SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Despite an uproar from green groups and threats of a Senate investigation, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) isn't about to compel its biggest investor to cancel the construction of two high-rise condominiums within the free port's lush forest.

And the project owner – South Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Philippines Inc. – isn't backing out either.

"There are no grounds to stop the project," SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza told reporters on Tuesday. "We can't be whimsical. It's not that SBMA isn't playing hardball."

"Don't tell me we will hack off several floors from this building," Arezza said in Filipino, referring to criticisms from a senator who said the buildings were too high, soaring over the trees.

Arreza said the SBMA was "not afraid of investigation."

In Manila, Sen. Pia Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on environment, on Tuesday said the senators would hold an on-site public hearing on the project on April 25.

Cayetano said the hearing would determine whether environmental rules were violated when SBMA allowed Hanjin to build the condominiums which the company said was for the use of its staff.

The two buildings – one towering 22 stories and the other 12 stories (not 20 and 10 stories as previously reported) – are rising in the middle of the forest in the Cubi-Triboa District.

Hanjin will also build a swimming pool, a tennis court, a wastewater treatment plant, roof jogging track, a guardhouse, a parking area and roads, according to project documents.

But Arreza said that the SBMA would review the zoning plan, as suggested by Sen. Richard Gordon, the port's first chair and administrator.

He also said the SBMA was agreeable to a review of its memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources giving the SBMA self-regulatory power over the port.

"They (Hanjin) have gone through the process of securing an ECC (environmental clearance certificate). Hanjin secured all the necessary legal requirements, why would we criticize the project?" Arreza said.

"It sends the wrong signal to people that even if you follow the guidelines, then you tell us you have changed your mind in the end?"

No retreat

Hanjin, one of the country's biggest foreign investors, is investing $1.65 billion on a shipyard in Subic. It is also constructing a $2-billion shipping facility in Misamis Oriental.

Hanjin president Jeong Sup Shim told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that his company was not backing out of the housing project intended for its 182 staffers.

"We're almost done with the construction. We're doing the finishing works," he said.

Hanjin general manager Pyeong Jong Yu said there was no stopping the project because "we don't think there was anything wrong from the beginning ... We followed what is required by law, what is required by the SBMA."

Only 28 trees cut

Both Jeong and SBMA ecology chief Ametyha dela Llana-Koval, in separate interviews, said only 28 trees had been cut on the site.

Monitoring before and during the construction period confirmed that number, Koval said.

The Inquirer requested a copy of an inventory of trees before the construction. No copy was available because, Koval said, the staffer handling it was on fieldwork.

Two permits, dated Jan. 26, 2007, and March 18, 2008, showed that Hanjin cut 19 and nine trees. No record was available to show the period when the actual tree cutting was done.

Cutting done early

Handwritten notes on those permits showed the tree species to be putat, aure, amugis, tibig, binunga, langil, kupang, malapapaya, himbabao, kulatingan and tara-tara.

The tree cutting covered by the Jan. 26, 2007, permit (valid until Feb. 15, 2007) was six months ahead of the issuance of the ECC by Koval to Hanjin on July 4, 2007, a copy of the ECC showed.

The tree cutting also occurred ahead of the SBMA board's approval of the housing project on March 2, 2007, a copy of the board resolution showed.

Explaining why the tree cutting happened before the major permits were issued, Koval said: "We allow some clearing prior to major activities for survey purposes."

Core zone

She said Hanjin replaced the felled trees with 422 mango saplings and 238 saplings of various tree species.

Koval said the Korean housing complex was "not within" the core zone of the Subic Watershed Forest Reserve. The core zone spans 3,000 hectares, she said.

In Proclamation No. 926 signed by former President Corazon Aquino in 1992 after the pullout of the US Navy, the reserve covered a total of 10,000 ha.

Explaining the new zoning plan, Koval said the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act prompted the SBMA to make a Protected Area Management Plan (PAMP) in 2000. The PAMP delineated the core zone, buffer zone, recreation, commercial and business and residential districts.

Payumo's time

The land use plan was drawn up during the term of former SBMA Chair Felicito Payumo. The same plan was applied on Hanjin, Koval said.

Arreza said it was Hanjin that selected the site after the SBMA recommended various locations. The housing project is located on a 3-ha lot. The ECC put down the location of the housing project at "Naval Magazine, Ilanin East Forest."

"It was previously cleared for use during the US Navy's time," Arreza said, adding that Hanjin's site used to be an "ammunition storage facility."

"The impact on the environment is very minimal to begin with ... This has become the basis for the issuance of ECC," Arreza said.

Other locators

Arreza presented to the media a map showing that prior to Hanjin's entry in the area, the Cubi-Triboa District accepted locators in previously cleared areas. These were Subic Apparel, Polar Marine, Bayshore, Pacific Ace, DJ Aerospace and RCM Manufacturing.

Asked why development was allowed within those portions of the forests, Arreza said: "There is no distinction. All of these are rainforests. The contentious thing is that the buildings stick out."

"There is nothing unusual about the selection of site. The development plan is for low-impact commercial and residential projects," he said.

"We're going for the best use of existing lands. The trend now is to expand the development outside. The spaces are limited. We do not intend to cut new forests."

Not belligerent

Arreza said Executive Order No. 675, signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in October 2007, allowed the expansion of business developments at the port to nearby Bataan and Olongapo City.

The MOA recognizing SBMA's self-regulatory power was signed by former Environment Secretary Michael Defensor, SBMA chair Feliciano Salonga and Arreza.

"The MOA is explicit that the SBMA can exercise self-regulatory power. But the DENR will come in for environmentally critical projects. We're not being belligerent. We have collaborated with DENR in several projects," Arreza said.

Senator's questions

Senator Cayetano said she would want to know why the condominiums "have to be built inside a protected rainforest?"

Among those invited to the Senate hearing are Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, Salonga, Koval, Hanjin's Jeong Sup Shim, Bantay Kalikasan managing director Gina Lopez, and representatives of environmental groups and affected local communities.

Cayetano said the senators would review the propriety of the MOA.

She also said the Senate would look into the SBMA's basis for issuing an ECC to Hanjin, how the coverage of the Subic watershed was reduced from 10,000 ha to 8,000 ha "and whether this had a bearing in justifying the construction of the condominiums within the protected watershed." With a report from Ansbert Joaquin, Inquirer Central Luzon