Beyond expediting the release of funds and imposing a price freeze on basic goods, the declaration last week of a state of calamity in Metro Manila and five adjacent provinces exposed perennial shortcomings in governance over essential concerns ranging from garbage disposal to environmental management that must be addressed urgently.
Attention has been directed toward the impact of reclamation projects in Manila Bay by members of the Senate who experienced flooding around their office building. There is a growing clamor for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to report to the public its findings on the various reclamation projects that were suspended by order of President Marcos in August 2023. Considering that the DENR gave the go-signal on two reclamation projects in Pasay City in November 2023, it is evident that similar projects in Manila have not yet passed muster.
Due diligence efforts by concerned constituencies focusing on the governance framework for reclamation could be instructive.
The Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) is the lead government agency with oversight and regulatory responsibilities over reclamation. It is presently under the Office of the President. Last November 2023, President Marcos reconstituted its Board by appointing a new chair as well as a new general manager and chief executive officer.
The PRA’s 2022 annual report traced its evolution from its inception in February 1977 by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 1084 that established its precursor, the Public Estates Authority. When the Local Government Code was enacted in January 1992, provinces and cities were also empowered to undertake reclamation projects. In 2004, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 380 transforming the Public Estates Authority into the Philippine Reclamation Authority and delegated to it the President’s powers to approve reclamation projects. In 2006, she transferred the PRA to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Through EO 672 issued in October 2007, President Arroyo required that an Environmental Compliance Certificate be issued by the DENR prior to approval by the PRA of reclamation projects. This is why the DENR is now tasked with vetting whether or not the reclamation projects previously authorized by the PRA comply with the imperatives of environmental sustainability.
Meanwhile, the Senate has summoned the DPWH, the MMDA, the DENR and the DILG to a public hearing on the causes of massive flooding in the metropolis. Senate President Chiz Escudero called attention to the ₱255 billion budget for flood control, exceeding the proposed budgets of the Department of National Defense at ₱232.2 billion and the Department of Social Welfare and Development at ₱209.9 billion.
Not to be overlooked, too, is the continuing mandamus of the Supreme Court to the DENR and 13 major government agencies to “clean up, rehabilitate, and preserve Manila Bay, and restore and maintain its waters to SB level to make them fit for swimming, skin-diving, and other forms of contact recreation.”
The executive department must work with Congress to ensure that laws are complied with in a manner that enables the attainment of environmental sustainability for present and future generations of Filipinos.