DINALUPIHAN, Bataan — The community environment and natural resources office (CENRO) here on Thursday announced that an investor at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone who was told to temporarily stop operation Wednesday in the absence of an environmental clearance certificate can now continue, pending some requirements.
CENRO is an office under the provincial environment and natural resources office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
CENRO chief Rommel Suba said that they have just talked with key officials of Sino Invest and the SBMA ecology department for the resumption of ground work in 10 hectares of the 67-hectare project in Barangay Tipo, a village in Hermosa, Bataan within the Subic Bay freeport.
Suba said that the company will develop at the initial phase only 10 hectares where it will construct warehouses for rent.
“As of now ang masasabi ko, after our findings ngayon walang problema with regards to ECC. Ang isu–submit na lang ang tree–cutting permit,” the forester said.
He said that the ECC that they were asking Wednesday was presented when they returned to the area Thursday. It turned out, he said, that an ECC was issued by the Environmental Management Bureau last March 11, 2021.
EMB, also an agency of DENR in Region 3, issues ECC and not the CENRO.
Suba said that when his staff went to inspect the development being done in the area on Wednesday, the project engineer was not able to present needed documents so they ordered the temporary stoppage of the operation.
He said that with an ECC and after the compliance on the tree-cutting, the company has no more problem and can resume operation.
The company and CENRO will begin an inventory of trees to be cut that Suba said foresters estimated at 500, mostly saplings, before a tree-cutting permit will be issued.
Suba said he told the company to place big signages in the area that they have an ECC. He said this is an ECC requirement.
He said that he could not tell if Chinese investors own Sino Invest.
