“Things are not looking good, despite the assurances of our economic managers”
It is as if our senators and other high government officials never pass Roxas Boulevard.
The GSIS Building where the Senate currently rents its office spaces and session hall is right smack in front of the once beautiful bay.
The senators, I would suppose, go to Sofitel nearby every now and then. And so do their highly paid staff.
But not until the embassy of the mighty US of A complained about the many reclamation projects in the bay did our leaders find their voice, and asked the DENR and other government agencies to look into the environmental impact of such side-by-side projects which haul sand from Cavite, Zambales and elsewhere and dump these into the bay.
An exception is Senator Cynthia Villar, who has been vocal about reclamation projects in her native Las Pinas for years. But till the US Embassy spoke out, it’s been a case of “not in my backyard” (NIMBY).
Even the president has rued while in Malolos that “The sea has disappeared from Roxas Boulevard.”
Very few except Pamalakaya and environmentalists like Antonio Oposa and scientist Kevin Rodolfo kept criticizing the reclamation that would forever steal the Manila Bay sunset from ordinary folks and likely cause severe floods in the mainland.
In stealth, the Philippine Reclamation Authority rushed the approval of the project proponents which also got the local governments of Manila, Pasay, Paranaque, Navotas and Cavite getting into the new “gold rush.”
The Americans squawked only when they found out that one of the projects would be constructed by a Chinese company. If it were an American or Australian company, they would likely have kept quiet.
Which is why Sen. Chiz Escudero called their complaint interventionist, without necessarily supporting the reclamation projects.
One of the projects approved by a previous LGU chief was so hastily passed even if it overlapped with another reclamation project already given by the PRA.
Another overlapped territorial boundaries, between two local governments.
All done in haste, and in the last days of the Duterte administration, the “developers” rushed to pile sand into the bay.
Now belatedly, the DENR wants to review, after so much work has been done, and hardly any full view of the bay and its fabulous sunset can be seen.
Of course, we have a new DENR leadership, one with a more scientific rather than militaristic mind.
We trust she will do what is right, not only for the present but more so for future generations of our people.
The senators had best go to the Supreme Court to stop the projects via a Writ of Kalikasan.
The tribunal after all issued a writ of mandamus to save the bay more than a decade ago, so the chances of an injunction is quite high.
Still, one wonders, “nakasayad ba sa lupa and paa ng ating mga lider?”
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Trust Deputy Speaker and Batangas representative Ralph Recto to point out the major problems of our economy as lucidly as possible.
One should credit Recto and PGMA for straightening out government finances through pushing for the expanded VAT law, even if it was quite unpopular at the time.
It even cost him his re-election to the Senate, yet imagine how our economy could have grown if government did not earn more revenues to push through with its infrastructure and social projects.
