Manila Bay dolomite beach to close on Fridays —management

The Manila Bay management on Sunday said it will be close the dolomite beach every Friday for maintenance, and will limit the entry of people in the artificial beach to avoid increasing the risk of coronavirus infection.

Jacob Meimban Jr., deputy executive director of the Manila Bay Coordinating Office, said they are putting adjustments such as conducting one-day maintenance work every Friday.

"In the coming days, we will be putting the additional adjustments. Una diyan gusto namin ipaalam sa publiko na magsasarado po kami tuwing Biyernes ng buong araw. Bigyan niyo kami ng isang araw yung dolomite beach dahil sa libo-libong tao pumapasok," he said in a radio interview.

(we want to announce that we will close every Friday.  Please give us one day for maintenance because thousands of people enter the area.)

Fearing that swarming of people could become a superspreader event, Meimban said they ordered the beach's ground commanders to temporarily stop visitors from entering the Pedro Gil entrance.

"I-advise ang mga darating na bisita na pumunta muna sa Remedios ng isang oras. Balik sila ng isang oras para yung mga lumabas na bisita ay sila ang papalit," he added.

(We advise incoming visitors to stay first in the Remedios area for one hour. Then they can return after the earlier batch of guests have left. 

He also said they doubled the number of cops, and marshals for the implementation social distancing.

Pressed to comment on plans to totally close the dolomite beach, Meimban said they are still studying all proposals to address crowding in the area.

With the more relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, families continue to flock to the artificial beach in Manila Bay.

A group of scientists had asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to conduct an environmental impact screening (EIS) on the dolomite project.

AGHAM recently published a paper on its assessment of the DENR project.

The paper “emphasizes the importance of impact assessments and stakeholder engagement in project design and implementation.”

It also cites “the wealth of information on Manila Bay from years of research, especially by the DENR’s own agencies” as “sufficient for an analysis with little marginal cost for assessment.” —LBG, GMA News