Bohol Governor Enrico Aumentado and 68 other government officials are under preventive suspension following the regional administration’s “grave misconduct and gross negligence” in tolerating the “operation and expansion” of Captain's Peak Garden and Resort—an establishment situated on the foot of the Chocolate Hills.
According to the Ombudsman’s Order of Implementation signed on May 22, 2024, and released six days after, Aumentado, along with “mayors, a vice mayor, municipal mayors, regional directors of government agencies, barangay captains, and barangay kagawads” will be suspended from duty without pay until the “administrative adjudication of the case is terminated” but will not exceed six months.
The @OmbudsmanPh has ordered the preventive suspension of up to 6 months of Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado & 68 other officials in Bohol as it investigates an administrative case vs them in connection w/ the construction of Captain's Peak Resort at Chocolate Hills.@PhilippineStar pic.twitter.com/FuD0fTJNw6
— Elizabeth T. Marcelo (@marcelo_beth) May 28, 2024
X/Twitter: @PhilippineStar (c/o @marcelo_beth)
Chocolate Hills’ Captain's Peak Garden and Resort faced online scrutiny, following a viral review uploaded on Facebook by travel vlogger Ren the Adventurer.
The internet and lawmakers questioned the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on the resort’s existence, built on the country’s first UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) declared global geo-park—a site bearing “international geological significance” and is supposedly “managed with a holistic concept of protection, education, and sustainable development.”
Tending to the controversy, the DENR mentioned a temporary closure of the establishment last September 2023, alongside a “notice of violation to the project proponent for operating without an environmental compliance certificate” in January 2024. Regardless of the claims, manager Julieta Sables emphasized that the business has been permitted to run since its establishment in 2019.
As of writing, the Chocolate Hills resort is under temporary closure, noting “maintenance and environmental preservation efforts.”
Read the Ombudsman’s Order of Implementation below:
X/Twitter: @PhilippineStar (c/o @marcelo_beth)
