By EUGENE ADIONG
TALISAY City — Mayors of local government units (LGUs) covered by the Northern Negros Natural Park (NNNP) want current structures at the forest regulated instead of demolished.
The mayors, who compose the ad hoc committee under the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), will recommend to PAMB the regulation of the structures, Salvador Benedicto Mayor Jose Max Ortiz said yesterday.
Ortiz is one of the owners of structures earlier issued with cease and desist orders.
He said the ad hoc committee’s recommendations will be “different from the recommendations of the PAMB technical working group, which pushed for demolition.”
“We will submit our recommendations to PAMB within 10 days,” he said.
Ortiz believes the existing structures at NNNP should stay but may be regulated.
He also said he will “welcome any case” the moment the provincial government resorts to legal actions against anyone who will build any structure at NNNP. “It will determine who is right on the matter. Make my day,” he said.
Ortiz had said he is amenable to the prohibition of building structures at the forest’s “strictly prohibited zone.”
Yet “any demolition will [lead to] loss of livelihood for my constituents and income for the town (Salvador Benedicto),” said the mayor, whose town is home to a number of resorts.
He also said he will go to court if the demolition of existing structures pushes through.
Other LGUs covered by NNNP are Talisay, Silay, Victorias, Cadiz, Sagay and San Carlos cities, and EB Magalona, Toboso, Calatrava and Murcia towns./PN
