By Clarist Mae Zablan
(March 7, 2025) – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Friday cancelled a 22-year-old agreement with the developer of the popular conservation area Masungi Georeserve, calling the deal illegal and without basis.
In a statement, the DENR said it cancelled the 2002 Supplemental Agreement with Blue Star Construction Development Corp. over “illegality, failure to go through a bidding process, and failure to execute.”
The department also ordered Blue Star to vacate the area in 15 days.
The department said that the agreement lacked a presidential proclamation that “should declare Lot 10 as open for disposition to develop housing units within the area.”
The contractor also failed to deliver on its commitment under the deal to construct a sustainable government housing project in the area, while lacking a document to prove that the proposed construction went through regular procurement or bidding process, it added.
Masungi Georeserve Foundation Inc. (MGFI), which is affiliated with Blue Star, refuted DENR’s allegations, saying that the department had been the one to cause the delays in the project by refusing to “clear the area of large-scale illegal occupants, liens, and encumbrances.”
The organization also maintained that the project was competitively bidded out.
The foundation believed that the DENR’s move “is part of a larger, more insidious effort to weaken environmental protection, silence advocates, and clear the path for selfish commercial interests to exploit our natural resources.”
“This is not just an assault on Masungi Georeserve — it is an attack on every Filipino striving to protect our natural heritage in the face of worsening floods, landslides, and droughts that threaten our communities,” MGFI said in a statement on the same day.
MGFI and Blue Star have led conservation efforts in the Masungi Georeserve, an environmental sanctuary situated in Rizal known for its 60 million-year-old karst formations. The area is also home to more than 400 species of flora and fauna, of which some are endangered.
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