PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines?The provincial government announced on Friday that it had filed charges of graft and violation of the mining law against filmmaker Michael Gleissner, along with the mayor of San Vicente in northern Palawan and several others, for ignoring a cease-and-desist order issued by the Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board (PMRB) over a planned marina resort project.
Gleissner, whose outfit Bigfoot Entertainment has invested in properties in San Vicente through a company registered as Kemdeng Coastline Properties, plans to develop a marina and yacht club there, including condominium buildings, a club house and other facilities.
The PMRB earlier issued a cease-and-desist order following an inspection of a mountain that was being leveled by haulers in order to fill a former fishpond owned by San Vicente Mayor Antonio Gonzales. The site will be converted into a tourism complex.
Authorities noted that the project did not have the proper local permits even if it was issued an environmental compliance certificate by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
In the complaint filed before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor on June 4, lawyer Nesario Awat of the PMRB claimed that the respondents extracted quarry resources valued at around P1.8 million without the necessary permits from the provincial government as required by Republic Act No. 7076, or the People?s Small-Scale Mining Law.
?The act constitutes a violation of Section 103 or theft of minerals under Republic Act No. 7492, an act instituting a new system of mineral resources exploration, development, utilization and conservation,? Awat said.
He claimed that the truck hauling equipment being used for the project were owned by Gonzales.
Gonzales dismissed the filing of the cases as politically motivated. ?That?s expected,? he said in a text message, adding, ?I hope it?s a good case, objective, so we will learn from it.?
On May 19, the Kilusan Sagip Kalikasan (KSK), the provincial government?s environmental enforcement arm, served the cease-and-desist order on Gonzales.
?But apparently, the order was ignored because in a follow-up operation of the KSK in the site in Sitio Panindigan, Barangay Poblacion, San Vicente, on May 23, the team once again caught the violators in the act of hauling and transferring excavated quarry materials which were dumped in the fishpond,? Awat said.
