Sandiganbayan absolves DENR exec on Cherry Hills tragedy

Almost 12 years after the 1999 Cherry Hills landslide that killed 60 residents, the Second Division of the Sandiganbayan acquitted Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional director Sixto Tolentino Jr. of charges of “gross inexcusable negligence" for granting clearance for the development of Cherry Hills Subdivision. The anti-graft court promulgated its decision on June 16, ruling that former DENR-Region IV OIC-Technical Director Tolentino did not commit any crime when he recommended the granting of an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for the subdivision on April 28, 1994. In an 18-page decision penned by Associate Justice Samuel R. Martires, the court noted that it was only after the Cherry Hills tragedy that the DENR required the engineering, structural and geological assessments before the approval of an ECC. Concurring with the decision were Sandiganbayan Second Division chairman, Presiding Justice Edilberto G. Sandoval, and Associate Justice Teresita V. Diaz-Baldos. “[T]he accused could not have been expected to have required the submission of a geological assessment for that would be stretching the conditions beyond what the law required at the time. [I]t was only on March 14, 2000 that the DENR came up with AO No. 2000-28 where geological and geohazard assessment was required," said the Sandiganbayan ruling. The Sandiganbayan also pointed out that it was not the Regional Technical Director but the Environmental Management Bureau that had the “obligation and responsibility" under DENR AO-21 “to monitor environmentally critical projects or projects requiring an EIS (environmental impact statement)." Records submitted during the decade-long trial also revealed that Tolentino only served as the regional technical director for DENR-Region IV until January 15, 1996. “In fact, when the incident occurred in 1999, the accused was not longer the Regional Technical Director of Region IV for more than three years. All told, the Court is not convinced that the accused is guilty of the offense charged," the Sandiganbayan held. — MRT/KBK, GMA News