Form Manila Bay body, Duterte asked

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Following his order in January to clean up the Manila Bay, President Duterte has been asked to certify as urgent a bill that seeks the creation of the Manila Bay Development Authority.

Bataan Rep. Jose Enrique Garcia III made the request for House Bill No. 01419 that has been pending with the House committee on appropriations.

It had passed the committees on government enterprises and ways and means since Garcia filed it on July 12, 2016.

In a Feb. 4 letter to Duterte, Garcia sounded off the need for a body “to be wholly dedicated to a singular, legal mandate: the rehabilitation, restoration and preservation of Manila Bay.”

He said the cleanup recently began by the government started 11 years after the Supreme Court issued on Dec. 18, 2008, a writ of continuing mandamus that directed 13 agencies to “clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay, and restore and maintain its waters.” —TONETTE OREJAS