Reclamation firm shelves ‘white beach’ plan on dirty Manila Bay

Outgoing Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim

Outgoing Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim’s “wish” to have a white-sand public beach in the country’s capital city may no longer come true.

The head of the real estate firm behind a controversial reclamation project on Manila Bay, a massive development approved by the Lim administration, said the company was shelving plans to have  “an artificial beach facing the sunset,” due to the health risks posed by the waters.

The proposed Solar City project was heavily criticized by civil society and environmental groups, especially after it was revealed that the city government paved the way for it by lifting a 1992 ban on reclamation. It is one of the major projects being inherited by the administration of Joseph Estrada, the former president who unseated Lim in the May 13 polls.

William Tieng, chair and chief executive officer of Manila Goldcoast Development Corp. (MGDC), said “we are instead planning to put up a huge beach pool” within Solar City, which the company envisions as a residential, business, commercial, tourism and arts hub that would rise on 146 hectares of reclaimed land.

Tieng, who also heads the Solar Entertainment Group, noted what had been obvious for many years: “Manila Bay is polluted with hazardous chemicals, garbage and other toxic items,”

“(That’s why) putting up a public beach in the area is not a good idea. The public, especially children, could get sick if they continue to swim or take a bath there,” he told the Inquirer in a recent interview.

The Manila City government has banned swimming in its portion of the bay under Ordinance No. 3827.

According to City Hall, at least three drainage pipes from the Ermita district regularly release wastewater into the bay, which also catches tons of trash from households in the neighboring cities in Metro Manila and the provinces of Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan.

Earlier this year, MGDC vice chair Edmundo Lim told a media forum that the planned beach project would “enhance the area for viewing the Manila Bay sunset.” He even joked that the firm was  “doing it for Mayor Lim (no relations) free of charge.”

Mayor Lim, who is yielding power to Estrada at the end of the month, earlier told reporters about his wish to see a white-sand beach in the city.

An MGDC master plan disclosed to the Inquirer in January included an artificial beach as one of the main features of Solar City, which will be made up of three islands connected by four bridges.

Other project features include an international cruise ship terminal, Philippine Ports Authority berthing areas for passenger ferries plying the routes covering Manila, Bataan, Cavite, Zambales and Mindoro provinces, and 50 to 100 high- and medium-rise buildings, among others.

Green architecture

The project also seeks to showcase “green architecture techniques” using local materials and offer wide-open spaces for parks.

In earlier interviews, Tieng defended the project against critics, saying similar projects in Asia, Europe and the Middle East had served as “a front door to urban development” in those regions.

The businessman also claimed that “with a frontage of only 635 meters parallel to Roxas Boulevard and occupying less than 0.082 percent of the bay’s surface area of 1,800 square kilometers, the project will not deprive city folk, as well as tourists, of the view of the world-famous Manila Bay sunset.”