By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Environmental group Green Alert-Negros (GAN) slammed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Negros Island Region (DENR-NIR) for, what they called, a case of “selective justice.”
The group spoke out against criminal charges recently filed against Rolando Oyco, who was caught in the act of attending to a charcoal pit, after finding several trees in the area were cut down.
“If the charcoal maker cut trees to feed their hungry families, why are they immediately put to prison for violating NIPAS Act?” asked GAN coordinator Randy James Rojo. The NIPAS Act refers to RA 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992.
He called into question illegal structures built in the Northern Negros Natural Park (NNNP).
“Both the charcoal maker and illegal structure owners violated RA 7586,” Rojo stated. “Are these people above the law?”
According to a release by the Negros Occidental Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO), a local division of the DENR, a total of 10 trees inside the NNNP were found to be damaged and cut down for the purpose of making charcoal. Oyco was operating without a permit and is said to be in violation of Section 20 of the NIPAS Act, which prohibits within protected areas the “hunting, destroying, disturbing, or mere possession of any plants or animals or products derived therefrom without a permit from the Management Board.”
Rojo also questioned the “sense of justice” of Negros Occidental PENRO OIC Edgardo Rostata and DENR-NIR attorneys Cheryll Rose Librero and Bronwen May Lagura in bringing up the charges./WDJ