Cunning airport maneuvers

In 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. temporarily suspended reclamations nationwide, pending a review of the projects’ social and environmental impacts.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) was said to have circumvented the order by avoiding classification of the New Manila International Airport (NMIA) as a “reclamation” project.

The ecological watchdog Global Witness claimed the SMC airport project bypassed the suspension and was allowed to proceed.

While SMC defended the “land development” or “land conversion” categorization by arguing that the airport site was once located above sea level, Global Witness presented scientists’ findings on the site, showing it was mostly submerged.

Dr. Murtah Shannon, senior policy advisor at Both ENDS, said calling it a land conversion “is obviously nonsense because dumping millions of cubic meters of sand into a permanently submerged area is, by any definition, reclamation.”

“Saying it is a land development because the area was once above water is like saying reclaimed land is ocean because the area was once under water,” he added.

SMC claimed to Global Witness that the area where the project is located was previously commercially utilized as fishponds and therefore denied that the airport constitutes a reclamation project.

The company added that it tried to establish corrective measures that would mitigate or offset the project’s environmental impacts.

The selective interpretation of land classification appeared to be part of a broader pattern of procedural concerns.

Mott MacDonald, the company responsible for writing an impact assessment that showcases how the project will meet international financing standards, wrote that consultations with affected communities should occur early, be “free of manipulation,” and provide “transparent access to project information,” in line with established international standards.

Global Witness, however, said its investigation revealed an inadequate and coercive process. In 2023, it highlighted community reports that the airport project would displace 700 families.

The Mott MacDonald project assessment only identified 364 affected families, of which 277 are deemed eligible for compensation.

This suggests that the project has failed to account for and compensate over half of the affected families and could have already displaced nearly 3,000 people.

The selective compensation resulted in more families being displaced than the token beneficiaries, according to the project’s critics.