CA junks Cynthia Villar plea vs Manila Bay reclamation project

The Court of Appeals has junked a petition filed by senatorial candidate Cynthia Villar in March last year that sought to stop a Manila Bay reclamation project that could allegedly cause catastrophic flooding in Metro Manila.

 

In a 48-page decision penned by Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas, the CA Third Division denied Villar's plea against the Las Piñas-Parañaque Coastal Bay project for lack of merit and for failing to prove the reclamation project would trigger massive environmental damage.

 

"No credible, competent, and reliable evidence had been presented to support the allegations that the proposed coastal by project would cause environmental damage of such magnitude as to prejudice the lives, health or properties of the residents of Parañaque and Las Piñas. These apprehensions had been disproved by objective, expert and scientific studies of reputable entities with vast international experience," the CA Division said.

 

The court said Villar failed to present evidence that would show a "causal link" between the project and the "catastrophic environmental damage feared (by the petitioner)."

 

"The credibility, reliability and objectivity of the scientific studies presented by respondent AllTech and the totality of the evidence presented leave very little occasion to ponder that the constitutional right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology hangs in the balance because of the reclamation project," the court added.

 

Concurring with the decision were Justice Rebecca De Guia-Salvador and Samuel Gaerlan.

 

Villar, wife of Sen. Manny Villar, filed her petition in March 2012 with the Supreme Court, which in turn issued a writ of kalikasan the following month. The high court then remanded the case to the Court of Appeals for hearing.

 

In her petition seeking the issuance of a writ of kalikasan (writ of nature), Cynthia Villar said the government and AllTech Contractors Inc. project would cause "irreparable" damage and would have an impact on more or less 1.5 million residents in Las Piñas and Parañaque Cities, as well as  Bacoor town in Cavite.

 

Mrs. Villar claimed to have obtained the support of some 315,000 residents of Las Piñas for her SC petition.

 

Her petition also claimed that the project – which aims to convert the area into a commercial-residential-industrial district – would block the natural flow of the Las Pinas, Parañaque, and Zapote Rivers.

 

"Coupled with heavy rainfall, storm surge, and other factors brought about by a major typhoon, this will cause immense flooding in the areas and surroundings of the said rivers," she said.

 

"Such project is not only replete with procedural shortcomings, worse, it is clearly damaging to the environment... and would place [affected residents] at great risk of losing their lives and properties to catastrophic flooding," the petitioner said.

 

Mrs. Villar originally asked the high court to issue a Temporary Environmental Protection Order and a writ of kalikasan within three days from the filing of the petition last March.

 

A former Las Piñas congresswoman, Mrs. Villar cited a study conducted by the private firm Tricore Solutions Inc. (Tricore), predicting that if the project pushes through, days of heavy rain might cause five-meter deep floods in 65 barangays.

 

Apart from AllTech, also named respondents were:

 

 

Mrs. Villar claimed the Las Piñas government has already entered into an agreement with AllTech for the reclamation and development of the 381.26 hectares of land within the Las Piñas coastal area.

 

Parañaque has also entered into a similar agreement with AllTech, she added.

 

In addition, Mrs. Villar said the reclamation project would cut off  from Manila Bay the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat, home to over 195 bird species and over eight mangrove varieties.

 

She said this will lead to the "breakdown of bio diverse ecosystem and consequent demise of its thriving wildlife."

 

Mrs. Villar said the project implementation should ultimately be declared null and void for violating the residents' constitutional right to a "balanced and healthful ecology" and the Philippine International Treaty of Obligations on Inter-tidal Wetlands.

 

She said the project should be scrapped just like its predecessor – the coastal project between the Public Estates Authority and Amari Costal Bay Devt. Corp (PEA-Amari), which the Supreme Court voided in 2003. — Mark Merueñas/RSJ, GMA News