Balancing development with environment protection highlighted the essence of island construction project proposed by Oasis Leisure Island Development, Inc. (OLIDI). Lawyer Carlos Castillo of OLIDI pointed this out as he presented the project profile of the proposed eco-land development eyed off Panglao Bay during the joint hearing of the Committee on Environment Protection and Natural Resources and the Committee on Tourism of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. The project is intended to address shortage of room accommodation since 2006. “In 2006, there was hotel room demand of 1691 in December and 2639 in May. This demand was never met. In fact even recently, there are reports of room shortages even on months that are considered slack season. To meet the demand for hotel rooms, accommodations, and amenities there must be readily available land that can be devoted for such purpose,” according to Castillo.

In fact, “85 percent of the global tourism is coastal tourism, which is generating a US$385 billion industry”. SP Member Abeleon Damalerio, chair of the Committee on Environment, presided the public hearing where SP Member Godofreda Tirol—chair of the Committee on Tourism, and her vice-chair, SP Member Romulo Cepedoza.        Castillo explained that the five islets that OLIDI proposed to construct, under a Joint Venture Development Agreement with the provincial government, would only total to about 450 hectares, which is just a fraction of one percent of the 112,000-hectare Bohol Marine Triangle. Moreover, each islet will take the shape of the very shallow portions of Panglao Bay with depth of only 0.4 meter. The presence of very shallow portions of Panglao Bay makes the site conducive to the eco-land development project.

Mayor Benedicto Alcala welcomed the project being “too ambitious”, saying it is what Panglao needs, but he called for the immediate conduct of the environmental impact study to resolve the issues with a credible scientific data as the bottomline and for Panglao to be able to move on instead of dragging the matter further. OLIDI president Norris Oculam had also justified that the transfer price of P1 million per hectare agreed upon by the proponent and the previous provincial administration is just part of the total benefits that will be rolled down to the economy of the town and entire Bohol. Its multiplier effect includes employment of fisherfolk as tourist guides in banca for the theme park and professionals, small-time entrepreneurs, real property taxes, complementation to the existing line of resorts in Panglao beach, aside from placing Bohol in the global tourism roadmap. Oculam explained this in response to the qualms of Provincial Tourism Council Chair, Lawyer Lucas Nunag on the wisdom of coming up with the P1 million per hectare deal as the transfer price that OLIDI will pay to the provincial government upon transfer to Oasis of the title of the reclaimed lands.  But Nunag considered it very low, claiming that P5,000 per square meter “is just a very conservative estimate of the prevailing value of properties by Panglao's beach front.

On this, Oculam explained that OLIDI shoulders the 30-percent mandated share of the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) in the total development cost of the project, aside from the fact that the province “will not be shelling out a single centavo for the project”.  On queries on the procedure, Castillo explained that they had to establish a legal personality first, thus, the JVDA with the previous provincial administration so that the provincial government (as the duly qualified entity) could apply for a reclamation project with PRA. Then OLIDI complies with the pre-requisites so that it can apply for its approval. What OLIDI needs now is the affirmation of the new governor to proceed with the environmental study on the specific project site that will determine the project can proceed.

Cepedoza, for his part, questioned what he called haste in filing the application with PRA, taking note that the JVDA documents showed that it was notarized on June 19, 2010 although no date of the signing of the agreement appeared on the documents.  The on June 21, 2010, the application for reclamation was received by the office of the general manager of PRA. Lawyer Raul Barbarona of the Environmental Legal Assistance Council called sought for an explanation on whether or not it would be fair to call it a “midnight application” being done nine days before former governor Erico Aumentado's term ended. Tirol followed up as to what happened after the previous SP passed a resolution authorizing Aumentado to negotiate for a joint venture and development agreement with OLIDI, on behalf of the province.