Cynthia Villar Wants To Stop The Reclamation Plan To Build A New Airport In Manila Bay
Sen. Cynthia Villar appeals to the incoming administration to never pursue the plans in Manila Bay reclamation on building a new international airport.
Known as an advocate for environmental protection, Sen. Villar said that the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Eco-Tourism Area (LPPCHEA) will be destroyed once there will be a reclamation in Manila Bay.
To stop the plans, Villar and other residents of Las Piñas filed a petition in Supreme Court last March 16, 2012, to get the Writ of Kalikasan.
Villar feel dismayed for again revealing the airport project to such place after the proposal to build a new airport in Manila Bay was dismissed under the Aquino administration.
Based on a report, re-elected Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez driven President-elect Rodrigo Duterete to advance the proposed $13-billion international airport in Manila Bay.
Under it, 157 hectares from Freedom Island will be used. Villar asserted contrary to Olivarez statement that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) proposed a Sangley Point in Cavite as a great place to build an airport and not in Manila Bay in Parañaque.
“I appeal to President-elect Duterte to look beyond the claim of decongesting existing airports and realize that the planned reclamation will cause flooding as high as 8 meters in Parañaque, Las Piñas, and Cavite. It will also deprive 300,000 fishermen of their livelihood. Attracting tourists and investors should not be proposed at the expense of the Constitutionally-guaranteed rights of citizens for a safe and secure environment to live in,” she added.
In the report published by philstar, LPPCHEA was declared as a critical habitat and protected area in the effectiveness of Presidential Proclamation No. 1412 and 1412-A in 2007. This is the first critical habitat in the country. The LPPCHEA covering the 175 hectares of wetland ecosystem is composed of two islands– the Freedom Island and Long Island.
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