The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday filed a case against several officials, including the mayor, of Malay town in Aklan after a hotel company was allowed to destroy mangroves to build a hotel in Boracay island.

Malay Mayor Ceciron Cawaling, Engineer Elizar Casidsid of Malay, and Rafael King and the board of directors of K. King and Sons Co., were charged by the DENR for abuse of authority for allowing a developer to proceed with the reclamation of a mangrove area in order to build a hotel.

DENR Secretary Lito Atienza said, in a press conference, the department already asked the Malay local government, through its municipal board, to order a stop to the construction in the contested area, but the appeal fell on deaf ears.

"We are citing... [a] case of abuse of authority, like allowing the reclamation of mangroves, wetlands and other areas that should not be touched," Atienza said.

In the complaint, even with an existing moratorium on building Cawaling and Casidsid were not able to stop construction on the island.

"As we said earlier, kapag di siya tumigil sa pag-abuso sa kanyang kapangyarihan, kakasuhan namin siya. Hindi naman siya tumitigil... kinasuhan na namin siya," he added.

Atienza said this was the first instance of a local official being sued by the department.

"We would like to stress here that we also exhausted all possible means to get him to perform his task as protector of the environment," he said.

"We have to protect the interest of everyone in Boracay, because... Boracay is every Filipinos' property. It's a protected area that should be state protected," he said. "[It] should not be allowed to just deteriorate because of abuse of local authority."