SENATOR Cynthia Villar urged President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to junk the controversial proposal to build a $13-billion airport at Manila Bay because it will cause severe flooding in southern Metro Manila and Cavite.
Villar, a known advocate of environmental protection, said the project had already been abandoned by the outgoing Aquino administration after she and other Las Piñas residents asked the Supreme Court to issue a writ of kalikasan against the project.
Aside from causing severe flooding, the airport project will also destroy the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Eco-Tourism Area, which is the critical habitat area in the Philippines covering 175 hectares.
As a declared critical habitat, Villar said LPPCHEA contains abundant and various collection of mangrove trees which not only serves as important breeding and resting areas for migratory birds, but the 36 hectares of beach and estuarine forest serves as a wall protecting Las Piñas and Parañaque.
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands declared the site as Wetland of International Importance because of the 5,000 migratory and resident birds, including the vulnerable Philippine duck (Anas luzonica) which breeds at the site.
Villar made the appeal after reelected Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez urged Duterte to push through with the international airport in Manila Bay which is envisioned to cover 157 hectares of Freedom Island in Parañaque City and the bay area in Las Piñas City.
Villar pointed out that contrary to the claim of Olivarez, the Japan International Cooperation Agency proposed Sangley Point in Cavite as a viable site of the airport and not Manila Bay in Parañaque.
The lady senator also cited the 2002 ruling of the Supreme Court, which struck down the Public Estates Authority-Amari deal as unconstitutional. The ruling stated that private companies cannot own reclaimed lands.
“I appeal to President-elect Duterte to look beyond the claim of decongesting existing airports and realize that the planned reclamation will cause flooding as high as 8 meters in Parañaque, Las Piñas and Cavite. It will also deprive 300,000 fishermen of their livelihood,” Villar said.
“Attracting tourists and investors should not be proposed at the expense of the Constitutionally-guaranteed rights of citizens for a safe and secure environment to live in,” she added.
“The reclamation of Manila Bay is dangerous as it can also be seen as a violation of Supreme Court’s continuing mandamus since 2008 directing the government to clean up Manila Bay,” Villar said.