CAUSE-ORIENTED groups yesterday filed petitions for Writ of Kalikasan and Continuing Mandamus against several reclamation and seabed quarrying projects in Manila Bay.
In their petition filed before the Supreme Court, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakay ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment said the high court should order the Manila Bay projects stopped for fear of their cumulative and long-term impacts of dredging and reclamation across the bay.
They said that from 2019 to 2023 when Executive Order No. 74 was in effect, cumulative impact assessment and reclamation development plans were required before the issuance of an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), Area Clearance (AC) and Notice to Proceed (NTP) in reclamation applications.
The Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) has approved 13 of 25 applications for reclamation within Manila Bay.
As a result, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued ECCs and ACs for the reclamation projects, as well as at least 10 seabed quarry permits for the utilization of marine sediments in Manila Bay as construction materials for some of the approved reclamation projects—without first meeting the requirements of the law.
Respondents of the petition are the DENR and the PRA, which the petitioners said were the government agencies responsible for the approval and processing of reclamation and seabed quarrying projects.
Kalikasan said that the “DENR’s belated and still ongoing cumulative impacts assessment neither cured the legal infirmity of NTPs, ECCs and ACs issued during 2019-2023 nor addressed the damages caused and risks posed to the environment by these approved reclamation and seabed quarry activities for reclamation”.
The groups filed the petition while the DENR is set to release the result of its cumulative impact assessment of reclamation projects by the end of the year.
