With 6.2% of The Philippines’ 2022 GDP generated by tourism according to government figures, and international arrivals more than doubling in 2023, the island nation, like other destinations worldwide, is battling to balance its tourism ambitions with preserving its natural heritage.
This struggle is now at a tipping point due to a row over a tourist complex that has been shut down amid public outrage that the development was ever given a permit.
The Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort sits on Bohol island among the Chocolate Hills, an area of about 20 square miles, encompassing at least 1,260 small hills made up of limestone deposits, carved out over millennia by streams and rivers.
Together the hillocks form an intriguingly bouldered and conical karst topography that is said to resemble chocolate truffles when the area’s tufty grasses turn brown at the end of the high season. There is only one other known similar formation in the world.
UNESCO has the hills in its sights for World Heritage protection and they have enjoyed national protection thanks to their National Geological Monument status since 1988. They even feature on the island’s flag. Questions are now being raised therefore about how The Captain’s Garden and Resort came to exist there.
Opened in 2019, the resort has come to recent attention due to an influencer’s post. The images featured the complex’s pool, water slides and cottage-style accommodation, with the famous hills huddled all around.
The reaction on social media was such that on 13 March, the government’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was forced to respond. Their intervention? To order the resort’s temporary closure.
Demanding an inquiry into the resort, Deputy Majority Leader of the Philippines House of Representatives, Erwin Tulfo, called the tourist development “a blatant abuse of our natural resources” and said questions should be asked as to “how it was built and who approved it in an area that we should be protecting.”
Tulfo’s resolution said the affair “raises serious concerns” particularly about “circumvention of laws and issuances on building, business and environmental permits, certification, or licenses in the guise of tourism economic development”.
The resort meanwhile has published its business permit on social media alongside a statement claiming the “construction plans underwent rigorous scrutiny and received the necessary approvals from relevant authorities”. The statement went on to insist the owners had “complied with all environmental regulations and have taken measures to minimize the ecological footprint throughout the development process.”
The Captain’s Peak will use the closure time to implement “various eco-friendly initiatives to further enhance the sustainability of our resort” a press release said. “We are committed to upholding the highest standards of environmental stewardship and ensuring the preservation of the natural beauty that surrounds us.”
