The water quality of Manila Bay in its eastern part remains poor a year after the government launched the rehabilitation drive dubbed as “Battle for Manila Bay”, a group of small fishers on Wednesday claimed.
After checking his one-hectare mussel and oyster farm situated in the municipal waters of Bacoor, Joel Falcis, a resident fisherman in the said town and a spokesman for the group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) Cavite chapter, was dismayed that the bamboo poles were covered by the invasive shellfish known to locals as “bahong”, instead of mussels (tahong) and oysters (talaba).
‘Bahong’ is a different variety of mollusk that outnumbers the traditional shellfish such as mussels and oysters, and is much more difficult to sell due to its low quality, thus considered by many fishermen as pest and invasive.
“This invasive shellfish becomes more numerous as water quality of Manila Bay continues to get worse. Its deteriorating water quality triggers ecological disturbances such as proliferation of invasive species, fish kills, and drastic decrease of our fish catch. It harshly disrupts our fishing and other economic activities,” Falcis said in a statement.
PAMALAKAYA questioned the Department of Environment of Natural Resources (DENR) over its claim that water quality of Manila Bay has ‘drastically improved’ one year after the rehabilitation.
On January 24, the DENR posted on its website that it reported significant improvements in the water quality of major outfalls directly draining into Manila Bay a year after it started undergoing rehabilitation.
“There is reason to celebrate because a year after we launched the ‘Battle for Manila Bay,’ we have recorded significant improvements in the water quality from major drainage outfalls,” DENR Secretary and Manila Bay Task Force Chair Roy Cimatu said.
The statement said that before the rehabilitation kicked off on January 26 last year, the DENR recorded extremely high fecal coliform levels from major Manila Bay outfalls. But now, the most recent data from the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) showed that the coliform levels have “drastically decreased.”
The DENR lined up activities to mark the anniversary of the “Battle of Manila Bay”: inauguration of a sewage interceptor and treatment plant located in front of the Manila Yacht Club, signing of the Pledge of Support from the private sector to the DENR’s War on Waste and a clean up activity at Baseco beach.
Falcis doubted the jubilations of the Cimatu and the DENR over lower coliform levels, saying the supposed significant improvement is still far from the goal and does not get to the bottom of the systematic degradation of Manila Bay.
“How does the dramatic decrease of coliform levels in certain parts of Manila Bay actually translate to its marine biodiversity? What is the plan of action for the significant numbers of establishments that pollute the bay?” said Falcis.
For its part, the progressive scientists group AGHAM also questioned the rehabilitation’s improvements.
“It’s hard to conclude that there is an actual improvement if our fishers continue to suffer from fish kills and depletion of fish catch. Also, the presence of invasive species such as bahong is an indication of a polluted water,” Jerwin Baure, a member of AGHAM and PAMALAKAYA’s resident fisheries expert added.
The government targets the source of water pollution in an effort to rehabilitate, restore and maintain the historic bay to a level fit for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of contact recreation as mandated by the Supreme Court in 2008.
“We know that this rehabilitation program is bound to fail because ecosystem services such as mangrove areas and coral reefs are not considered in the plan. There is no program that would restore the destroyed mangrove forests that serve not only as fish habitat, but sink for atmospheric carbon and community disaster protection,” said Baure, a fisheries graduate from the University of the Philippines (UP) Visayas.
On Dec. 18, 2008, the Supreme Court issued a writ of continuing mandamus directing 13 government agencies to clean up, rehabilitate and eventually preserve Manila Bay within 10 years.
President Rodrigo Duterte allocated P42.95 billion for the Manila Bay rehabilitation project within three years.
On February 19, 2019, Duterte created the Manila Bay Task Force and ordered to expedite the rehabilitation of Manila Bay.
