Eco group seeks 'humane' cleanup of Manila Bay

An ecological group on Tuesday sought a "humane" and "violence-free" cleanup of Manila Bay, asking authorities to respect the rights of the urban poor who will be affected by the cleanup. EcoWaste Coalition said the efforts to restore Manila Bay should not put law enforcers and informal settlers at odds with one another. "The government, we hope, will take all necessary steps to ensure no forced eviction of waterways dwellers without assured relocation in non-danger areas with employment and livelihood possibilities and access to all essential public services," EcoWaste president Roy Alvarez said. Alvarez urged authorities to take steps to prevent inhuman eviction and defuse potentially volatile incidents, including observing a 30-day notice prior to eviction or demolition. EcoWaste urged local government units and the National Housing Authority to “provide relocation or resettlement sites with basic services and facilities and access to employment and livelihood opportunities sufficient to meet the basic needs of the affected families." "As much as possible, the government should prioritize in-city relocation of affected dwellers in public lands to minimize disruption of work, education and vital social networks," Alvarez said. "Let public lands be made available to shelter and serve the poor who play indispensable roles in the society, including as recycling workers and entrepreneurs and as partners in the preservation of Manila Bay and adjacent rivers and waterways," he added. Spare small fishermen Meanwhile, a militant fisherfolk group asked the Supreme Court to spare small fishermen from the clean-up order along the areas of Manila Bay. The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) is wary of the high court's ruling ordering the eviction of shanties around the bay. “The purpose of Manila Bay cleanup should go beyond the 'fancy of restoring the polluted bay to healthy condition,'" Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site. "The cleanup is supposedly designed for environmental purposes; however reality shows that the cleanup is being pushed to evict people and transform the bay into a willing host for capital accumulation and grand slam profiteering by corporate interests," Hicap said. Pamalakaya reminded Chief Justice Renato Corona and the high court “to go easy in pushing their decision on Manila Bay cleanup." On Feb. 23, 2009, Pamalakaya and other fisherfolk groups in Cavite filed a petition with the SC, urging the high court to intervene on the bay’s clean-up project as some government agencies like the MMDA have been violently demolishing fish cages, traps and small shanties that are built around the bay. Even the poles where mussels are being grown and cultivated, which is the source of livelihood of most Cavite residents near the bay; were also being removed by the authorities, it said. However, the high court junked the petition with finality as it said the MMDA should do the cleanup until 2015. The high tribunal gave the MMDA until Dec. 31, 2015 to remove illegal structures along river banks and waterways connected to the bay. The decision also gave the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and local governments in Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan provinces until Dec. 31, 2012 to demolish illegal settlements near river banks. Rights of small fishermen Pamalakaya said the decision of the high tribunal should not warrant, nor suggest, that the rights of small fishermen in the Manila Bay be trampled upon. “The SC decision putting weight on the demolition of fishing communities and urban poor structures along Manila Bay and its interlocking tributaries that would include the whole of Pasig River and Laguna Lake is not only unfair but also revolting. It is a grand massacre of social justice and people’s rights," Hicap said. “Nothing in the decision gives the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other agencies, the authority to demolish and destroy the houses and source of livelihood of the affected fishermen," Pamalakaya said. It stressed the structures the fisherfolk have put up in Manila Bay were not the source of the pollution, toxic waste or contamination of the bay, contrary to findings of other parties, but the industries and other establishments surrounding the bay. Citing a study conducted by the Water Environment Partnership in Asia (WEPA), Pamalakaya said the overexploitation of resources, illegal and destructive fishing, habitat destruction, pollution, siltation and sedimentation, uncontrolled development and the conflicting use of limited available resources caused pressures on the bay. The high percentages of water pollutants found in the bay are domestic and industrial wastes, and the structures are not so often identified as cause for water pollution, it said. “They should not be deprived of life, livelihood and property by the erroneous interpretation and implementation of the petitioners of the Honorable Court’s decision. For rightly so, they are not the cause of the effluence of the Manila Bay but some other factors, which, unfortunately were not given much attention by the petitioners," Hicap said. – VVP, GMA News