THE Supreme Court (SC) yesterday issued a writ of kalikasan against the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and four other agencies stemming from a petition seeking to stop the construction of the Samal Island-Davao City Connector Bridge Project, allegedly due to the irreversible damage to coral reefs and the marine environment.
Aside from the DPWH, also issued stoppage orders were the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Samal Island Protected Landscape (SIPL), Seascape Protected Area Management Board (Spamb), and the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC).
SC spokesperson Camille Sue Mae Ting said the decision was reached by the magistrates during the resumption of their en banc session after the summer break.
“In the case of Santos-Peñalver and Sustainable Davao Movement versus the DPWH and others, the Court issued a writ of kalikasan against the DPWH, DENR, the Samal Island Protected Landscape and Seascape Protected Area Management Board, and the China Road and Bridge Corporation,” Ting said in a press briefing. A writ of kalikasan is a legal remedy that provides for the protection of one’s right to “a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature,” as provided for in Section 16, Article II of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
Ting said the en banc required the respondents to file a verified return on the petition within a non-extendable period of 10 days after service of the writ.
At the same time, she said the en banc “referred the prayer for a Temporary Environmental Protection Order to the Court of Appeals, Cagayan de Oro, for action.”
The en banc’s order stemmed from a petition filed in April this year by an environmental network and several environmentalists asking the SC to issue a writ of kalikasan to stop the China-funded P23.52 billion Samal Island Davao City Interconnector Project, saying that it is wrongly designed and misaligned that will destroy coastal and marine resources and biodiversity in Samal.
China is providing P19 billion of the P23.52 billion cost of the project through a loan to the national government.
Petitioners Carmela Marie Santos of Ecoteneo, Mark Peñalver of IDIS, Incorporated, and the Sustainable Davao Movement said there is a need for the writ of kalikasan to stop further works on the 3.98-kilometer government-backed project that they said violates the constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology.
According to the 212-page petition, the 15,000-square-meter Paradise Reef contains 70 percent hard rock corals and is considered among the last pristine rèefs in the Davao Gulf, while the Hizon Marine Protected Area showed a 30 percent consistent hike in fish catch by local fishermen since 2018 due to the coral cover and growth.
The petitioners said these are in grave danger due to the ongoing construction activities of the project, which include the offshore borehole drilling, port and craneway building, and soil testing.
Citing studies by marine experts, the petitioners said siltation and sedimentation due to the ongoing construction activities have already damaged around 600 meters of the coral reefs in Paradise Reef alone in violation of existing laws such as the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act, the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, and Davao City’s own Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
They also questioned the lack of public consultations before the start of the project and the legitimacy of the Environmental Compliance Certificate.
The petitioners said even before the start of the construction activities, the soil sample drilling conducted in the last quarter of 2022 already posed damage to the reef ecosystem in the Davao Gulf.
Aside from a writ of kalikasan, the petitioners also asked the SC to issue a Temporary Environmental Protection Order to stop all construction activities affecting the reef systems, declare the Environmental Compliance Certificate for the project null and void, and require the restoration of the damaged coral reefs, and permanently prohibit further construction that could harm the marine ecosystems.
