Jerome Earl A.

Amaranto Environmental Impact Assessment October 5, 2014

MSES

STONEHOUSE GARDEN RESORT

Stonehouse Garden Resort

in Panicuason, Naga City is situated
in a buffer zone at the foot of Mt.
Isarog, which has been declared a
protected area and a national park Stonehouse
under Proclamation 214 s. 2002 Garden Resort

pursuant to Republic Act 7586

(National Integrated Protected Areas
System Act).
Mount Isarog
The resort sits on a 5-hectare
land that is privately owned. The
entrance is lined with some coconut
trees, giant ferns and young Narra
trees, while low-growing shrubs, lawn, and some vegetable garden dominate the landscape
inside the resort. The resort have rooms for guests, a concrete tennis court, an infinity pool,
and a native clubhouse adjacent to the pool overlooking San Miguel Bay with a small bar,
dining area and other amenities.

In relation to the resort’s environmental impact, here are some laws that apply and
limit the resort’s operation:

• PD 1152 s. 1977 (Philippine Environmental Code)

o Title IV – Natural Resources Management and Conservation
§ Chapter III – Forestry and Soil Conservation

Section 31. Measures for Exploitation of Forest Resources

c) conserving threatened
species of flora as well as increasing
their rate of propagation; the
banning of destructive modes of
exploitation, kaingin, making or
shifting cultivation, indiscriminate
harvesting of minor forest products;
the recycling methods of waste
materials; and
d) carrying out a continuing
effort on reforestation, timber stand
improvement, forest protection, land
classification, forest occupancy
management, agri-silviculture, range
management, agri-silvicultural/kaingin
management, industrial tree plantation, parks
 and wildlife management, multiple use forest,
timber management and forest research.

• PD 1586 s. 1978 (Establishing an Environmental Impact Statement System including

other Environmental Management Related Measures and for Other Purposes)

Section 4. Presidential Proclamation of Environmentally Critical Areas and

Projects.

“….No person, partnership or corporation shall undertake or operate

any such declared environmentally critical project or area without first
securing an Environmental Compliance Certificate issued by the President or
his duly authorized representative.”

• R.A. 7586 (National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992)

Section 8. Buffer zone.

“For each protected area, there shall be established peripheral buffer

zones which
necessary .... to
protect the same
from activities that
will directly and
indirectly harm it.”

Section 20.
Prohibited Acts.

“….the
following acts are
prohibited within
protected areas:

a) Hunting, destroying, disturbing, or mere possession of any

plants or animals or products derived therefrom without a
permit from the Management Board;
b) Dumping of any waste products detrimental to the protected
area, or to the plants and animals or inhabitants therein;
c) Use of any motorized equipment without a permit from the
Management Board;
d) Mutilating, defacing or destroying objects of natural beauty
or objects of interest to cultural communities (of scenic
value);
e) Damaging and leaving roads and trails in a damaged
condition;
f) Squatting, mineral locating, or otherwise occupying any land;
g) Constructing or maintaining any kind of structure, fences or
enclosures, conducting any business enterprise without a
permit;
h) Leaving in exposed or unsanitary conditions refuse or debris,
or depositing in ground or in bodies of water; and
 i) Altering, removing destroying or defacing boundary marks or
signs.”

• PD 1152 s. 1977 (Philippine Environmental Code)

o Title V – Waste Management
§ Chapter III – Methods of Liquid Waste Disposal

Section 50. Liquid Waste Disposal

Wastewater from manufacturing plants, industries,

community, or domestic sources shall be treated
either physically, biologically or chemically prior to
disposal in accordance with the rules and regulations
promulgated by proper government authority.

• R.A. 9275 (Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004)

Section 14. Wastewater Discharge Permit.

“…. The Department (DENR) shall

require owners or operators of
facilities that discharge regulated
effluents pursuant to this act to
secure a permit to discharge.”

• DENR Administrative Order

2013-19 (Guidelines on Ecotourism
Planning and Management in
Protected Areas)

• DENR Memorandum
Circular 2004-06 (Guidelines in the
Integration of Rainforestation
Farming Strategy in the Development of Open and Denuded Areas within Protected
Areas and other Appropriate Forest Lands)

• PD 705 s. 1975 (The Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines)

C. REFORESTATION Section
33. Forest lands to be
reforested. The following
shall be reforested and
covered with suitable and
sufficient trees, to wit:

(a) Bare or grass-covered

tracts of forest lands with at
least fifty per cent (50%)
slope;(b) Bare or grass-
covered tracts of forest lands
with less than fifty per cent
(50%) slope, but with soil so highly erodible as to make grass cover inadequate for soil
erosion control;

(c) Brushlands or tracts of forest lands generally covered with brush, which need to
be developed to increase their productivity;

(d) Open tracts of forest lands with slopes or gradients generally exceeding fifty per
cent (50%), interspersed with patches of forest each of which is less than two hundred
fifty (250) hectares in area;

(e) Denuded or inadequately-timbered areas proclaimed by the President as forest

reserves and reservations as critical watersheds, national parks, game refuge, bird
sanctuaries, national shrines, national historic sites;

(f) Inadequately-stocked forest lands within forest concessions;

(g) Portions of areas covered by pasture leases or permits having a slope of at least
fifty per cent (50%); and

(h) River banks, easements, road rights-of-ways, deltas, swamps, former river beds,
and beaches.