PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. has said almost all of the reclamation activities in Manila Bay have been suspended and are now undergoing review.
“All of them have been suspended. All reclamation projects are under review. Only one pushed through because it has already been reviewed,” the President said during a situational briefing in Bulacan on Monday.
He, however, did not name what project had pushed through.
Marcos said they found a lot of problems in the reclamation projects, adding the waters near Roxas Boulevard are now disappearing.
Senators welcomed the suspension order, saying this will save the environment from degradation.
Sen. Cynthia Villar, who heads the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change, said the suspension order “is good news to us.”
“I am happy that President Marcos is suspending the reclamation in Manila Bay. This is good news to us who are afraid of ill effects of reclamation which will cause massive flooding in our cities,” Villar said in a message to the media.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources had previously said that it will do a cumulative impact assessment of the reclamation projects in the Manila Bay area and form a team of scientists and experts to illustrate the cumulative impact of such projects, especially on the environment.
DENR Secretary Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga had said the department would also consider possibilities such as the rising sea level, the existence of geological hazards such as the Manila Trench situated at Manila Bay, and possible geological events such as the “Big One” or a major earthquake that could rock Metro Manila and split the region into several areas.
The United States Embassy in Manila recently raised concerns about the long-term and irreversible impact on the environment of the reclamation activities in Manila Bay.
It also raised concerns about the involvement of a Chinese construction firm that had been blacklisted by the US for its involvement in the construction and militarizing of artificial islands put up by the Chinese in the South China Sea.
Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said he “supports the President’s decision 100 percent.”
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros called on the government “to reject” all China-funded reclamation projects in the country since there are “questionable” entities involved, specifically the China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC) “which has historically destroyed our marine ecosystems in the West Philippine Sea.”
“We should not take any chance on a company like CCCC,” Hontiveros said, adding the firm has committed many violations against the Philippines — from building artificial islands in the WPS to now reclaiming land in Metro Manila.
“Everything that comes out of China’s mouth should be analyzed carefully by any nation worth their salt. It is so much lies and manipulation. How can we negotiate with Beijing when she acts in bad faith? This is why we must draw up other diplomatic and political ways to stand ground, including stopping China-funded projects on our shores,” she said.
She called on the Senate leadership to act on Resolution No. 300 which she filed last year, which calls for an investigation on the large-scale reclamation projects in the country.
Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan, in a chance interview in the Senate, said the department is not consulted on any reclamation projects in the country since it is “not part of the technical implementation.”
“What we do is only observe them do reclamation works, but we remind them not to block the mouth of rivers because if they do so it will really have bad effects,” Bonoan said.
