An opposition lawmaker on Saturday urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Laguna Lake Development Authority to implement an honest-to-goodness cleanup of all water bodies, starting with the removal of fishpens and fish cages from Laguna Lake.
“We ask the DENR and the LLDA—what happened to the President’s order during his first SONA for the removal of fishpens and fish cages from Laguna Lake?,” senior deputy minority leader and Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza asked.
The former Environment secretary said what the LLDA has been doing was a “piece meal dismantling of structures and endless praise releases. “
The LLDA claims that they have removed more than 2,000 hectares of fishpens and fish cages from Laguna Lake, Atienza said.
“These figures have merely been inherited by the present LLDA management. But this is far from the truth. Anytime you pass over the lake, you will see that it is still cluttered with these structures! In fact, the fishpens have increased in some areas.,” Atienza said.
He said no less than the President made a commitment to liberate and help our poor fisherfolk who are being deprived of their livelihood,” Atienza said during the meeting of the Committee on Appropriations on the 2018 budget of the DENR.
Atienza also pointed out the sad state of Manila Bay, which has become one big sewer and with six reclamation projects in the pipeline.
“The ecological balance of Manila will be damaged if we allow reclamation. We urge the DENR —turn down ECC applications related to any reclamation project in the Manila Bay area in consonance with the Supreme Court order,” Atienza said.
He recalled that during his term as Environment chief, “we caused the issuance of a continuing mandamus by the Supreme Court ordering the government, all local government units, the private sector and the two water concessionaires to clean Manila Bay and revive it to its original pristine condition.”
It was the first time the DENR sided with environmental groups led by lawyer Antonio Oposa who filed a case before the Supreme Court to clean the Bay, Atienza said.
He said the DENR during his tenure had also filed cases against the two water concessionaires, Maynilad and Manila Water, for failing to comply with the terms of their contracts such as providing waste water treatment facilities.
“Thi is something they have yet to fully accomplish but have been charging consumers from the start. As a result, they were fined P200,000 per day of non-compliance and as of today they have accrued more than P600-million in fines,” Atienza said.
This developed as he welcomed the commitment of DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu to support all efforts against any reclamation in Manila Bay.
“We want him to succeed and are willing to work with him in protecting our environment and preserving our natural resources. Our country has a vast number of water bodies – rivers and lakes throughout the archipelago that are home to some of the rarest species of fish, some of which are endemic only to the Philippines,” Atienza said. “Our abundant natural resources are enough to feed the whole world but right now, it is feeding only the wealthy and the powerful enjoying our waters,” he added.