Lawmaker: Forget Manila Bay, develop Clark

MANILA, Philippines - Amid growing opposition to reclaim land in Manila Bay, Pampanga Rep. Joseller Guiao has offered an alternative: go inland instead and fully develop the Freeport in Clark, Pampanga.

In a press conference, Guiao lamented the reclamation plans at Manila Bay, pointing out that “recent disasters wrought by climate change worldwide point to how untenable the reclamation at Manila Bay can be.”

“What happened to Tacloban City during Typhoon Yolanda should make planners think about projects laid out before the world has finally admitted the devastating effects of climate change,” Guiao said. “The development should be pursued inland, here at Clark.”

He noted that in 1994, then President Fidel Ramos issued an executive order declaring Clark as “the future site of the country’s international gateway.”

A similar sentiment was recently aired by the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc., whose chairman emeritus Levy Laus, said the government should seriously consider “spreading financial and vital government installations outside Metro Manila to ensure that the country and its government will continue to function should a disaster strike the very heart of Metro Manila.”

Earlier, Kelvin Rodolfo, environmental sciences professor at the University of Illinois, warned that land reclamation in Manila Bay would give rise to the danger of land subsidence, storm surges, storm waves and further ecological damage to the coastal ecosystem.

Environmental groups also had warned that the reclamation would also block the natural pathways of the river system flowing into the bay and worsen floods in Metro Manila.

Catholic bishops in dioceses near Manila Bay have asked the government to scrap plans for a 94,000-acre reclamation project.

In a letter to President Aquino last Nov. 19, Cardinal Luis Tagle, head of the bishops of 12 dioceses based in Manila, asked that the reclamation project be scrapped and the budget for it used instead to alleviate poverty and protect the environment.