Raps poised vs Payumo, firm on dolphin project

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Felicito Payumo and a US-based company may face charges of violation of environmental laws in connection with the controversial "Swim with the Dolphins" project at the Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium.

This developed as acting Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joemari Gerochi ordered the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau and the Environmental Management Bureau, to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the technical and biological aspects of the project.

In a press conference at the PAWB office in Quezon City, Jose Lorenzo Tan, a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Marine Mammal Conservation, identified the project’s proponent as the Active Environments, a US firm headed by one Timothy Desmond, in partnership with the Subic Management Associates Inc.

Tan said the task force was called upon to evaluate the "Swim with the Dolphins" project, and based on its findings, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) rejected it.

BFAR is mandated under the Fisheries Code of 1998 to enforce national laws on the conservation of cetaceans (whales and dolphins).

PAWB assistant director Mundita Lim, in a report to Gerochi, said facilities for the "Swim with the Dolphins" project were constructed without the required environmental impact assessment and statement.

Other groups which have joined the opposition to the project are the Earthwatch Philippines Foundation Inc. and the Earth Island Institute Philippines. — Jose Rodel Clapano