BY JOVEN TUNGALA
Senator Raffy Tulfo on Friday filed a resolution seeking to investigate the alleged land grabbing of the family of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga.
In filing Senate Resolution No. 985, Tulfo sought a review of the implementation of the provisions of the Republic Act No. 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-NIPAS) Act, in relation to the alleged conflict of interest on the part of Yulo as the DENR chief.
Tulfo stressed that the allegations of the Secretary’s conflict of interest, involving her family’s ownership of about 40,000 hectares of forests and ancestral domains in the towns of Coron and Busuanga in Palawan, “potentially compromise the objectives of the department tasked with enforcing laws regarding protected areas.”
According to the article published by the Philippine Star, Yulo’s family owned the said land in Palawan which they called Yulo King Ranch.
In 1975, then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. issued Presidential Proclamation No. 1387 declaring a 40,000 hectares land area in Busuanga and Coron as pasture reserve — a protected area owned by the state. But one year later, in 1976, the Yulos allegedly obtained said property.
The YKR has been branded “the largest agrarian anomaly.”
Every year, from 2015 until now, hundreds of farmers hold a protest in Palawan as they request that the small 900 hectares of land which is part of YKR be distributed and shared with them so that they can use and benefit from it.
Citing Section 8 of the Republic Act No. 11038 or the E-NIPAS Act of 2018, Tulfo questioned Yulo’s ability to lead the DENR. He also questioned the latter’s position on structures erected in protected areas.
“The question from environmentalists is, why do we declare areas as protected if they can later be used for resort development, with the DENR’s justification being for job creation? They also point out that the Philippines is vast and there are other places where resorts can be built that would also create jobs,” he said.
The DENR chief earlier said she does not intend to close down resorts built within the protected areas like in Mt. Apo, and instead, she said that they will look for common ground to consider workers.
Section 8 of the E-NIPAS Act mandated the Secretary of the DENR to carry out the mandates of the law to take care of protected areas.
Tulfo said more people came to his office to report other protected areas that have been occupied by illegal structures, such as the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape and Ticao Burias Pass Protected Seascape, following the Senate hearing of the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change last April 3.
Also included is Mt. Apo and Chocolate Hills Natural Monument.
