MANILA, Philippines—In defiance of a Supreme Court order for the clean-up of Manila Bay, environment and local officials have approved the construction of a sanitary landfill along the coast of the bay in Obando, Bulacan, threatening to further pollute the bay and degrade its ecosystem.
Obando residents have petitioned the high court to stop the operation of the private P1-billion landfill on a 45-hectare land in Barangay Salambao, warning of the “environmental catastrophe’’ it would cause.
In a petition for the issuance of the Writ of Kalikasan, the residents asserted that the officials’ reckless and hasty approval of the project violated their right to a “balanced and healthful ecology,’’ and disregarded the SC 2008 order for the bay rehabilitation.
They argued the landfill would destroy a thriving mangrove ecosystem, cause persistent water, air and soil pollution to its immediate environs, aggravate the condition of the bay, destroy the livelihoods of coastal residents, and worsen the current flood problem of Obando and adjacent towns.
“The proposed project, stripped of its bells and whistles, involves the large-scale dumping of unprocessed garbage into the coastal waters of Obando along Manila Bay, in blatant violation of the continuing mandamus issued by this Court,’’ they said, as they prayed for a temporary environmental protection order.
Protests have been mounted against the landfill and appeals have been aired against its construction over the past months, but these have gone unheeded, hence the recourse to “this extraordinary remedy to stop this looming environmental catastrophe of such magnitude,’’ the petitioners said.
The petitioners were Ma. Teresa S. Bondoc, Wilfredo DG. de Ocampo, Conrado C. Lumabas Jr., Melissa A. Padilla, Macaria D. Lumabas, Lucila S. Sayao, Mercy Dolorito, Arnel R. Wico, Edwin T. Ramos, Joseph Ryan C. Raymundo, Rodolfo Jose C. Lapus, Victoria M. Correa, Adelina C. Baltazar, Milagros S. Suan, Virgilio C. Dimanlig, and Antonio P. Roxas.
Named respondents were Environment Secretary Ramon Paje, Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Region 3 director Lormelyn Claudio, Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado, Bulacan’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan, Obando Mayor Orencio Gabriel, Obando Sangguniang Bayan, Salambao Sanggunian Barangay, and
Ecoshield Development Corp. (EDC), the project proponent.
The site is part of Manila Bay, and can only be reached by motorized boats.
Citing the project’s fact sheet, the petitioners said the EDC would construct a landfill on existing fishponds in Obando “to meet the waste disposal needs’’ of Metro Manila and nearby provinces, and the wastes would be transported to the site by motorized vessels through waterways.
The project, to be undertaken on a 45-hectare area at a cost of P1 billion, would entail reclamation activities, drainage of water and removal of live fauna to make way for a pit for the dump site. It has a capacity of 1,000 metric tons of wastes a day, they added.
From December 2010 up to October this year, barangay and municipal councils, and the provincial board issued resolutions and ordinances approving the project, while the EMB in Region 3 issued an environmental compliance certificate to EDC for its construction, they said.
The residents had communicated and met with the environment and local officials a number of times to air their opposition to the project, but to no avail.
“To stress the gravity of the proposed landfill’s environmental impacts, just the transport of wastes alone from Metro Manila to Obando is replete with problems. In EDC’s own words, dumping and transit of garbage will cause contamination and degradation of fresh water quality,’’ the petitioners said.
To mitigate this, the EDC has proposed to cover the barges with a “duly approved material’’ and assign personnel to spray water on the loaded vessel to stabilize dust particles, they said.
“Evidently, such measures do not, and must not, cut it. Any high school science student can figure that the crude method of water spraying may settle dust, but will certainly aggravate leaching, unless of course, EDC does not contemplate seepage as a problem,’’ they said.
“All told, such vague, if not dismissive, solutions to the project’s monumental impacts serve to highlight not only its utter lack of sensitivity to environmental considerations, but its apparent lack of technical expertise to operate such highly critical project. Simply put, the newly incorporated EDC neither knows nor cares about what it is doing,’’ they said.
On Oct. 20, EDC moved heavy equipment and implements such as cranes and pipes into the site to begin the project, the petitioners said.
As things stood, a large swath of the mangrove area that has been around for decades has been destroyed, “with the DENR relying on its vaunted inefficiency to excuse itself from identifying the culprits,’’ they said.
“The construction phase alone of the landfill will bring irreversible damage to the waters of Manila Bay to the detriment of countless residents living in nearby cities and provinces,’’ they said.
The petitioners argued the ordinances and permits issued by the officials flew in the face of the Supreme Court’s December 2008 order to agencies and local government units, including the DENR and Bulacan government, to coordinate in the restoration, restoration and preservation of the bay.
“Against such mandate, is not the proposal to build a landfill in the waters of Bgy. Salambao, Obando, Bulacan, a direct and blatant violation of this continuing mandamus ordered by this Highest Tribunal?’’ they said.
In November last year, EDC wrote Mayor Gabriel requesting approval for its plan to operate a landfill. Then on Dec. 22 the Salambao barangay council issued a resolution, saying it did not pose to EDC’s application for an ECC.
On the same date, Claudio of EMB issued the ECC for what it called the “non-environmentally critical project.’’
On Jan. 24 this year, the Obando municipal council issued a resolution allowing EDC to build and operate a landfill.
It issued another resolution allowing the firm to process the reclassification of the site from agricultural to commercial or industrial land and an ordinance approving such reclassification. Both municipal resolution and ordinance were approved by Gabriel.
After learning of the project by sheer chance, the residents wrote the provincial board and appealed to Governor Sy-Alvarado to stop the construction of the landfill.
Despite this, the provincial board approved the municipal actions reclassifying the land from agricultural to commercial. Even so, the residents met with the governor to reiterate their opposition to the project, citing its legal, social and environmental infirmities. They also met with EMB officials n August.
On Oct. 17, Gabriel signed a memorandum of agreement with EDC for the implementation of the project.