Manila Bay plan splits Aguilars of Las Piñas

“Why wouldn’t she bring this matter up with me rather than with the Supreme Court?”

Las Piñas Mayor Vergel Aguilar expressed disappointment with the legal action taken last week by his sister, former Rep. Cynthia Villar, against a 635-ha reclamation project which she said poses environmental threats to the city.

“This is a local problem. She is my sister and she knows that she can talk to me directly,” Aguilar told the Inquirer, as he cited the reasons why he was supporting the P14-billion Three Island Reclamation and Development Project.

Aguilar said he had explained the potential economic benefits of the project to his constituents through a letter sent out to some 130,000 households last year.

Villar, herself a major real estate developer together with husband, Sen. Manny Villar, asked the Supreme Court on Friday to stop the project—a proposed upscale residential, commercial and tourism estate—from rising next to the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area.

Citing an environmental study by consultancy firm Tricore Solutions, Villar warned that the project would impede the natural flow of two rivers in the city, cause widespread flooding, and ruin the coastal ecotourism area which hosts a lagoon, a mangrove forest and a haven for migratory birds.

Villar, who said the project would practically undo the river rehabilitation projects she pursued as a congresswoman, claimed that some 300,000 Las Piñas residents were behind her campaign.

In an Inquirer interview on Monday, she said of her brother: “I hope he doesn’t take this personally because we are being professional about it.”

But in a phone interview yesterday, Aguilar maintained that he wouldn’t sign anything that would put his people “in harm’s way.”

He appealed to his sister and the project’s critics to give it a chance. Like his sibling, he also cited studies—by two Singapore-based firms—purportedly showing that the floods feared by Villar wouldn’t happen.

The companies, Surbana International Consultants Pte. Ltd. and DHI Water and Environment Pte. Ltd., had conducted similar studies for reclamation projects in Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai, the mayor stressed.

For Las Piñas, they recommended the dredging of Zapote River as a flood-control measure, among others, he noted.

In a decade, the city’s average revenue now pegged at P1.5 billion a year could grow “tenfold” because of the development, he said, citing city government projections.

The project may be the much-needed “savior” that could raise income levels in Las Piñas, improve its social services, and transform this “bedroom city” into a new investment hub, he added.

In the letter he sent out to the residents in November, Aguilar explained: “Today, we are making basic services possible because of frugal spending and of making the most of whatever we have.”

“We have to keep up with the pace of modern development,” the mayor wrote. “If we don’t keep up or if we don’t devise a way [to generate income], it will become more difficult for the next generation.”

In the Inquirer interview, Aguilar said he would not have given his approval to the project’s proponents “if they did not agree to our terms.”

Villar petitioned the Supreme Court to issue a Writ of Kalikasan, a legal remedy similar to a temporary restraining order.