BY RAYMUND ANTONIO
A local fisherfolk group on Monday called for the suspension of the white sand project of Manila Bay as it poses potential harm to both environment and public health.
Pamalakaya said that the environmental and health issues being raised by experts and concerned groups are “more than enough basis” for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to suspend the project.
The group stressed the DENR should suspend the white sand project until its “suitability and sustainability” to the Manila Bay rehabilitation program are established.
“We demand the DENR to suspend and eventually terminate this absurd project because it is useless and a waste of people’s fund with no benefit to the fishers and coastal residents residing along Manila Bay,” Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap said in a statement.
This white sand project has drawn criticisms for the potential harm of the crushed dolomite from Cebu being poured on a 500-meter stretch of the Manila Bay’s shorelines.
The DENR explained it was a “beach nourishment” that doesn’t need to comply with the mandatory environmental impact assessment.
In the 2008 Supreme Court ruling ordering various government agencies that include the DENR to clean up and rehabilitate Manila Bay, Hicap said it never mentioned any beautification programs. (Raymund F. Antonio)
