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De Lima slams DENR for 'cosmetic' Manila Bay project amid pandemic
Philippines
National
De Lima slams DENR for 'cosmetic' Manila Bay project amid pandemic
De Lima slams DENR for 'cosmetic' Manila Bay project amid pandemic
Published Sep 9, 2020 06:22 pm
Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Wednesday criticized the Duterte government for giving priority to the Manila Bay rehabilitation project amid a COVID-19 pandemic.
“We put a halt to numerous projects and programs in the 2020 budget so we could fund our COVID-19 response, yet they still pursued this endeavor without even a second thought. Millions of pesos down the drain, and worse, most likely attended by corruption, again!” De Lima said in a statement.
De Lima said she is also appalled at how the government could easily find ways to transport dolomite from Cebu, but has not done enough to transfer the fruits and vegetable produce from Baguio, nor has it done much to help locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who have been waiting to be sent home.
At the same time, the senator slammed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for dumping crushed dolomite on Manila Bay supposedly to make it look like the Boracay island beach while the rest of the country is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said people are “too stressed, tired, broke and jobless to even care that the color of the sand in Manila Bay is black.”
“The DENR is supposed to protect the environment, not to artificially change it by creating a white sand beach where previously there was none,” she pointed out.
She stressed that even environmentalists agree that it is not proper practice to replace the naturally occurring sand on a beach with a totally different kind of sand from another beach that is not part of the beach’s ecosystem.
“For some idiotic inevitability, the DENR has caught the window-dressing bug of this administration and has now decided to become the Department of Environmental Cosmetics,” she said.
“Again, DENR’s mandate is rehabilitation, preservation and protection of our environment. It is not a beach resort developer,” added the lawmaker.
However, De Lima said listening to Malacañang try to “spin this colossal waste of public funds is both laughable and infuriating.”
“Aside from deflecting public disapproval of spending millions of pesos on band-aid solutions in the middle of increasing hunger and joblessness, proponents of this project have the audacity to claim that this would somehow be beneficial to the mental health of Filipinos,” she lamented.
She pointed out the Department of Health (DOH) itself even warned that crushed dolomite rock may actually cause respiratory problems, among other health issues.
“Sa dami-daming nagugutom at naghihirap ito pa talaga ang inuna niyo? Hindi pa nga natin nalalagpasan ang pandemya, dagdag na sakit at peligro pa ang ihahatid ninyo?! (With so many people going hungry and poor, the government prioritized this? We haven’t even won against the pandemic, and yet they are putting the people to more danger),” she said.
“Ano ba talaga ang prayoridad ninyo? Kailan ba kayo matututong makinig sa hinaing ng taombayan? (What is the government’s priority? When will it learn to listen to the plea of the people?)” De Lima stressed.
“We put a halt to numerous projects and programs in the 2020 budget so we could fund our COVID-19 response, yet they still pursued this endeavor without even a second thought. Millions of pesos down the drain, and worse, most likely attended by corruption, again!” De Lima said in a statement.
De Lima said she is also appalled at how the government could easily find ways to transport dolomite from Cebu, but has not done enough to transfer the fruits and vegetable produce from Baguio, nor has it done much to help locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who have been waiting to be sent home.
At the same time, the senator slammed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for dumping crushed dolomite on Manila Bay supposedly to make it look like the Boracay island beach while the rest of the country is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said people are “too stressed, tired, broke and jobless to even care that the color of the sand in Manila Bay is black.”
“The DENR is supposed to protect the environment, not to artificially change it by creating a white sand beach where previously there was none,” she pointed out.
She stressed that even environmentalists agree that it is not proper practice to replace the naturally occurring sand on a beach with a totally different kind of sand from another beach that is not part of the beach’s ecosystem.
“For some idiotic inevitability, the DENR has caught the window-dressing bug of this administration and has now decided to become the Department of Environmental Cosmetics,” she said.
“Again, DENR’s mandate is rehabilitation, preservation and protection of our environment. It is not a beach resort developer,” added the lawmaker.
However, De Lima said listening to Malacañang try to “spin this colossal waste of public funds is both laughable and infuriating.”
“Aside from deflecting public disapproval of spending millions of pesos on band-aid solutions in the middle of increasing hunger and joblessness, proponents of this project have the audacity to claim that this would somehow be beneficial to the mental health of Filipinos,” she lamented.
She pointed out the Department of Health (DOH) itself even warned that crushed dolomite rock may actually cause respiratory problems, among other health issues.
“Sa dami-daming nagugutom at naghihirap ito pa talaga ang inuna niyo? Hindi pa nga natin nalalagpasan ang pandemya, dagdag na sakit at peligro pa ang ihahatid ninyo?! (With so many people going hungry and poor, the government prioritized this? We haven’t even won against the pandemic, and yet they are putting the people to more danger),” she said.
“Ano ba talaga ang prayoridad ninyo? Kailan ba kayo matututong makinig sa hinaing ng taombayan? (What is the government’s priority? When will it learn to listen to the plea of the people?)” De Lima stressed.