Further, as to its allegation that respondent Province failed to perform a full EIA,

petitioner argues that while it is true that as of now, only the Caticlan side has been
issued an ECC, the entire project involves the Boracay side, which should have been
considered a co-located project. Petitioner claims that any project involving
Boracay requires a full EIA since it is an ECA. Phase 1 of the project will affect
Boracay and Caticlan as they are separated only by a narrow strait; thus, it should
be considered an ECP. Therefore, the ECC and permit issued must be invalidated
and cancelled.
A co-located project is a group of single projects, under one or more
proponents/locators, which are located in a contiguous area and managed
by one administrator, who is also the ECC applicant.
On the issues of whether, based on the scope and classification of the
project, a full EIA is required by laws and regulations, and whether
respondent Province complied with all the requirements under the
pertinent laws and regulations
An [EIA] is a process that involves predicting and evaluating the likely impacts of a
project (including cumulative impacts) on the environment during construction,
commissioning, operation and abandonment. It also includes designing appropriate
preventive, mitigating and enhancement measures addressing these
consequences to protect the environment and the communitys welfare.
Thus, the EIA process must have been able to predict the likely impact of the
reclamation project to the environment and to prevent any harm that may
otherwise be caused.
The project now before us involves reclamation of land that is more than five times
the size of the original reclaimed land.
As may be gleaned from the breakdown of the 2.64 hectares as described by
respondent Province above, a significant portion of the reclaimed area would be
devoted to the construction of a commercial building, and the area to be utilized for
the expansion of the jetty port consists of a mere 3,000 square meters (sq. m). To
be true to its definition, the EIA report submitted by respondent Province
should at the very least predict the impact that the construction of the
new buildings on the reclaimed land would have on the surrounding
environment. These new constructions and their environmental effects
were not covered by the old studies that respondent Province previously
submitted for the construction of the original jetty port in 1999, and which it resubmitted in its application for ECC in this alleged expansion, instead of conducting
updated and more comprehensive studies.
Any impact on the Boracay side cannot be totally ignored, as Caticlan and Boracay
are separated only by a narrow strait. This becomes more imperative because of
the significant contributions of Boracays white-sand beach to the countrys tourism
trade, which requires respondent Province to proceed with utmost caution in
implementing projects within its vicinity.

We had occasion to emphasize the duty of local government units to ensure the
quality of the environment under Presidential Decree No. 1586 in Republic of the
Philippines v. The City of Davao,[148] wherein we held:
Found in Section 16 of the Local Government Code is the duty of the LGUs
to promote the peoples right to a balanced ecology.
The state and its political subdivisions, i.e., the local government units are
juridical persons. Undoubtedly therefore, local government units are not
excluded from the coverage of PD 1586.
Lastly, very clear in Section 1 of PD 1586 that said law intends to implement the
policy of the state to achieve a balance between socio-economic development and
environmental protection, which are the twin goals of sustainable development. The
above-quoted first paragraph of the Whereas clause stresses that this can only be
possible if we adopt a comprehensive
and integrated environmental protection program where all the sectors
of the community are involved, i.e., the government and the private
sectors. The local government units, as part of the machinery of the
government, cannot therefore be deemed as outside the scope of the EIS
system.