Atty. Gloria Ramos
It was a longing by so many. The historic Laguna de Bay, the country’s largest inland water spanning 98,000 hectares, can breathe again and be restored to its beauty and abundance. Composed of Metro Manila and the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), it became a ghost of its glorious past, no thanks to the hectares of fish pens and fish enclosures that not just marred the splendor of the lake, but clogged the waterway, impacted the ecosystem, compounded by the water quality deterioration due to toxic discharges emanating from both industry and households surrounding the lake, and for decades, at that.
Yes, it did require the steely determination and political will of DENR Secretary Gina Lopez, backed up by the President no less, to make clearing Laguna de Bay a reality. With the ample support from the agency’s dedicated women and men, collaborating with the various national enforcement agencies and the civil society sector, the liberation of Laguna de Bay finally took place last week.
The dismantling operation was conducted jointly by the DENR, Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Navy and Philippine Army.
The Duterte administration, through the environment agency, was clear of the mission to let Laguna de Bay heal. The permits for the fishpen operators were allowed to lapse end of December and no renewal was effected. Voluntary dismantling was encouraged and for the hold-outs, there was no other option but to remove the barriers.
It might be remembered that President Duterte vowed to deal with the “negative impact of watershed destruction, land conversion and pollution” in the lake.
“This is what I am telling you. The poor fishermen will have priority in its entitlements,” he said.
The public policy behind the RA 4850, the law creating the Laguna Lake Development Authority, was “to promote, and accelerate the development and balanced growth of the Laguna Lake area and the surrounding provinces, cities and towns … within the context of the national and regional plans and policies for social and economic development and to carry out the development of the Laguna Lake region with due regard and adequate provisions for environmental management and control, preservation of the quality of human life and ecological systems, and the prevention of undue ecological disturbances, deterioration and pollution.”
It is one example of a strong law that can only be made alive by genuine political will to follow and obey its mandates. We waited decades for the vision to happen.
Kudos to Secretary Lopez, a no-nonsense national official, who is a strong believer of justice, equity and balanced ecology as the roadmap to peace and prosperity.
Secretary Lopez, on Facebook, shared that “. . . already you can see the small fishermen going back into the lake to fish just like the old days and just how it should be — for the people and not for big corporations who don’t even give back to the people.”
She is one of the few public authorities with a deep understanding and appreciation of the interconnectedness of nature’s support systems, and of nature with humans and vice versa. Thus, she also did not allow the planned reclamation of hectares of waters in Las Piñas that would have devastated the marine life, their habitats and the livelihood of our fisherfolk whose families have relied on Manila Bay as their traditional fishing ground.
According to Senator Cynthia Villar, one direct effect of such an ecologically destructive project would have been massive flooding of the area.
Likewise, in one of the public hearings called by Senator Cynthia Villar, the expert from the Bureau of Fisheries of Aquatic Resources presented the study that Manila Bay is a rich spawning ground for sardines. In fact, the areas planned to be reclaimed In Metro Manila were all spawning areas and will be directly affected, and of course, impact the livelihoods of subsistence fisherfolk who need stronger voices to defend their rights.
Reclamation of our precious coastal areas must already stop. Cebu has eight or more such planned projects. What can be more destructive than the deliberate covering of hectares of corals, seagrass, and entails destruction of mangroves (which are the critical habitats of fish and marine resources) to be made into malls and infrastructures?
It is senseless and is definitely not in accord with our strong legal regime for the protection and maintenance of a healthful and balanced ecology. In the words of Supreme Court Chief (then associate) Justice Hilario Davide Jr., in the landmark Oposa vs. Factoran ruling, “the right to a balanced and healthful ecology carries with it the correlative duty to refrain from impairing the environment.”
That sacred duty not to destroy our life supports system applies with equal force to the state agents and to you and me.
Thank goodness for Secretary Lopez and the dedicated workers in government, there is big hope that the light will continue to shine brightly amid the prevailing darkness.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
