Bay watch

AS Ted Failon put it, we’re clean­ing up Manila Bay now for fu­ture reclamation?

If a survey were to be taken, how many percent would approve of the cleanup? 101 percent! How many would want their bay reduced by reclamation? Zero or below-zero?

It’s a case of serendipity that the news of hundreds of volun­teers working to rescue a slice of Manila’s precious scenery was just what the nation needed to wake up to the possibility of a further deg­radation of a true icon.

Bobby Joseph, Manila Yacht Club commodore and the best tour­ism secretary we will never have, trusts in the “militarization” policy of Environment Secretary Roy Ci­matu, a man of few words, when he declares that there won’t be any reclaiming, at least not for now. Militarization, in this sense, means a reprise of the Boracay re­hab where soldiers and police took charge of Mission Almost Impos­sible and closed down the cesspool in paradise for six months to re­store it to its near-pristine beauty. Then Tourism secretary Wanda Teo, who blew the whistle on the decay of Boracay, described Gen­eral Cimatu as “matapang” (fierce) and results-oriented.

To imagine that the Manila Bay re-do is but a reprise of Boracay is a big mistake. Commodore Jo­seph: “Boracay is only one percent of Manila Bay’s problems. Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite and Laguna all discharge their wastes into the bay!” Boracay was off limits for 180 days; Manila Bay needs 3,650 days to be great again, funded in its first year by P4.7 billion that DENR will source from fines and penalties paid over the years. “No cash out.”

The Commodore’s in his ele­ment when he talks about the bay (granting, no conversion of any of its 22,000 ha into 22 reclama­tion projects) as a shelter for the club’s marina and how it’s a second home to young men who are be­ing trained to sail here and abroad, where the pay is $2,000 to $3,000. As someone with businesses root­ed in tours and travel, wine, res­taurants, even a wine museum, he is at the right time and place. In May, Manila will host the centenary of Manila Rotary Club, the oldest in Asia. Rotarian Bobby expects 5,000 members from the Seven Seas to come, fall in love with Manila, the bay and its sunset.