An environmental activist group wants to find out if the controversial issuance of an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) to the "Aerocity" reclamation project had any bearing on the oil spill that took place in Manila Bay Thursday morning, July 8.
“This oil spill incident involving a foreign dredging vessel for the Aerocity reclamation must be investigated for procedural violations and to establish accountability," said Leon Dulce, national coordinator for Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE).
"Those at fault must pay for the cleanup and other remedial measures for the affected waters in Manila Bay,” he said.
At 2:10 a.m. Thursday, an oil tanker collided with a dredging vessel linked to the reclamation for the New Manila International Airport Aerocity. It resulted to an oil spill of at least 3,000 liters of diesel in Manila Bay, according to the Philippine Coastguard.
Kalikasan PNE said there must be an "immediate investigation to determine and redress the extent of the pollution."
“We fear that the multitude of anomalies and vulnerabilities in the environmental impact assessment of the Aerocity reclamation can lead to more damaging impacts like this,” Dulce said.
The group was referring to the granting of an ECC by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to the massive reclamation project last June 1. This, however, was made public only last June 24.
Kalikasan PNE said DENR granted the ECC despite experts and advocates exposing various problems in the project’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) during and after the sole public hearing that the agency convened for the project.
“In our independent rapid assessment of Aerocity’s EIS, we found that the project proponents failed to exhaust viable alternative options for airport construction," Dulce said.
"The treatment plans or mitigating measures for anticipated water quality impacts during this construction and development phase are insufficient, as well,” he added.
“If further investigations confirm accountability over the Aerocity proponents, its ECC must immediately be revoked, and operations must be suspended,” Dulce further said.