DENR: Manila Bay white sand project to continue even amid possible legal challenge

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will continue its effort of adorning the Manila Bay shoreline with white sand made out of crushed dolomite even amid a potential legal challenge before the Supreme Court, Environment Undersecretary Benny Antiporda said Tuesday.

Antiporda was referring to the P389-million beach nourishment project for the bay—an initiative that UP law professor Jay Batongbacal said could be a ground for filing for a writ of kalikasan or petition to halt projects damaging to the environment before the Supreme Court based on adverse findings of at least two US companies on dolomite.

“Tuloy-tuloy po ang trabaho natin, base na rin po sa kautusan ng Korte Suprema na ipagpatuloy ang paglilinis ng Manila Bay. Iyong sinasabi nilang health hazard, ecosystem [issues], ‘yung history, heritage at legal basis, research-based po ang ginawa namin rito [for beach nourishment],” Antiporda said in a Dobol B sa News TV interview.

Antiporda was referring to the High Court’s 2008 decision tasking all relevant government agencies to clean up and preserve Manila Bay.

“Pinag-aralan po namin mabuti iyan kaya wala po kaming kinatatakutan. Kung anuman pong desisyon ang gusto nilang gawin, winewelcome po ng ating kagawaran,” Antiporda added.

The DENR official also said that marshals will be deployed, while a police outpost will be in place for maintenance of the project.

Antiporda also addressed the Department of Health's warning that crushed dolomite could cause respiratory issues, saying that the health hazard that Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire was referring to was the process of crushing dolomite rocks, which emits dust, not the crushed dolomite rocks being used to cover up the Manila Bay coastline.

“Finished product na po ito, at five millimeter po ito, 100 times na mas malaki sa dolomite dust kaya hindi po ma-i-inhale ito,” Antiporda said.

Antiporda then took offense to Vice President Leni Robredo's criticism that the white sand project is an insensitive move amid the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the project had been planned two years ago.

“We turned over P1.6 billion of our budget for pandemic response, and our budget for this year was reduced by P66 million. We did our part. Is that insensitivity? I do not think so,” he said.

Antiporda, however, conceded that the sand can be washed away by storms, but not to the point when everything will be ruined.

“May possibility po, pero hindi naman po guguho kasi may engineering intervention naman po iyan kaya hindi po mawawasak,” Antiporda said.

“Pero kung storm surge, kahit naman po sa kabilang kalsada, matatamaan iyon. We cannot compete and we cannot overpower nature, pero may plano po tayo kaya sana huwag po ilagay ang programa in a bad light,” he added. 

Think tank Infrawatch PH led by lawyer Terry Ridon earlier urged the Supreme Court’s Manila Bay Advisory Committee (MBAC) to stop the white sand initiative, citing that the DENR violated its own rules and Environmental Impact Statement System Law by seeking exemption from its own environment compliance regulations for the said white sand project.

“The MBAC should not wait for a fresh case to be filed before intervening on the white sand controversy, as this affords the public immediate relief from the potential environmental impact of the project. Clearly, the SC should be informed that the DENR has not only violated its own rules, but also overstepped its mandate in Manila Bay, either based on SC’s continuing mandamus or President Rodrigo Duterte’s Manila Bay Task Force,” Ridon said.

“Both bodies call for the cleanup, rehabilitation, restoration maintenance of the waters of Manila Bay to a level fit for swimming; and also to improve water quality through the reduction of coliform levels in all river systems and tributaries within Manila Bay. Both make no mention of a mandate to beautify a thin stretch of Manila Bay’s 190-kilometer coastline,” Ridon added. — BM, GMA News