ALAMINOS CITY—Mayor Hernani Braganza said city government officials did not abandon their responsibility and quietly opposed the measure that seeks to declare one of the biggest islands of the Hundred Islands National Park as alienable and disposable.

“We strongly opposed the bill, although we did it quietly. We are against that move,” Braganza told reporters recently when asked why it took a Metro Manila-based nongovernment organization to challenge House Bill No. 4995.

The bill, authored by Pangasinan Rep. Arthur Celeste and coauthored by former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., opens up an island in the HINP for residential, commercial and industrial purposes.

The bill has been referred to the committee of natural resources.

The Inquirer had been trying to reach Celeste since last week to get his position on the issue but the lawmaker did not answer calls and text messages.

Last week, the La Liga Policy Institute, which advocates increased government support for protected areas like the HINP, said the bill was a “grave threat to the country’s eco-biodiversity and an assault to our cultural heritage.”

In a statement, Jonathan Ronquillo, La Liga environmental campaigner, said the group was working for a bigger budget for national parks when it came across Celeste’s bill.

Ronquillo said Presidential Proclamation No. 667 declared the HINP as a “protected area.”

He said Presidential Proclamation No. 2183, signed on April 27, 1982, made the HINP, including the Lucap Bay and its foreshore areas, a tourist zone and marine reserve. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon