Duterte transfers power to approve land reclamation under his office

President Rodrigo Duterte has given the power to approve reclamation projects back to the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) and placed it under the Office of the President.

The President signed on February 1 Executive Order 74, a copy of which was released by Malacañang on Monday.

Through its governing board, the PRA used to approve reclamation projects on behalf of the chief executive, but then-President Benigno Aquino III delegated the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board to do the PRA’s task starting November 2013.

Chaired by the President of the Philippines, the NEDA Board is the premier social and economic development planning and policy coordinating body primarily responsible for formulating continuing, coordinated and fully integrated social and economic policies, plans, and programs.

“The PRA shall be under the control and supervision of the OP, while the power of the President to approve all reclamation projects, shall be delegated to the PRA Governing Board. Such delegation, however, shall not be construed as diminishing the President’s authority to modify, amend, or nullify the action of the PRA Governing Board,” according to EO 74.

The PRA is also mandated to seek advisory opinions from the NEDA, Department of Finance, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources on any reclamation project.

No reclamation project shall be approved by the PRA without the required area clearance and environmental compliance certificate from the DENR and all reclamation projects shall undergo "competitive" public bidding, according to the EO.

The EO applies to reclamation projects, including those initiated by local government units and all other agencies, government-owned or controlled corporations or any government entity allowed under existing laws to reclaim land.

Specifically, the projects include those with “no contracts/agreements yet executed between the government entity concerned and a private sector proponent” prior to the effectivity of the order.

The EO took effect immediately.

Asked why the President issued the EO, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo told reporters about the need to "streamline the services of agencies."

Panelo also said the issuance of the EO was "not necessarily" in relation to the reclamation projects in the Manila Bay.

"Basta gusto niya (Duterte) palaging compliant with law," he said. "Ayaw niya ng brasuhan. Ayaw niya ng palakasan. Palaging kung ano 'yung batas sundin na lang natin."

After the EO was released, an infrastructure-oriented think tank said the order exempts from coverage all pending reclamation projects in the Manila Bay which is under rehabilitation.

“Executive Order No. 74 covers only new reclamation applications which had not yet been covered by any contract between government and the private sector,” Infrawatch PH convenor Terry Ridon said in a separate statement.

“This removes all pending Manila Bay reclamation projects from the ambit of the EO because all pending applications had already been subject, at the very least, to a Memorandum of Understanding between the local government unit and a private proponent.”

A former chairperson of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP), Ridon said exempting all pending Manila Bay applications from the EO contradicts government’s commitment to the rehabilitation of the polluted bay.

“It is absurd, even unthinkable, to issue a new reclamation policy while exempting from its coverage the nation’s most controversial reclamation area. This only lends credence to lingering questions on the sincerity of government in rehabilitating Manila Bay,” he said.

Including pending reclamation projects in the EO’s coverage does not impinge on government’s contractual commitments to the private sector, according to Infrawatch.

“It needs to be stated that most pending Manila Bay reclamation projects had not yet been green lighted by the NEDA, the previous approving body for all reclamations. As such, government should not find its hands tied to any contractual obligations to the private sector.”

Ridon said the coverage cut-off must be based on whether a final approval from the previous approving body—NEDA Board—has been secured by reclamation proponents, and not whether contracts have been signed with a private proponent. —VDS/KBK, GMA News