Luntiang Pilipinas Partylist has supported the order of President Rodrigo Duterte to Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año for the immediate cleanup of Manila Bay.
Luntiang Pilipinas Partylist First Nominee Michael Ubac said Secretaries Cimatu and Año face a three-pronged problem in cleaning the bay: lack of wastewater treatment facilities of hotels and big establishments that dump their untreated wastewater into Manila Bay; the liquid waste from households and solid waste that end up in the bay; and the toxic industrial effluents discharged by factories and ships.
“It’s good that we have taken notice of this wanton disregard of our environmental laws. We should exert all efforts to clean it up,”
About 1,500 tons of waste materials are illegally dumped daily on private land, in rivers, creeks, and into Manila Bay, a study by the Asian Development Bank has revealed.
Previous audits done by Greenpeace and the EcoWaste Coalition also showed that at least 70 percent of Manila Bay garbage are plastic bags and food packaging.
According to Ubac, the order of President Duterte is necessary to save Manila Bay.
“Manila Bay is dying. What compounds the problem is the lack of an effective roadmap for reviving this body of water despite a Supreme Court order issued 10 years ago. It’s good that we have taken notice of this wanton disregard of our environmental laws. We should exert all efforts to clean it up,” said Ubac, veteran journalist and former Chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer News Day Desk.
Meanwhile, Senator Loren Legarda, founder of the Luntiang Pilipinas Partylist and author of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, called attention to the massive degradation of Manila Bay.
“It’s time that we take a stand against this pollution and degradation. Let us take Manila Bay back.”
She noted that Manila Bay is one of Metro Manila’s crowning glories, boasting the best view of the sunset in the country “and yet it continues to be neglected: the view of the otherwise beautiful sunset is marred by Styrofoam containers, plastic bags, discarded appliances
and many other solid waste.”
“It’s time that we take a stand against this pollution and degradation. Let us take Manila Bay back and let us, above all, work towards a healthy, sustainable and disaster-resilient future through initiating and supporting concerted clean-up efforts,” said Legarda, a United Nations Global Champion for Resilience.
The President last week warned hotels along Manila Bay, particularly those that do not have wastewater treatment plants, to “do something about your waste there, otherwise I will close (the hotels).”
“So hotels should put [up] water treatment plants, or I will shut them down,” the President said in a speech at a barangay summit on the peace process in Pasay City.