Las Piñas City Councilor Mark Anthony Santos asked Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga to change the composition of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) who allegedly refused to issue clearance certificates for the P103.8-billion Las Piñas-Paranaque Coastal Bay Reclamation Project.
PAMB is a multi-sectoral body created in each protected area vested with powers to decide the allocations for budget, approve proposals for funding and decide matters relating to planning, peripheral protection and general administration of the protected area.
A PAMB clearance is issued for projects and certain activities including research studies within protected areas under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS).
Santos, who is also a congressional candidate, urged Yulo-Loyzaga to investigate why PAMB members chose not to issue clearance certificate for the much-delayed multi-billion reclamation project.
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-Parañaque, ruling that the supposed environmental threat was not sufficiently established.
Santos said in a statement that he was informed by an incumbent DENR undersecretary that the members the PAMB were being pressured by a powerful politician not to deliberate the clearance certificates of the project despite the SC decision.
The councilor said two members of the local PAMB are allies of the politician after they were seen together during a board meeting.
“This confirms that Las Piñas LGU is heavily represented by the politician in the PAMB,” Santos said.
