THE Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments later this month on the case filed by concerned residents against several government agencies, including the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority for their alleged failure to clean up, rehabilitate and protect Manila Bay.
In an advisory, the SC Public Information Office said the justices will hold the oral arguments during their en banc session on September 30.
The High Court earlier allowed Akbayan Citizens Action Party as an intervenor in the case.
“All party government agencies were also required to move in the premises by September 30, 2023 to inform the Court of the following: Their measurement benchmarks of the pollution in Manila Bay, current government strategies being implemented to comply with their mandate to clean up, rehabilitate, and preserve Manila Bay, and restore and maintain its waters to SB level (Class B Sea waters per Water Classification Tables under Department of Environment and Natural Resources Order No.34 (1990) to make them fit for swimming, skin-diving, and other forms of contact recreation,’ the advisory said.
They are also required to present to the Court the government’s realistic targets for the next five years, and ongoing reclamations and their respective environmental impact assessments, especially their effect on pollution.
Aside from the MMDA and the DENR, the other government agencies summoned to attend the oral arguments are the Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Budget and Management, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police Maritime Group, Department of Interior and Local Government, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.
To recall, in 2008, the High Court ordered the government agencies to clean up, rehabilitate, and preserve Manila Bay.
This was followed by another order in 2011 for them to execute directives in order to implement the 2008 decision.
In 2020, the SC reconstituted its Manila Bay Advisory Committee (MBAC) which is tasked to monitor the implementation of its 2008 decision.
Then Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta said the MBAC’s primary function is to maintain the mandate of the 2008 continuing mandamus and to enable the Court to verify the progress reports submitted by the various government agencies tasked to clean up Manila Bay.
The concerned government agencies were earlier directed by the SC to submit quarterly reports detailing the progress of their actions to comply with the continuing mandamus.
Early this month, clean-up crews of the MMDA collected more than 130 metric tons of garbage and silt on the shores of Manila Bay.
The waste materials include those carried by floodwaters during the heavy downpours brought by typhoons Egay and Falcon.
In its aftermath, MMDA Chairperson Romando Artes reiterated his appeal to the public to stop throwing garbage in the streets and waterways and to practice recycling and segregation.
