Group reiterates call to declare entire Manila Bay a ‘reclamation-free zone’

AGROUP composed mostly of small fisherfolk is reiterating its call to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to declare the entire Manila Bay as “off limits” to land reclamation activities.

The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) urged the DENR, which heads the Manila Bay rehabilitation task force, to revoke the environmental compliance certificates (ECCS) issued to several reclamation projects in the area and declare the historic bay a “reclamationfree zone.”

The group said the proposed 320-hectare reclamation project in Bacoor City, Cavite, and the land development reclamation for the Bulacan airport project, have already secured ECCS.

“While the DENR is making a fuss out of feces, it fails to recognize the actual and the biggest threat in Manila Bay— the massive reclamation projects that wipe out mangrove forests and seagrasses, and cause irreversible damage and pollution in the waters,” Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chairman said in a news statement.

“How about declar[ing] the Manila Bay a reclamation-free zone to save it from further ecological destruction and revive its marine and fishery resources?” he asked.

The proposed “discipline zone” along the stretch of the Manila Baywalk “reeks poorblaming,” while exonerating government agencies that facilitate destructively projects and those actual “big-business environmental plunderers” from accountability, Hicap alleged.

Hicap, also former Anakpawis Party-list representative during the 16th Congress, mentioned pending House Bills prohibiting reclamation in Manila Bay, namely, the HB 257 declaring the Manila Bay a reclamation-free zone which was re-filed by Bayan Muna Partylist along with the Makabayan bloc, and the HB 3169 seeking to ban reclamation in Manila Bay and to declare it as a heritage site, filed by Pangasinan Rep. Rose Marie “Baby” Arenas.

“From dolomite ‘white sand’ filling to a ‘discipline zone.’ The DENR’S misplaced priorities and superficial solutions to the degrading Manila Bay are costing the Filipinos a fortune instead of a community-based and scienceinformed rehabilitation program that aims to restore the bay’s fishery resources,” Hicap stated.