Villar hits 13 agencies over Manila Bay cleanup

MANILA, Philippines -  Sen. Cynthia Villar chided yesterday 13 government agencies for continuing to fail to comply with a Supreme Court ruling in 2008 ordering them to rehabilitate Manila Bay.

Villar, chair of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, asked the agencies during a hearing yesterday to submit clear plans on how they will comply with the landmark SC ruling to save Manila Bay, whose current polluted state is affecting over 34 million residents living around the basin.

“Nine years after the Supreme Court ordered the clean up, the quality of the waters of Manila Bay has shown little and insignificant improvement,” the senator said.

“Manila Bay is a historical landmark. It is known in the world because of its breathtaking sunset…We owe it to our children to rehabilitate and preserve it so that they will continue to reap its benefits,” she said.

These agencies are the Metro Manila Development Authority; Departments of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); Education; Health; Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries; Public Works and Highways; Budget and Management; Interior and Local Government; Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police-Maritime Group, Philippine Ports Authority, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, and Local Water Utilities Administration.

Villar said there is an urgent need to take more drastic actions and to involve more entities to effectively clean up Manila Bay and its ecosystem.

She said over 300,000 fisherfolk depend on the Manila Bay for their livelihood.

The inquiry was prompted by Senate Resolution 398 asking the committee to look into the steps taken by 13 government agencies under the writ of continuing mandamus issued by the SC.

On Dec. 18, 2008, the SC handed down a landmark decision ordering 13 government agencies “to clean up, rehabilitate, and preserve Manila Bay and restore and maintain its waters to SB level to make them fit for swimming, skin diving, and other forms of contact recreation.”

SB Level or Class B seawater under DENR’s Water Classification Tables is recreational water class for primarily contact recreation such as bathing, swimming, skin diving, or for tourism.