Villars trump DENR, reclamation project with PAMB stranglehold

The Villar family is standing in the way of the P103.8-billion Las Piñas-Parañaque Coastal Bay Reclamation Project, a Las Piñas City councilor has alleged.

Some members of the Villar family are in the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), which should issue the clearance certificates necessary for the project to move forward, said Las Piñas City Councilor Mark Anthony Santos.

The project involves the reclamation of 530 hectares of Manila Bay along the coasts of Las Piñas and Parañaque cities.

“The clearance certificate should come from the PAMB. But sadly, the PAMB is composed of Senator Cynthia Villar, her son Senator Mark and her daughter Congresswoman Camille, so there is no way this project will move forward,” Santos said

Santos averred that the PAMB was created “under the law that Senator Cynthia Villar crafted, Republic Act 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018 (E-NIPAS Act).”

“The clearance certificate is pending at the PAMB, which is also composed of barangay captains and mayors, among others. But, honestly, it should be outside of the reclamation project,” Santos explained.

“Rep. Camille and Sen. Cynthia even filed a bill to extend the coverage of the PAMB. There’s a pending bill that says there should be a distance of three kilometers that you cannot reclaim,” he added.

Last April, during a hearing on the controversial resort within Chocolate Hills in Bohol, members of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change mulled amending RA 11038 and changing the constitution of the PAMB.

DAILY TRIBUNE has been reaching out to the Villars for their reaction to this story.

Also at that hearing, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said the E-NIPAS Act dictates the constitution and membership of every PAMB, which could number over 100 depending on the size of the protected area and the jurisdiction it covers.

“PAMB membership is dominated by local interests. The DENR sits in a chair, it does not vote and the PAMB can be constituted by the majority of the members when the DENR is absent or not available,” Yulo-Loyzaga explained.

Conflict of interest

With this, Santos urged Secretary Loyzaga to alter the composition of the PAMB for the Las Piñas-Parañaque reclamation project, alleging that it is manipulating the issuance of clearance certificates.

Voting 11-2, the Supreme Court approved on 21 October 2021 the Las Piñas-Parañaque reclamation project, ruling that the supposed environmental threat it posed was not sufficiently established.

Santos said he was informed by an incumbent DENR undersecretary that the members of the Las Piñas-Parañaque PAMB were being pressured by “a powerful politician” not to deliberate on the clearance certificates for the project despite the SC decision.

Following the SC ruling, a source said the Villars were holding the PAMB as their trump card to stop the project.

“It’s not about the environment; it’s about the Villars being property developers and they see this project as a threat to their enterprise,” the source said.

Under Section 11 of the E-NIPAS Act, a PAMB shall be created for each of the protected areas designated as an initial component established by presidential proclamation and declared by law.

The 17-man board shall be composed of the following: the DENR regional director as chairperson, the governor where the protected area is located, a senator who is a duly registered resident of the place, a district representative/s of the protected area’s location, a city or municipal mayor, barangay chairperson, among others.

The powers and functions of the PAMB are to oversee the management of the protected area and approve policies, plans and programs, proposals, agreements, and other related documents for the management of the protected areas.

Under the amended law, the members of the PAMB shall be appointed by the DENR secretary in a transparent and fair selection process. They shall serve a term of three years and may be reappointed for another term.

In 2011, then Las Piñas representative, now senator, Cynthia Villar asked the Supreme Court to issue a Writ of Kalikasan to block reclamation projects on Manila Bay.

She also sought the opinion of a hydrologist who stated that reclamation in the area would cause flooding as high as eight meters in the surrounding communities in Las Piñas, Parañaque and Cavite.

However, in 2013, the Court of Appeals denied Villar’s petition, saying the project underwent the full and proper process as the submission of an environmental performance report and a management plan is a valid form of Environmental Impact Assessment.

Consequently, Villar failed to prove that she was entitled to the writ of kalikasan.

Villar insisted the project impinged on the viability and sustainability of the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area.

However, the boundaries of the habitat and ecotourism area remained intact as no portion of it will be utilized for the project, as shown in the geographical illustrations submitted by Alltech Contractors, the project builder, and its consultants.