LOCAL GOVERNMENT units need to actively take measures to deter waste disposal in the Pasig river before the national government seeks foreign assistance to rehabilitate the waterway, the Department of Finance said.

“The first step is you have to stop throwing garbage into the river. Because if you rehabilitate it and people will still throw garbage nothing will happen,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters on Thursday.

He added that controlling waste disposal will not require funding, but requires political capital.

“I will not go to any project there unless that is done, unless we can see that no pollution is being put there, it’s a waste of money. If you keep on fixing it and then they keep on dumping stuff in there it doesn’t work,” Mr. Dominguez said.

Waste control should begin with the Metro Manila Development Authority, local government units bordering the river, the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, as well as the Environment department.

Rolando Macasaet, Philippine representative for multilateral lender Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, said last week that it may accept a proposal for a river rehabilitation, as the bank is willing to back environmental projects.

He said that the project could cost some P200 billion.

Jin Yuan, Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Philippines, was open to participating in the project’s financing.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said earlier that the project would be a priority, but the government has yet to initiate a feasibility study for the proposal.

“You have to dredge it. And then you have to get rid of the barges that are sunk in there and whatever you have in there in the Pasig river.” — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

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