PRRD’s next project: Make Manila Bay as clean as Boracay
The government could close down establishments polluting Manila Bay as part of its planned rehabilitation effort, Malacañang said Tuesday.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said President Duterte is prepared to show "political will" to enforce the cleanup of Manila Bay, that includes a crackdown on polluters.
"Of course, the policy of the government is if you violate certain regulations, then you have to pay for that," Panelo said during a Palace news conference when asked if establishments dumping waste into
Mania Bay will face closure.
"Kung ano ang ginawa natin sa Boracay, yun din ang gagawin natin sa lahat [We will replicate what we did in Boracay in other areas]," he added.
Panelo said the President is expected to issue an executive order on the massive cleanup of Manila Bay planned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The Palace earlier announced that it was planning to tap the special road fund to bankroll the rehabilitation of the popular bay along Roxas Boulevard.
In a radio interview, Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol disclosed that the President approved during Monday’s Cabinet meeting 147B to fund the rehabilitation of Manila Bay.
The Manila Bay cleanup project will reportedly be undertaken for seven years until it becomes as clean as Boracay in response to the ruling of the Supreme Court.
Piñol said the DA, Interior and Local government, Dept of Social Welfare and Development and other agencies will work hand in hand for the effective cleaning up of Manila Bay.
Bataan DENR chief Raul Mamac, said that although cleaning up Manila Bay is far more difficult than in Boracay, "but we can do it if the public and all government agencies will work and support us."
Mamac, head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Bataan, was one of the DENR top officials who led the successful cleaning up of Boracay.
"Boracay has no industries dumping wastes into the sea, so it was easier to clean it up. But if the public will support us and the government agencies will be obliged and make it mandamus to work with the cleaning up of Manila Bay, then we can do it," pointed out Mamac. (Genalyn D. Kabiling and Mar T. Supnad)