Seno on offensive, names tribal leader

By NITZ ARANCON,
Correspondent .

OPOL Mayor Maximino Seno has taken an offensive stance on the controversy hounding the multimillion-peso theme park in his town, saying the municipal government would be behind Seven Seas Waterpark and Resort in its legal battle with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“Over my dead body,” said Seno. “I will stand up, bisan asang kortiha.”

Seno said this even he named the leader of a group that allegedly tried to illegally occupy the contested property in Barangay Barra, Opol. The mayor identified the alleged group leader as one Pacita Doydora Panis.

Panis, according to Seno, was the person who allegedly went to see him to ask help in convincing the owner of the 59-hectare property, the family of Marilou Sarmiento, to give her group one hectare.

Seno said Panis represented herself as the leader of a Higaonon group from Bukidnon that lost the land-dispute case to the Sarmiento-owned LS Property Inc. before a regional court.

He said he rejected Panis’s request because he was aware that the property belonged to the Sarmientos.

The Sarmientos sold some 20 hectares of the Barra property to various buyers, including Engr. Elpidio Paras who subsequently developed nearly five hectares into a theme park.

Seno said local officials were behind the developer and operator of Seven Seas, and would strongly oppose any move to close down the waterpark.

 “Dapat gyud trabaho-on, alalayan, ug suportaran ang investor,” he said.

Seno however said there was no order from the DENR or the Court of Appeals to shut down the park.

DENR has questioned the land title, asserted that the property is a “timberland,” and asked the appellate court to void the regional court’s decision in favor of the Sarmientos.

Seno said Paras should prepare to file a case against the DENR in the event that it issues a closure  order, assuring him that the town government would be behind him.

Francis Khu, the lawyer of the Sarmiento-owned LS Property Inc., said the DENR filed the case for the annulment of the lower court’s decision before the CA last year. Since then, no temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary injunction was issued by the appellate court, he said.