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By Anthony Bayarong, Correspondent
SUBIC BAY Freeport: Subic Bay Metropolitan
Authority Administrator Armand Arreza on Tuesday said that he is
open to any inquiry or investigation regarding the controversial
22-storey Hanjin Condominium.
He also stressed that the construction could no
longer be stopped even if some senators and environmentalists over
the weekend made an issue out of its construction, even demanding an
investigation.
The Department of Environmental and Natural
Resources (DENR) also sought to cancel SBMA’s power to issue
Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECC) but Arreza was quick to
say that in order to do that DENR has to amend the law, specifically
the RA 7227 which allows SBMA to issue ECC and other permits to
locators.
“If they want to do that and remove the
issuance of ECC from us they must first amend the law,” Arreza
said while stressing that under the circumstances, the condominium
development has been regarded as the “best use of land” for the
former assembly of weapons area left by the US military in 1991.
“This area was previously used for conversion
of second hand vehicles, which is more of an environment risk. Under
our current zoning guidelines, the Cubi-Triboa area is a residential
area, and is better suited to the environment,” Arreza clarified
during a press conference on Tuesday.
Arreza said the $20 million condo project was
built on a pre-existing developed area and will have a state of the
art solid waste and wastewater treatment facility.
“All lands in Subic are protected, but in
varying degrees. Under our management plan, this area may be used
for residential purposes and the core ecological zone, which are the
no-touch, no development areas are more than 2 kilometers away,”
Arreza explained.
He also explained that the two condo units, one
with 22-storeys and another with10 storeys will be used by Hanjin
officials and staffs.
“All rules and regulations were complied by
Hanjin, so it is rather unfair to say that they were given special
treatment in this project,” Arezza said.
He also explained that the trees that were cut
during the construction of the units were non-prime species of trees
and that Hanjin has replaced them with a ratio of 1:25.
“This only shows that the 3-hectare land being
developed by Hanjin was already cleared and flat way before the
construction began,” Arreza said.
He added that based on their study, no wild
mammals and no threatened, endangered or rare species of plants have
been identified within the project site and there are no indigenous
people residing in its vicinity.
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