Across the lush landscape of the Chocolate Hills, the aerial video pans toward an anomalous sight tucked between three hills: people splashing around a blue swimming pool standing out amid the green expanse, with slides and cottages embedded on the foot of the hills.
The Captain's Peak Garden and Resort featured in the vlog, which sparked massive outrage from citizens, is situated in the protected area of Chocolate Hills as established by the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas Act of 2018. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has since issued a cease and desist order after learning that this resort has yet to secure an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), a prerequisite certification ensuring that projects operate without harming the environment.
The entire ordeal with the Chocolate Hills resort is reflective of a longstanding state policy that treats environmental conservation and ecological protection secondary to enterprises’ pursuit of generating profit. It exposes the opposing interests between protecting critical zones in the country and profiting off of them through commercial operations.
Aside from being an eyesore to the World Heritage site, the fact that Captain's Peak has been able to operate since 2022 without any ECC bares the insufficiency in our current laws and the government’s implementation of existing measures to clamp down on destructive projects.
This establishment was able to push through with its construction on protected land in the first place because of the approval by DENR’s Protected Area Management Board through its 2018 resolution. This was then followed by a certification by DENR in 2021 that reclassified parts of the land to allow private ownership.
The resort construction already posed several threats by disturbing the natural composition of the land through reported instances of unauthorized excavation, causing significant risks considering that the surrounding landscape of the structure stands on steep hills. The DENR has also reported cases of waste management issues with disposing of gas and fluorescent bulbs, lacking the official permit for a hazardous waste generator in the establishment.
Though DENR already ordered the resort’s operations to halt, the decision was only driven by the widespread outrage that spotlighted the issue across the nation. Other ecologically destructive ecotourism projects, however, still persist even in areas supposedly classified as “protected.”
Nearly 30,000 hectares of forest land were lost in Palawan alone from 2003 to 2015, for example, after ecotourism ventures were permitted in restricted use and core zones. Further protective measures were later on lifted, paving the way for the construction of more businesses geared toward tourism.
Such instances serve as a reminder for the government to recognize the urgency of reinforcing regulatory provisions against private ownership on protected lands. This, while also pushing for a review of existing ventures in areas where environmental concerns are critical. It is imperative for the state to shift its priorities towards its foremost responsibility: long-term ecological preservation over short-term business gains for a select few.
This collective outrage directed toward the Captain's Peak is a testament to the power that citizens can wield to halt destructive operations. The public must continue to forward its clamor to hold the government and businesses accountable, within the protected zones of the Chocolate Hills and in the country, as a whole. ●
First published in the March 21, 2024 print edition of the Collegian.
