Senator Cynthia Villar again stressed the importance of the wetlands in providing wildlife habitats, including sanctuaries to migratory birds.
On the occasion of the World Migratory Bird Day, Villar said the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park South of Manila Bay had served as resting and feeding grounds for migratory birds from Japan, China and Siberia.
“Wetlands have a unique characteristic and serve a lot of functions, and that is why these areas are protected and preserved,” Villar said.
Villar, head of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, authored Republic Act 11038, or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas Act or E-NIPAS Act, which lists the Las Piñas-Paranaque Wetland Park as a protected area.
She also underscored the urgency of preserving the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park as a result of plans to reclaim Manila Bay.
“There are reclamation projects that plan to build on the buffer zones of the park. We are vigorously opposing this because buffer zones should not be touched in order to preserve the landscape where the wetland now thrives,” Villar said.
She has objected to the plan of the Bacoor and Parañaque local governments to reclaim 320 hectares and 287 hectares, respectively, in the portions of Manila Bay that are delineated as buffer zones of the Wetland Park.
The 175-hectare nature reserve provides sanctuary to 82 species of wild birds, including Philippine ducks, Chinese egrets and the Black-winged stilts.
It has 36 hectares of mangrove forest, the thickest and most diverse among the remaining mangrove areas on Manila Bay. There are 11 mangrove species growing in the area, and it is the spawning ground of fish in Manila Bay supporting the livelihood of 300,000 fishermen.
The Ramsar Convention recognized the park’s global importance to biodiversity, so that it declared the park as a Wetland of International Importance along with six other sites in the Philippines: 1. the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park in Palawan; 2. the Tubbataha Reefs National Marine Park in Sulu; 3. the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary in Agusan del Sur; 4. the Naujan Lake National Park in Oriental Mindoro; 5. the Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary in Cebu; and 6. the Negros Occidental Coastal Wetlands Conservation Area in Negros Occidental.
