversial construction of Captain’s Peak Resort in Sagbayan town.

The Ombudsman field investigation office (FIO) charges public respondents with grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service relative to the construction, operation and expansion of Captain’s Peak Resort in Canmano, Sagbayan, Bohol, an establishment nestled in the middle of the iconic Chocolate Hills National Monument (CHNM), a declared protected in Bohol.

The resort was found to have no Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) and Special Use Agreement in Protected Areas (SAPA) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).(CEBU NEWS)