Land reclamation is seen as a good way to accommodate Metro Manila’s growing population and boost economic development and job opportunities, according to Las Pinas Councilor Mark Anthony Santos.
Santos said the proposed P103.8-billion Las Piñas-Parañaque Coastal Bay Reclamation Project is expected to provide up to 400, 000 to 500,000 jobs that would help ease unemployment in the metropolis, particularly Las Piñas.
The councilor said the multi-billion-peso project would generate up to P10 billion in taxes annually on top of P15 billion in real estate taxes for the city government of Las Piñas, which has jurisdiction over the reclamation site.
He said the much-delayed reclamation project would also be a revenue source for the national government.
Reclaimed land provides space for industrial development, recreational areas and socio-economic structures, he said.
Santos said many private business groups are pushing to reclaim much of coastal Manila Bay.
“Their primary motivation is to create additional urban space for the expansion of Metro Manila, a megacity of 12 million people,” Santos said.
The scale of the project will provide increased business opportunities, thousands of local jobs, attractive real estate developments and additional government revenues, he said.
Data from the Department of Finance Bureau of Local Government Finance (DOF-BLGF) show that Las Piñas placed 12th with P2.52 billion in annual revenue growth among the 16 cities in Metro Manila in 2023.
Compared to Las Piñas neighboring cities, Parañaque came in sixth with P7.9 billion; Pasay, seventh with P7.35 billion and Muntinlupa, ninth with P4.63 billion, he said.
Voting 11-2, the Supreme Court (SC) en banc approved on Oct. 21, 2021 the reclamation project of around 530 hectares of the Manila Bay coastline in Las Piñas and Parañaque, ruling that the supposed environmental threat was not sufficiently established.
