'Discipline zone not enough:' DENR urged to declare Manila Bay a 'reclamation-free' zone
MANILA, Philippines — Declaring Manila Bay a “reclamation-free” zone, not just assigning a “discipline” zone, will make the historic bay clean and healthy, a fishers group said Tuesday.
In a statement, Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) criticized the proposal of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources to declare the entire stretch of Manila Bay’s baywalk a “discipline” zone to ensure its cleanliness.
DENR Undersecretary Benny Antiporda said the department will submit a request to the Manila City government to pass such ordinance, CNN Philippines reported over the weekend. This, after he allegedly saw a man defecating along the baywalk area during the agency’s inspection of the artificial white sand being dumped along the bay’s shoreline.
For PAMALAKAYA, the proposal is a “misplaced priority” and “reeks poor-blaming.”
“While the DENR is making a fuss out of feces, it fails to recognize the actual and biggest threat in Manila Bay—the massive reclamation projects that wipeout mangrove forests and sea grasses and cause irreversible damage and pollution in the waters,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA national chairperson, said.
Hicap called on the DENR, which heads the Manila Bay rehabilitation task force, to revoke all the environmental compliance certificates issued to several reclamation projects on the bay.
“How about declare the Manila Bay a reclamation-free zone to save it from further ecological destruction and revive its marine and fishery resources?”
Reclamation projects are seen to adversely affect the habitat of marine species and wetlands and wells as destroy a source of fish catch for fisherfolk.
Scientists also said that coastal development projects will also make coastal communities susceptible to liquefaction — or when loosely packed ground surface loses their strength—during earthquakes and aggravate flooding in low-lying areas.
One of the biggest reclamation projects in Manila Bay is the proposed New Manila International Airport in Bulacan province, which will reclaim 2,500 hectares of fishing and mangrove areas.
The DENR in June issued an ECC to the land reclamation project in Bacoor City.
PAMALAKAYA earlier said that a better way to rehabilitate Manila Bay is restoring mangrove forests and wetlands.
Early in September, the department began filling a stretch of Manila Bay’s coastline as a part of the government’s effort to rehabilitate, a move feared to potentially harm not only the bay’s marine ecosystem but also communities in and around the area. Critics also hit the project for its alleged failure to comply with environmental laws.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources orders the closure of Aristocrat restaurant in Roxas Boulevard for "generating and discharging pollutive wastewater" amid the government's move to rehabilitate Manila Bay.
The Manila Bay rehabilitation program involves cleanup activities, relocation of illegal settlers as well as apprehension of establishments that violate the Philippine Clean Water Act and other environmental laws.
Last January 22, the Manila City government has ordered the temporary closure of Manila Zoo to allow the reconstruction of its sewer lines. The zoo is located near Estero de San Antonio Abad in Malate, Manila, which directly drains into the Manila Bay.
DENR ordered establishments around the bay to put up their own sewage treatment plants last January 11.
Fishers' group PAMALAKAYA reports that fishers witnessed a dredging vessel closely passing by their fishing boat off Cavite last night, October 7.
The continued dredging or reclamation off Manila Bay comes two months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced the suspension of reclamation in Manila Bay.
In its report, the group says the dredging vessel is involved in seabed quarrying in Cavite to fulfill several dump-and-fill projects in Manila Bay, particularly for the airport reclamation project in Bulacan.
It condemns the act saying it is "a proof that Marcos Jr's suspension order on reclamation is a sham, especially with the absence of an official Executive Order." — Rosette Adel
The Manila Baywalk Dolomite Beach will be reopened to the public on May 20, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources announces.
NOW: Undersecretary Jonas Leones, during the flag raising ceremony of the Agency, announces the reopening of the Manila Baywalk Dolomite Beach on May 20. #TayoAngKalikasan pic.twitter.com/UMYmcQ6QIO
— ???? (@DENROfficial) May 16, 2022
A fishers' group slams the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for issuing an environmental compliance certificate to a reclamation project in Bulacan.
The DENR has granted San Miguel Corp. a permit for its P700-billion aerotropolis project that would cover over 2,500 hectares of Manila Bay.
Pamalakaya says the aerotropolis project is "on the opposite track" of the Manila Bay rehabilitation program.
“Reclamation defeats the purpose of rehabilitation as it endangers vital marine resources that keep Manila Bay abundant and biodiverse," Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap says.
Akbayan is calling on the original parties in the 2008 environmental protection case over Manila Bay to join them in questioning the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources' dolomite beach project.
The party does this in a statement after the Supreme Court denied its motion to intervene in the case, adding the court "has taken, quite sadly, a hands-off approach on an issue of transcendental importance."
It adds: "Even the high tribunal's statement that it found no violation of its continuing Mandamus is discouraging. It limited its findings to the reports submitted by the DENR on its specific directive to clean the waters of the bay and perform maintenance measures."
"It failed to include in its assessment the DENR's dumping of fake sand as a polluting act violative of its order."
Akbayan party-list will hold a "bicycle action" on November 3 "coinciding with the Supreme Court's en banc session to deliberate on the petition Akbayan filed on the dumping of dolomite sand along Manila Bay."
Bikers will meet at Plaza Salamanca in the morning and head to the Supreme Court gates in Padre Faura.
In its announcement, Akbayan says it is calling for the SC to "hold the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in contempt for dumping fake white sand in Manila Bay, which is in violation of the court's continuing Mandamus on the area, as well to save Manila Bay the right way."
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