Rico bill to penalize pillage of Choco Hils

Chocolate Hills

 

By JUNE S. BLANCO

    QUEZON CITY – Persons who pillage any of Bohol’s 11,268 Chocolate Hills stand to face 12 years and one day to 20 years of imprisonment and a fine of from P120,000 to P200,000.

This after Rep. Erico Aumentado’s (Bohol, 2nd District) House Bill 6137 passes into law.

The bill seeks to declare the Chocolate Hills as national patrimony, natural heritage park and geological monuments, penalize their pillage, destruction and defacement and for other purposes.

The solon based his bill on the Constitutional mandate where the state shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.

The 1,268 hills in Carmen, Sagbayan and Batuan towns are considered the crown jewel of Bohol’s tourism, collectively one of the wonders of the world and of the Philippines’ major tourist attractions because of their grandeur, majesty and unique geological formation.

A German scientist’s study explains that the hills were created over three million years ago when Bohol was still under seawaters – by undersea currents and tidal action that shaped the hills into perfect cones and haycock formation.

The hills are verdant green on rainy days and chocolate brown during summer, hence the name. To preserve the hills’ brown color, maintenance pruning of trees is allowed to preserve their unique and distinctive landmark.

Then President Ramos had declared these hills are national geographical monuments because of their exceptional characteristics, scientific importance, uniqueness, relevance to Philippine history and heritage, culture and development, importance in the country’s tourism industry and high scenic value as recommended by the National Committee on Geological Sciences, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Tourism.

Aumentado and others led by Rep. Orlando Fua of Siquijor, then chair of the Committee on Natural Resources, first filed the bill in the 11th Congress.

Section 2 of the Aumentado bill defines pillage as the destruction of any of the hills without permit from the proper authorities and the required environmental clearance certificate (ECC) from the DENR through quarrying or hauling there from of limestone, rocks, soil and road surfacing materials or for backfilling in any construction.

Destruction, on the other hand, means to ruin or devastate completely any of the hills, with permit issued by the proper authorities and ECC from DENR also through quarrying or hauling there from.

Defacement means to mar the appearance or disfigure any of the hills through any other means or device – with permit.

The hills are found in 32 barangays – La Paz, Buenos Aires, Tamboan, Alegria, Villaflor, Matin-ao, Calatrava, Montevideo, Nueva Vida Sur, La Victoria, Montesunting, Nueva Vida Eeste, Nueva Vide Norte and Buenavista in Carmen; Santa Cruz, Aloja, Garcia and Behind the Clouds in Batuan and Sta. Cruz, Sagbayan Sur, Katipunan, Ubojan, Canmaya Diot, Libertad Sur, San Vicente Sur, Libertad Norte, Canmano, Sta. Catalina, Canmaya Centro, Kagawasan, Poblacion and San Agustin in Sagbayan.

Punishable are all natural or juridical persons. For destruction, violators can be imprisoned for eight years, four months and one day to 12 years and fine of from P85,000 to P120,000 while those who deface any hill can be imprisoned from six years and one day to eight years and four months and fine from P60,000 to P84,000.

In case of corporation, the president, chairman of the board, general manager and project manager while for sole proprietorship, the proprietor and manager are responsible for the violations.

The court may also order offenders to restore the hill or hills pillaged, destroyed or defaced. If the offender is a public official who directly committed any of the offenses or conspired with the offender in the commission of the same, the Court shall impose the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification to hold public office.

The DENR shall issue the implementing rules and regulation of the act within 60 days from its enactment into law. It shall take effect 15 days after its complete publication in two newspapers of general circulation.

EBA: Compared to locals, Manila-based contractor of same road rates poor

CEMENT PAVER. The Wirtgen power paver used both by the Hanjin Heavy Industries Construction Co. Ltd. and the CM Pancho Construction for the Bohol Circumferential Road Improvement Project. The cement paver used by J.D. Legaspi Construction in the Sagbayan-Danao Road project is of lesser capacity, contributing to its slippage incurred of (-)38.763% as of September 25, 2012.  CONTRIBUTED FOTO

 By JUNE S. BLANCO

REP. Erico Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) scored the JD Legaspi Construction for its high negative slippage of -38.763% as of September 25, 2012 in the concreting/improvement of the Sagbayan-Danao Road including the construction of Nahud Bridge.

The JD Legaspi Construction won the bidding with a very low bid of P138,341,601.60. The approved budget for the contract (ABC) amounted to P189 million out of the P200 million appropriated under the 2011 regular infra of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) which the solon worked for the road concreting as a major infrastructure support program of the Danao Extreme Adventure Tourism Park and the world-famous Chocolate Hills in Sagbayan town.

From the reports submitted by Project Engineer Noel Muyargas, and of Construction Division Chief Rogelio Oracoy transmitted to the congressman by DPWH 7 Director Ador Canlas, the Legaspi Construction started the project on December 29, 2011 supposed to be completed on December 22, 2012 but with a revised expiry date of January 30, 2013.

Aumentado said it is impossible for JD Legaspi Construction to finish the project on January 30, 2013 because it has not even started the construction of the Nahud Bridge and that its concreting work is slow despite a cement paver being used that is very much below the quality standard and cost of the German Wirtgen used by Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. Ltd. and C.M. Pancho Construction in the Bohol Circumferential Road Improvement Project.

In his inspection of the project last week, Aumentado noted that the work was quite slow because the cement paver is not supported by a matching computerized cement batching plant and there were only a few earthmoving equipments working on the road.

In contrast, he said, the YS Construction already completed its section, while the LEDA Construction working on the same road with a contract amount of P48,744,305 registered a positive slippage of +4.27% as of last September 25.

On the other hand, Canlas reported to the solon that the road upgrading of the Antequera-San Isidro-Libertad (Tubigon) Road, San Isidro Section under the 2012 GAA infra undertaken by the Cebu 7H Technochem Industries in joint venture with Uy Construction and Development with a contract amount of P110,210,794.29 out of the ABC of about P120 million from an outlay of P130 million under the 2012 GAA.

The project, under Project Engr. Jocelyn Paylado, is due for completion on December 23, 2012.

Rico, Chiz push 2nd Talibon RTC branch

Cong. EBA and Sen. Chiz

By JUNE S, BLANCO

    

QUEZON CITY – Rep. Erico Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) and Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero are pushing for a second sala to the lone branch for the Talibon Regional Trial Court (RTC).

Aumentado is now following up his bill with Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., chair of the House Committee on Justice.

On the other hand, Escudero who chairs the Senate Committee on Justice said the committee has approved and endorsed the measure to the Senate for plenary debate.

In his explanatory note, Aumentado said Section 16 of Article III of the Constitution provides that All persons shall have the right to a speedy disposition of cases before all judicial, quasi-judicial or administrative bodies.

Along that line, Batas Pambansa Blg. 129 or the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980 allotted the corresponding number of courts per judicial region based on the exigencies at that time.

The Bohol solon observed that 27 years have passed since the effectivity of this law. Meanwhile, because of the increase in the volume of cases filed, the court dockets have been clogged, resulting in the delay in the resolution of cases.

He said in order to improve the disposition and administration of justice and to ensure the accused’s right to a speedy trial, the number of courts must be necessarily increased, hence his appeal for the approval of the bill.

Rico supports K2+12 reform

sample photo

By MARLON BALMADRID  

QUEZON CITY – Rep. Erico Aumentado has strongly endorsed the bill authorizing K2+12 as a reform measure initiated by the Department of Education (DepEd) under the watch of its secretary, Bro. Armin Luistro.

However, Aumentado emphasized that the measure should focus more on building classrooms and hiring new teachers, especially for kindergarten teachers who are presently receiving the measly sum of P3,000 monthly as honorarium from the local government unit (LGU) of the barangay or the municipal government concerned.

The veteran legislator, member of the Committee on Basic Education, made the strong support during his interpellation on the bill sponsored by Rep. Sandy Ocampo (Manila) Tuesday evening.

Aumentado drew the attention of the chamber to the general pitiful condition of classrooms for kindergartens and the seeming lack of regular salaries for kinder teachers. He also cited instances of many teachers having to handle two to three classes in remote areas and in places where elementary schools have only three to four classrooms instead of six to accommodate Grades 1 to 6.

The solon further cited the lack of classrooms and science laboratory equipment, information communications technology (ICT) facilities such as computers and internet for public high schools – considered the weakest link in the educational system. However, he commended the Aquino administration and Luistro for focusing on constructing more classrooms and hiring more teachers under DepEd’s big outlay in the 2013 national budget.

For the sake of transparency and accountability, Aumentado drew the assurance from the bill sponsor that the bridging program of filling the gap in the 56,000-classroom backlog can be partly addressed by the government’s private-public partnership program for such construction where qualified participating contractors will advance the construction cost, payable yearly through the budget of DepEd under reasonable interest to answer the cost of money in the process.

Ocampo assured Aumentado and the members of the House that they will be provided with more details of the PPP program and the allocation of school buildings and teachers for every congressional district.

Ocampo also agreed to Aumentado’s position that the most ideal reform in the basic educational system is to provide a highly qualified teacher for every class in a classroom.

The House overwhelmingly approved the K2+12 measure also on 2nd reading.