hkskyline
May 16th, 2009, 10:07 PM
MORE THAN 10 YEARS TO CLEAN UP MANILA BAY: PHILIPPINES' DENR
BAGUIO CITY, April 16 Asia Pulse - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday said it will take more than ten years plus hundreds of billions of pesos to clean up Manila Bay.
"It will take more than 10 years before we see a clean and clear Manila Bay," Environment Secretary Jose "Lito" Atienza said on the first day of the two-day "Forum on Environmental Justice" hosted by the Supreme Court (SC) here.
Atienza noted that more measures need to be done such as massive dredging and removal of fishpens in Laguna de Bay.
He said that all possible causes of pollutants from Laguna de Bay to Pasig River and Manila Bay should be addressed because all the three are intertwined.
"The important is commitment. All the agencies of the government must be committed in restoring Manila Bay. This move would also entail not only billions but hundreds of billions of pesos," Atienza said.
Atienza further said another factor that slows down the clean-up of Manila Bay are the pending cases filed by several urban poor groups assailing the government for using the SC decision ordering the clean-up to illegally evict them from their lands.
Urban poor communities, in their petition before the SC, said that the Manila Bay ruling neither raised nor included the issue of the rights of the urban poor before demolition or eviction is carried out.
They added that neither did it involve as an issue the manner and the requisites to be followed and complied with prior to the demolition or eviction.
In their petition, they claimed that Republic Act 7279, otherwise known as the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 or the Lina law, provides that families who reside in the so-called danger zones may be relocated and their homes may be demolished provided that they are given adequate relocation after a process of consultation and dialogue.
"This clarification from the Court is urgently needed because the usual practice of MMDA is to demolish dwellings without giving notice and doing away with consultation, and without providing adequate relocation," the petitioners said.
The petitioners argued that more than 70,000 families will be affected by the SC decision on the clean-up of Manila Bay.
On Dec. 18, 2008, the SC in a ruling penned by Associate Justice Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr., said that concerned agencies should coordinate for the clean-up, restoration, and preservation of the water quality of the Manila Bay, even as it lamented the lack of concern of the people and institutions to implement programs intended for its rehabilitation.
The SC said that Manila Bay was "a place with a proud historic past, once brimming with marine life and, for so many decades in the in the past, a spot for different contact recreation activities, but now a dirty and slowly dying expanse mainly because of the abject official indifference of people and institutions."
BAGUIO CITY, April 16 Asia Pulse - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday said it will take more than ten years plus hundreds of billions of pesos to clean up Manila Bay.
"It will take more than 10 years before we see a clean and clear Manila Bay," Environment Secretary Jose "Lito" Atienza said on the first day of the two-day "Forum on Environmental Justice" hosted by the Supreme Court (SC) here.
Atienza noted that more measures need to be done such as massive dredging and removal of fishpens in Laguna de Bay.
He said that all possible causes of pollutants from Laguna de Bay to Pasig River and Manila Bay should be addressed because all the three are intertwined.
"The important is commitment. All the agencies of the government must be committed in restoring Manila Bay. This move would also entail not only billions but hundreds of billions of pesos," Atienza said.
Atienza further said another factor that slows down the clean-up of Manila Bay are the pending cases filed by several urban poor groups assailing the government for using the SC decision ordering the clean-up to illegally evict them from their lands.
Urban poor communities, in their petition before the SC, said that the Manila Bay ruling neither raised nor included the issue of the rights of the urban poor before demolition or eviction is carried out.
They added that neither did it involve as an issue the manner and the requisites to be followed and complied with prior to the demolition or eviction.
In their petition, they claimed that Republic Act 7279, otherwise known as the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 or the Lina law, provides that families who reside in the so-called danger zones may be relocated and their homes may be demolished provided that they are given adequate relocation after a process of consultation and dialogue.
"This clarification from the Court is urgently needed because the usual practice of MMDA is to demolish dwellings without giving notice and doing away with consultation, and without providing adequate relocation," the petitioners said.
The petitioners argued that more than 70,000 families will be affected by the SC decision on the clean-up of Manila Bay.
On Dec. 18, 2008, the SC in a ruling penned by Associate Justice Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr., said that concerned agencies should coordinate for the clean-up, restoration, and preservation of the water quality of the Manila Bay, even as it lamented the lack of concern of the people and institutions to implement programs intended for its rehabilitation.
The SC said that Manila Bay was "a place with a proud historic past, once brimming with marine life and, for so many decades in the in the past, a spot for different contact recreation activities, but now a dirty and slowly dying expanse mainly because of the abject official indifference of people and institutions."