Group seeks moratorium on Manila Bay reclamation
A GROUP of Filipino scientists has urged the Environment department to impose a moratorium on reclamation projects in Manila Bay.
It also asked the agency to consider inputs from social scientists to determine the social impacts of the projects.
In a statement, the Advocates of Science and Technology for the People said the impact assessment planned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) “should not only focus on the ecological but also on the social impacts of reclamation and associated dredging activities.”
“We welcome DENR’s initiative to look into the possible impacts of reclamation projects in Manila Bay,” it said. “However, we notice that the DENR secretary has not mentioned including a social scientist among its pool of experts.”
Last week, DENR said a team of scientists that include physical and chemical oceanographers, fishery experts and marine biologists, and engineers would assess the overall impact of the reclamation projects.
“In order to prevent further irreversible damage to the environment, we continue to demand the DENR to impose a moratorium on ongoing reclamation projects,” the group said.
DENR’s decision to conduct the assessment is “long overdue because various reclamation projects have already inflicted irreversible damage on marine ecosystems and the livelihood of coastal people,” fisherfolk group Pamalakaya said in a separate statement.
Abandoned fish ponds in some towns in Cavite province south of the Philippine capital could have been converted into productive mangrove areas “but were wiped out for reclamation,” it said.
There are two-dozen reclamation projects in the bay, which is surrounded by Metro Manila and the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga, Bulacan in central Luzon and Cavite in Southern Tagalog.
Permits for the projects were completed from 2019 to 2021 under the administration of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, who led a foreign policy pivot to Beijing in exchange for investment pledges, few of which had materalized.
The US Embassy in Manila last week flagged the reclamation projects’ ties to China Communications Construction Co., which Washington had blacklisted “for its role in helping the Chinese military construct and militarize artificial islands in the South China Sea.”
The scientist group also urged DENR to look at similar “dump-and-fill projects” in nearby provinces.
The DENR should release a public document showing the status of these projects, including the mangroves destroyed and communities displaced, it added.
The group said local communities that relied on a balanced environment in Manila Bay “now struggle to catch enough fish for a healthy diet and sustainable income.”
“Fisherfolk are already complaining about their dwindling fish catch. Why does the DENR administration continue to be tone-deaf to the realities of communities affected by reclamation?” it asked. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
