“With all this trouble now, we will just have to cancel the project or move it inland and avoid the coast,” said Toledo City Mayor John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña.
Osmeña said this would be the “worst case scenario” for his plan for a mixed-use complex on a proposed reclamation project.
Environment advocates cried foul after the mayor admitted having issued a service contract to a private contractor for the initial phase of an 11-hectare reclamation project in barangay Poblacion.
The project does not have an area clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said DENR 7 spokesman Eddie Llamedo.
The clearance, signed by the Environment Secretary, would show that the area covered is free and open for a reclamation permit. This is required for the approval of a reclamation project by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).
Llamedo said the Toledo city government should not proceed with any earth-moving pending a thorough environmental impact assessment. An EIA is a requirement for an environmental clearance certificate (ECC).
Under the law, no reclamation work can start without an ECC.
READ: Toledo city reclamation pushed
Osmeña, who was in Manila yesterday for a meeting with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), confirmed having issued a contract for a breakwater or surge protector.
“The project was supposed to be one whole project but we split it into two because of the funding requirement. The breakwater or surge protector is part of the first phase of the project. The second phase would be the dumping of limestone to create land,” Osmeña said.
“But just to make it clear, not a single stone has been moved. We can always stop this,” Osmeña stressed.
Llamedo said the DENR regional office has not received an application for a reclamation from the city government of Toledo.
He said an area clearance is needed for a project within an “environmentally critical area” under the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) Act.
The proposed reclamation project falls in the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape, a biodiversity-rich seascape between Cebu and Negros islands.
“We don’t even have a sketch map of the project site. We will have to require them to send that so we will validate whether the project falls within a strict protection zone or within a multiple-use zone within the TSPS,” Llamedo said.
Mayor Osmeña asked why only the Toledo reclamation project is being criticized when other towns and cities like Balamban also have reclamation projects.
“We can move the project inland but here in Toledo City, the price of land is at P5,000 per square meter. We can just make land at a cost of just about P1,000 per square meter,” he said.
Last March 11, DENR Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Toledo City returned the Special Use Agreement in Protected Areas (SAPA) application folder of the Toledo City government.
It lacked several documents: a development plan; city council resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract in behalf of the city; a 15-day publication of the application published or placed in public areas; and a barangay resolution endorsing the project.
Llamedo said the city government has to submit the application complete with clearances from the Department of Tourism, Department of Public Works and Highways, and Department of Health.
These are on top of the barangay resolution or barangay clearance signifying that there is no objection to the project and it is accepted by the public directly affected by the project.
Osmeña presented the project to the Cebu Site Management Units (SMU) of the Tanñon Strait last week. Since the barangay captain would issues a resolution, he presented a 2014 City Development Council resolution recommending approval.
The SMU approved the proposal on condition that a barangay resolution will be provided during the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) meeting in June.
Environmental lawyer Gloria “Golly” Ramos asked why Osmeña is rushing the project without securing the requirements. Ramos is vice president of Oceana Philippines, an international organization for marine protection, which is focusing on the Tañon Strait.
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