Reclamation threatens city, wetland

Senator Cynthia Villar is a staunch opponent of reclamation in Manila Bay as it threatens to submerge Las Piñas City with floodwaters during typhoons.

At the same time, reclamation could destroy the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park (LPPWP), which is home to several migratory birds and a site for fish spawning.

The chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change said that if the P103.8-billion Las Piñas-Parañaque Coastal Bay Reclamation Project will push through, the city could turn into a catch basin for rainwater coming from upland Cavite as it won’t flow out to Manila Bay anymore. The rainwater currently flows through the contiguous rivers of Las Piñas, Parañaque, Zapote and Bacoor, exiting into the bay.

“In 2015, former public works and highways secretary Rogelio ‘Babes’ Singson warned me that it (flooding) would happen if I allowed the reclamation project. About six meters of floodwater or as high as a 3-story building will submerge Las Piñas. That’s what happened in Marikina City during Ondoy,” the senator said, referring to the 2009 flooding of Metro Manila.

The LPPWP, according to Villar, was included in the Ramsar List in 2013 for being one of the most important wetlands in the world, along with Tubbataha Reef, Olango Reef, the Palawan Underground River, Agusan Marsh, Naujan Lake, Negros Wetland and Sasmuan Wetlands.

The Ramsar Convention designates rare or unique wetlands for conservation of its biological diversity. Once designated, such wetlands become known as Ramsar sites.