Delayed reaction

Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy’s disclosure that the municipal government is tapping local marine biology experts to assess the impact of the ongoing reclamation project in their town may have been a delayed, knee-jerk reaction to vocal opposition of ecology groups, but it was a welcome gesture for what it’s worth.

Sitoy said he would rely on recommendations of experts of the University of San Carlos to guide Cordova in implementing the project.

How much is that again in coverage?

Ten hectares for a roll-on-roll-off port. Another 120 hectares for a proposed mni-Boracay.”

We just find it hard to believe Sitoy will follow whatever the university experts advise, say, if they recommend to close down the project because of harm done on marine biodiversity.

The ro-ro port has started initial operations as backfilling continues in the rocky shores of south Mactan island.

Since the reclamation project is funded by the Province of Cebu, whose administration has been averse to the ecology groups over coal ash dumping in the Ombudsman-scrutinized Balili property in Naga City, it is doubtful Sitoy has a say about suspending the project.

As he himself said, the municipality is just a recipient. It’s the Capitol’s undertaking.

When the project was discussed in a “stakeholders forum” in a university last month, Mayor Sitoy, who used to be the law school dean there, defended it as a solution to the poverty of his third-class municipality.

He was amenable to further scientific studies on the effects on the town’s coastal resources.

Now why wasn’t this the first step done before embarking on the ambitious smothering of foreshore land and seagrass beds with truckloads of filling material?

In this age of Climate Change, fierce typhoons and the rise of sea levels around the world, any destruction of mangroves and the reclamation of land from the sea should be examined like a loaded gun.

The cost of reclamation is not just about the lucrative business of hauling aggregates and backfilling swamps.

It is about diminishing the protection for life on land and sea.

Computations for economic gains of more jobs and investments better factor in the irreversible loss of marine biodiversity and poorly calculated bets on the integrity of public infrastructure that may get flooded by rising tide patterns.