SC asked to clarify ruling on Manila Bay cleanup

MANILA, Philippines—A militant fisherfolk group asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to issue a legal opinion on whether its order for a cleanup of the Manila Bay would involve strictly the rehabilitation of the bay or also include reclamation and privatization.

“What is truly their (high court magistrates’) opinion? Is it a cleanup in Manila Bay or conversion and privatization?” Fernando Hicap, national chairman of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya, National Fishers Movement of the Philippines), told reporters after filing the four-page appeal addressed to the justices.

Hicap signed the appeal as the convenor of the Koalisyon Kontra Kumbersyon ng Manila Bay (KKK-Manila Bay). Pamalakaya vice chairman Salvador France also signed the letter.

The appeal said that the proposed reclamation of the 175-hectare bird sanctuary along the coastline of Manila Bay by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) to pave the way for a business project center was “grossly unacceptable, a major threat to the marine environment and totally inimical to the cause of social justice and livelihood rights of the Manila Bay fisher people.”

The fisherfolk group said that the project would require another reclamation of 635 hectares of coastal waters, including the bird sanctuary.

It added that the reclamation project would also affect the Las Piñas- Parañaque lagoon, which has been the remaining mangrove forest in the National Capital Region.

“From a high of several tens of thousands in the early ’60s, the number was grossly reduced to a little over 700 hectares in the early 2000 all over Manila Bay due to reclamation and the massive drive for export bane industrialization,” the group said.

However, according to Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez, the high tribunal does not issue legal opinions.

“They can file a motion for clarification and then the court can act on a motion for clarification but the court cannot act on the motion for the issuance of a legal opinion. Perhaps in the final disposition of the case, all this will be taken into consideration,” Marquez said.