Ombudsman: Court must hear env’t case vs ex-solon

SITE where at least 700 trees were felled for a road project attributed to former Baguio Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr. JP ALIPIO/CONTRIBUTOR

BAGUIO CITY—A regular court, not a graft court, must hear the environmental complaint filed against former Baguio Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr. and three contractors for destroying trees for an illegal road project at the Mt. Sto. Tomas forest reservation in Benguet province, according to a ruling of the environmental ombudsman.

The decision, issued in August last year but released only on Feb. 2, said it found merit in Aliping’s arguments that the complaint was “cognizable by the regular courts and not by the Sandiganbayan.”

The ruling addressed the motions for reconsideration filed last year by Aliping and the three contractors that sought to reverse the Ombudsman’s 2016 resolution, which found probable cause to charge them for violating environmental laws.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) accused Aliping and the contractors of excavating a 2-kilometer road through the Sto. Tomas reservation straddling Baguio and Tuba town in Benguet.

The road excavation was blamed for debris that polluted a water source of the Baguio Water District. The illegal road project also destroyed 293 trees.

The DENR filed the complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman, arguing that Aliping committed these violations in his capacity as congressman.

But the Ombudsman’s new ruling said there was “no evidence that Aliping cut, uprooted or burned the trees in the performance of his official function as a congressman.”

“Being acts done in his personal capacity, any offense arising therefrom is outside the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan,” it said.

This was despite the fact that Aliping used his letterhead as Baguio lawmaker when he sent an official communication to Tuba to apply for an excavation permit for the property he bought inside the forest reservation, the ruling said.

Aliping denied undertaking the road project, which, he said, directed traffic away from his property.

The controversy led then Baguio Bishop Carlito Cenzon, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas and the residents to seek a writ of kalikasan for the Mt. Sto. Tomas reservation.

Sto. Tomas is now shielded by a permanent environmental protection order. —VINCENT CABREZA