‘Nothing impossible with discipline’

An official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) yesterday expressed confidence that cleaning up and rehabilitating Manila Bay is “not an impossible mission” if citizens would do their share.

DENR Undersecretary Benny D. Antiporda emphasized that the lack of discipline among Filipinos could be the single and biggest obstacle to the success of the rehabilitation being undertaken by the Duterte administration.

“We are not only cleaning up the bay. We are saving something from dying because otherwise more people will die,” Antiporda said without elaborating on the deaths he attributed to the polluted bay.

Still, past studies had shown that pollution in Manila Bay had contributed to billions of pesos in economic losses each year, including for medical expenditures associated with diseases attributed to living in polluted communities.

In 2008, the Supreme Court issued a mandamus directing the DENR and 12 other government agencies to clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay and to restore and maintain its water quality to a level fit for swimming.

Antiporda lamented how the efforts of the agencies tasked to clean up the bay have not been visible or felt during the 10 years the High Court directive has been in effect.

He attributed previous unsuccessful efforts to “weak coordination and collaboration among mandamus agencies.”

This time, however, Antiporda said the DENR and other government agencies have the full backing of President Duterte, allowing them to effectively enforce the law and ensure compliance of local government units with their mandate towards environmental protection.

He added that the DENR is coming up with interventions that would hasten the improvement of Manila Bay’s water quality.

While he acknowledged that the cleanup would not be completed under Duterte’s term, Antiporda said the public could expect “a drastic change that would give the next administration no choice but to carry on current efforts.”

At present, fecal coliform at Manila Bay had been measured at 330 million MPN (most probable number) per 100 milliliter compared to the 100MPN/ML standard for a body of water to be declared as safe for swimming.

The DENR under Secretary Roy Cimatu is coming off a largely successful rehabilitation of Boracay Island in Aklan which now has water qualify measuring 8MPN/ML.