A PASAY City official yesterday warned lawmakers that millions of jobs and billions of revenues would be lost if the suspension of reclamation projects in Manila Bay continues in the next few years.
Pasay City Administrator Peter Manzano, who represented Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto in the hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said the Pasay City-backed reclamation projects in Manila Bay can easily generate at least one million jobs from horizontal development and commercial operations alone.
The “Eco-City” endeavor included the 360-hectare reclamation project under a joint venture with SM Smart City Infrastructure and Development Corporation which is dubbed “Pasay 360.”
“During horizontal development and commercial operations, private developers, investors, and business establishments at the Projects could easily generate over a million jobs, including those related to construction, business process outsourcing, retail, banking, hotels and restaurants, and the like,” said Manzano.
The panel is looking into the economic impact of the suspension of all 22 reclamation projects in Manila Bay pending a review of their compliance with environmental regulations.
The government decision was made amid the alleged questionable grant of permits by the Philippine Reclamation Authority. The projects are now indefinitely suspended pending an ongoing impact assessment by the DENR and a review of the projects’ compliance with the requirements and conditions stated in their environmental permits.
Manzano told the panel chaired by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda that the joint venture with the private sector is “projected to create economic multipliers and generate millions of jobs and billions of revenues by way of income and value-added taxes for the national government, and real property taxes and business taxes for the city.”
He said that as it is, Pasay’s development is held back by “acute land scarcity and urban congestion” and that the Eco-City project would provide considerable windfall to the national government in the process.
“The national government already stands to generate close to P16 billion in regulatory and extraction fees,” Manzano said. “Once reclamation is completed, the national and local government stand to gain, at no financial cost, 131.25 hectares of saleable reclaimed land with a future estimated total value of over P650 billion once the area and its amenities are fully developed.”
By the city government’s projection, national taxes from investments and businesses from the reclamation may total over P1.3 trillion in 35 years while revenues for Pasay may also total over P1.1 trillion in real property and business taxes.
Nueva Ecija Rep. Ria Vergara raised the persisting concerns over the environmental impact of the reclamation projects but Glenn Ang, president of SM Smart City Infrastructure and Development Corporation, said their project is backed by all necessary studies.
“We’d like to assure the honorable Cong. Vergara that all of the studies have been prepared,” he said. “The DENR is working now (on) the cumulative impact of all of the other reclamations it built all together and we’re very much open to all of these.”
Salceda earlier said the government stands to lose as much as P432 billion in tax revenues if the suspension of reclamation projects in Manila Bay will last for five years.
