Group to seek int’l help vs reclamation plan

MANILA, Philippines - The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) yesterday said it will seek an international petition calling for the scrapping of the P14-billion reclamation project in Manila Bay.

The group issued the statement after the Court of Appeals (CA) junked the petition filed by former Las Piñas City Rep. Cynthia Villar and more than 300,000 city residents to stop the implementation of the project.

Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz said they will ask their allies and networks in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, South Africa, Mauritania, and Senegal to help them in launching a global campaign against the planned reclamation in Manila Bay and other parts of the country.

Corpuz said under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) program of President Aquino, the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) will promote reclamation activities in more than 100 sites all over the country.

He said 26 of these sites will cover more than 26,000 hectares of Manila Bay encompassing Cavite, Las Piñas, Parañaque, Manila, Navotas, and the coastal areas of Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan.

Around 13,000 hectares of coastal areas, including the Las Piñas-Parañaque habitat will be covered by reclamation in Cavite and Manila, while another 13,000 hectares in Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan will be reclaimed under the government’s reclamation plan. 

“We will bring this issue before the international community. We will knock the doors of the United Nations and other global institutions to come and see the horrible impact of reclamation to people’s livelihood and basic rights, its terrifying impact on marine environment, and promise of human disaster to the people,” Corpuz said.

The CA ruling was assailed by Anakpawis party-list, Koalisyon Kontra Kumbersyon ng Manila Bay (KKK-Manila Bay), Save Freedom Island Movement (SFIM), and Sagip Manila Bay Movement (SMBM).

“The CA, in rejecting the bid for writ of kalikasan filed by Rep. Villar, is like telling the Filipino people to wait first for the disaster to happen before we can act with dispatch and render proper resolution to the case,” Fernando Hicap, chairperson of Pamalakaya and vice chairperson of Anakpawis party-list, said.

Hicap said the appellate court’s ruling exposes the lives of more than 300,000 Las Piñas residents and another 300,000 residents of Parañaque to massive flooding.

“We hope the CA would reconsider its decision,” he added.

In a 48-page decision released Friday, the CA third division through Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas said Villar’s petition lacked merit and was premature.

Villar asked the Supreme Court last year to stop the implementation of a 635-hectare reclamation project in Manila Bay, which she said may impede natural flow of water to the bay.

The firm — All Tech Contractors Inc. — was allowed by the PRA to reclaim 635 hectares of foreshore areas in Manila Bay beside the 175-hectare protected mangroves, lagoons and ponds known as the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area.

Villar said the project will destroy one of Metro Manila’s last nature reserves and bird sanctuaries, the Las Piñas-Parañaque Coastal Lagoon or the 175 hectares of Salt marshes, tidal areas and three mangrove-clad islands that serve as home or resting spot for dozens of bird species, including the globally threatened Philippine duck and Chinese egret.