Resort owners ask DENR to stop foreshore leasing

By Liezle Basa Inigo

BAUANG, La Union — Resort owners of this town, once dubbed “beach capital of the country,” urged Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources Sec. Regina Paz Lopez to “hold in abeyance the processing of applications for foreshore lease agreements (FLA)” on lands along and near the shoreline here, particularly in Barangays Pugo and Pudoc

The resort owners led by former provincial board member Reynaldo Dulay, founding chairman of the La Union Hotel and Resort Association (LUHRA), complained in a letter to the DENR chief that an influential group of real estate brokers is using the FLAs to encroach on their titled beachfront properties where they have long time ago established tourism facilities.

Dulay said the continued processing of FLAs despite a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by Judge Ferdinand Pe of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 33 of Bauang, La Union, “is threatening the tourism industry in the area which is trying to bounce back after limping for two decades.”

“It’s alarming because the FLAs are being used as instruments to land-grab titled properties,” the former provincial official, himself a lawyer, said.

In their letter, the resort owners informed Lopez that at least 17 prime beachfront lots are feared to be affected by the issuance, if ever, of FLAs to the group of real estate brokers.

Earlier, the affected resort owners assailed in a case filed before the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) former DENR Regional Director Samuel Peñafiel and two of his assistants, special investigator Graciano Boquiren and Santiago S. Santiago, Jr., a geodetic engineer, for allegedly conniving with the real estate brokers.

In their complaint, Ann Paredes, Immaculada Concepcion Lim, and Cherry Lyn Dy, told the anti-graft body that the DENR officials connived to “fake a survey” to declare their titled properties as “underwater and salvage zone,” prompting the court to issue reversion/cancellation orders of the lot titles.

With the court’s reversion/cancellation order, the DENR then awarded FLAs to a certain Azalea Hidalgo, one of the alleged leaders of the real estate brokers. Hidalgo is known to be the common-law wife of a retired military officer-turned politician in La Union who is believed to have connections with the Office of the Solicitor-General and even with the judiciary through an official of the Philippine Judges Association.

Recent findings by a task force created by DENR regional officer-in-charge Paquito Moreno, Jr. headed by lawyer Hipolito Salatan, the agency’s legal counsel in the region, revealed that the properties of Paredes, Lim and Dy were not “underwater and salvage zone.”

But, even with the TRO and the findings of the agency’s task force, the real estate brokers group continue to “put up structures on the shoreline areas near our properties,” the resort owners informed Lopez.

Already, the group’s defiance has sparked a near bloody clash recently between Hidalgo’s group and resort owners, Dulay said.

Owing to this, the resort owners appealed to the DENR chief to take immediate necessary steps to prevent bloodshed, pointing out that local authorities of Bauang, La Union have not lifted a finger to ease up the growing tension.

“With due respect, the best recourse of DENR Secretary Lopez is to hold a public hearing for all stakeholders and local public officials,” Dulay said.