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INTEREST is being paid the Hanjin high-rise
condominium project at the Subic Bay Watershed Forest Reserve for
the possible harm it may cause, for any likely violation of law and
in recollection of other similar activities that have threatened the
environment across the country.
It has been reported that the
Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Ltd.
has started building two residences on a pre-existing developed
area. One condominium will have 22 floors and the second, ten. The
project for the management and staff costs $22 million.
Subic Bay Metropolitan
Administrator Armand Arreza, defending the project, said the SBMA
had concluded that the building was the “best use” for the area
that once served as a weapons depot in the former US military base.
The Freeport’s development plan
says the area may be used for residential purposes. There is a
“core ecological zone” that is a “no-touch, no-development
area” but that is more than two kilometers away from the Hanjin
condominiums, Arreza pointed out.
What about the trees that were
chopped down during construction? These were non-prime species and
Hanjin has replaced them at a ratio of 1:25, Arreza said.
To allay environmental concerns,
he said the buildings would have state-of-the-art solid-waste
management and wastewater treatment facility.
No wild mammals or rare species
of plants have been identified within the project. No indigenous
people live in the area.
Summing up, he said the company
has complied with all rules and it is unfair to say that Hanjin was
given special treatment.
Meanwhile, the Korean Chamber of
Commerce Philippines, in a statement, said the Hanjin project was
above-board and legal, and that the company has never harmed the
Subic Bay environment.
Complaints against Hanjin,
according to the statement, are dampening investors’ attitude
toward the investment climate in the country. It assured the
government and the public that Hanjin “will always undertake
activities that are beneficial not only to itself but also to the
Philippine economy and the Filipinos in general.”
But a number of senators, the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources and several
nongovernment organizations are unhappy with the project.
Sen. Pia Cayetano, chair of the
Senate committee on the environment, has called for an inquiry to
look into three issues related to the buildings: the “propriety”
of the memorandum of agreement between the DENR and the SBMA that
gives the authority full autonomy over environmental matters in
Subic; the issuance of the ECC to the developers and its impact on
biodiversity in the watershed; and reports that the project had
reduced the coverage of the watershed from 10,000 hectares to 8,000
hectares.
Why would the management of the
Subic Bay Freeport, a sprawl of 13,600 hectares, allow the
construction of two high-rise condominium buildings inside a
protected rainforest? Ms. Cayetano wants to know.
She said she would lead an onsite
inquiry on April 25 and probably beyond that. The probe should be
interesting. Hanjin deserves a hearing. The local community should
be heard. We shall learn about land policy in the SBMA. We can learn
from the testimony of the experts.
The senator said she expects to
introduce legislation to establish safeguards and guidelines for
similar activities. But we have had projects of this kind in the
past. The executive and the Congress have looked into them. As if we
haven’t learned…
Development vs. the
environment
IN the rush to development, we
have laid waste to the environment, national treasures and
agricultural land, exposed them to plunder and threatened the
livelihood of countless Filipinos.
The current rice shortage, for
example, is partly caused by the unrelenting conversion of farmlands
to housing, recreation and businesses.
Last year, a Korean firm almost
succeeded in building a spa and treatment center on the premises of
the Taal Volcano until the project was criticized by the community
and stopped by the DENR.
Boracay has become insufferable
because of the explosion of hotels, restaurants, golf greens,
raceways, recreation centers and numerous businesses on the island.
If the nongovernment
organizations and residents did not protest, we would have had a
housing project close to the La Mesa Dam and Watershed that would
have threatened the safety of drinking water and of public health.
Then-Mayor Lito Atienza of Manila
closed down the Arroceros Park and Garden, Manila’s natural lung
and greenest zone, to build a campus and school buildings on the
premises.
The Philippine Tourism Authority
had started building a sports center inside Intramuros until public
outrage and a court order shut the project down.
Many famous and historic
mountains have grown communications towers, not trees, on the
insistence of big business.
Restaurants, fast-food outlets, a
bank and a recruiting center have darkened the Rizal Park, a
national park and a living homage to the past.
Remember when Malacanang wanted
to build the Ramos Centennial Tower at the former Luneta? Remember
the boardwalk project behind the Quirino Grandstand that became an
eyesore until Manila converted it into an oceanarium?
Business is great and government
self-glorification is fine, but please protect our environment and
national treasures from the predators.
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