Mayor Ipe’s Boulevard Reclamation Stopped

In compliance with the ORDER suspending the Environment Compliance Certificate (issued June 18, 2019) by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Environmental Management Bureau 7 received by his office Tuesday, Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Antonio “Ipe” Remollo has instructed engineers to stop the civil works of the rehabilitation and shoreline protection of the Rizal Boulevard near the Dumaguete Press Club pending the issuance of the Notice to Proceed from the same agency.

The site is now the favorite venue for sports and recreation, international, national and local events such as beach volleyball, soccer, frisbee and other recreational activities for young and old alike. The suspension order from DENR-EMB 7 is predicated on the alleged lack of Notice to Proceed of which the City Government of Dumaguete will comply.

Mayor Remollo noted that the order from DENR EMB-7 is one of the several suspensions of Environmental Compliance Certificates or ECC issued to different quarry operations throughout the province of Negros Oriental.

Mayor Remollo laments that the boulevard project has been singled out considering that there are reclamation projects, both ongoing and completed, elsewhere in the city and the province undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways without ECCs but were spared by the selective EMB order.

He is also aware that too much pressure and bullying were employed against DENR officials during the recent congressional hearing of the national budget to stop the project, which is primarily intended to protect the city’s shoreline and coastal barangays from storm surges and flood.

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