The Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change eyes amendments to Republic Act No. 11038 or the “Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018” (E-NIPAS Act) to alter the composition of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) currently dominated by barangay chairmen.
During the Senate panel’s hearing on Wednesday, Senator Cynthia Villar raised the issue on the composition of the PAMB and its role in formulating policies governing the country’s protected areas.
Cited as example was the case of the Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort in Sagbayan, Bohol the construction of which was approved by the Chocolate Hills Natural Monument’s PAMB in 2018, and local government without the required Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC).
According to Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, the E-NIPAS Act dictates the composition and membership of every PAMB, which could be more than a hundred depending on the size of the protected area and the area of jurisdiction it covers.
“The membership of the PAMB is dominated by the local interest. DENR sits on a chair. It does not vote and the PAMB can be constituted by the majority of the members when the DENR is absent or not available because of another pressing engagement,” Loyzaga explained to the panel.
“In the case of the Chocolate Hills, it was the barangay officials that actually approved their resolution, and that is, in fact, one of the longer-standing policy changes we would like to propose, as well as a change to the legislation in terms of the construction and membership of the PAMB and what its role should be,” she said.
Villar, who chairs the Senate panel, noted that the board should be dominated instead by experts rather than barangay officials.