The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will form a team that will review all ongoing reclamation activities amid the controversy that a Chinese company is allegedly involved in a Manila Bay project.
At a press conference on Friday, DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said that the composition of the team would be announced soon.
According to Loyzaga, the DENR would also tap foreign experts to assist the panel in conducting the review.
The US embassy previously informed the national government that a Chinese company, which it blacklisted for building artificial islands in the South China Sea, is connected in the ongoing reclamation efforts in Manila Bay.
The US embassy raised that the reclamation projects in Manila Bay would affect the environment as it these could worsen floods in Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, and Pampanga.
"The law allows us to review and modify (contracts of reclamation projects), so we are looking at those carefully. This is the entire set of projects," Loyzaga said, noting the panel will come up with recommendations on various reclamation projects.
"Until we get a very good sense of what scientifically is going to happen in this area and until we can get a good sense of how the rule of law can be followed in this area, we want to proceed with much caution," she noted.
Loyzaga said that the reclamation is a national policy amid opposition to the ongoing projects.
"Each region has specific context and requirements as well as their own ecological and social profile. The government aspect of reclamation needs to be studied, and the national as well as the regional components of the policy need to be carefully put together," she said.
The DENR Secretary cited Executive Order 74, which requires the DENR to conduct a cumulative impact assessment on all reclamation projects.
"What has happened here is that individual projects were somehow processed without taking into consideration the cumulative impact of all the projects together. This is actually critical for future use," Loyzaga said.
The DENR Secretary also mentioned that the Supreme Court's mandamus judgment required 13 agencies, including the DENR, to see to it that Manila Bay is restored.
"What we were not able to do at this point is implement that order and also make sure that all of these other developments will take place because the permits were processed. There is ecological concern, socio concern, obviously regulatory concern because of the mandamus order and we do need to balance all of these now into a set of recommendations," she said.
Following concerns expressed by the US embassy on the Manila Bay reclamation projects, the Department of Foreign Affairs stated that it is "fully committed" to working with pertinent government entities to ensure the "safety and well-being" of diplomatic missions accredited to the Philippines.
