Non sequitur

Britannica defines the fallacy of non sequitur as one which occurs when there is not even a deceptively plausible appearance of valid reasoning, because there is an obvious lack of connection between the given premises and the conclusion drawn from them.

This Latin term non sequitur literally means “it does not follow.” A fallacy, meanwhile, in logic, is erroneous reasoning that has the appearance of soundness.

Just recently, this term came to mind when some people blamed the ongoing construction of the New Manila International Airport (NMIA) as the reason why several towns in Bulacan were submerged in floodwaters due to the recent typhoons Egay and Falcon.

Have they forgotten that even before the land restoration for the NMIA project started, Bulacan was already a province highly vulnerable to flooding from storms and typhoons? In fact, many Bulakeños have suffered from flooding even before the NMIA Aerocity was conceptualized.

Just because the NMIA project is in Bulacan and land restoration is going on does not automatically make it the cause of the severe flooding in the province. Non sequitur.

But why do we refer to it as land restoration or redevelopment instead of reclamation? Because it is not.

Noted urban and environmental planner Architect Felino Palafox Jr., whose firm was appointed to prepare the conceptual master plan for the NMIA Aerocity, has emphasized that the design of the proposed airport in Bulakan, Bulacan is in fact meant to address,  not worsen, the problem of flooding in the area that has existed for several decades and made worse by clogged waterways and drainages.

He emphasized that the recent heavy flooding experienced in other parts of Bulacan were caused by the unprecedented level of rainfall, high tide, and restriction of flow from heavily silted and polluted tributaries and main rivers upstream.

Palafox explained that the NMIA site is located on titled lands in an areas where most of the properties had been converted in previous decades into private fishponds with preexisting earth dikes. The site is also naturally surrounded by two main rivers – the Meycauayan River and the Maycapiz/Taliptip Rivers.

He stressed that NMIA Aerocity is not inside Manila Bay and involves land recovery of low lying flooded areas, titled lands, and fishponds.

He said that no reclamation is being done on the airport project site and the project instead involves land redevelopment by restoring land that has been submerged in water back into land again.

Dutch company Royal Boskalis, which San Miguel Corp. tapped to do this, has ensured that work will be done in accordance with the highest specifications in safety and sustainability. But this was not an empty promise. The approval by the Dutch government of an export credit insurance that was extended to Royal Boskalis to cover its 1.5-billion euro contract came after over a year of rigorous review of the project’s long-term environmental and social impact mitigation measures to ensure that the project will be undertaken with sustainability in mind and aligned with the country’s climate conditions.

Palafox also revealed that San Miguel Aerocity Inc. (SMAI) has also tapped an international consultant to put together a flood management plan that is supported by flood modelling studies and in-house monitoring of project site rainfall measurement swell as actual river level monitoring of rivers adjacent to the project site.

He said that the study showed no increase in water levels since the land redevelopment started and that the project has no direct effect on the recent flooding in the area.

Upon the request of Bulacan LGUs and as part of NMIA’s flood management plan, SMC even started cleanup initiatives for Meycauayan River, followed by Maycapiz/Taliptip River.

SMC has committed to cleaning waterways outside of the airport perimeter and further upstream of Meycauayan and Taliptip rivers and its main tributaries to address the long-standing flooding problem of Meycauayan, Marilao, Bocaue and Guiguinto.

The company is also looking to include in its river cleanup project other waters outside of the airport site’s river network and in the northern part of Bulacan, namely Pamawaran, Labingan-Angat, Hagonoy-Paombong, and Malolos rivers. These are the rivers where tributaries from northern towns such as Calumpit, Malolos, Hagonoy, and Paombong discharge waters, which in turn are linked to rivers in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija which are more at risk whenever waters in dams are released due to prolonged heavy rains.

These river cleanup projects are being financed entirely by SMC.

So as you can see, SMC, with its airport city project and river cleanup drive, is helping alleviate if not totally solve the problem of flooding in Bulacan and even neighboring provinces, instead of causing it. And as Palafox would put it, SMC is unfairly being blamed by critics.

These critics are easy to jump into conclusions that are unsupported by facts.

SMC officials have emphasized that the mitigation of floods as well as other risks, primarily through dredging and cleanup of Bulacan’s heavily-silted and polluted river systems, are integral to the airport’s operations and long-term viability.

Bulacan’s floods, they said, are caused by many factors, including heavily-silted and polluted rivers, clogged waterways and drainage systems which reduce capacity to hold water and prevent floodwaters from being carried out to sea and instead overflow into communities, land subsidence due to over-extraction and depletion of groundwater which has caused land to settle or sink, proliferation of fishponds that have further impeded the flow of water and compromised waterways, and proximity to Manila Bay and its river systems that make Bulacan susceptible to the impacts of rising sea levels.

SMC has also emphasized that the NMIA project is not land reclamation which is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds.

“The project site sits on titled lands. It’s just that in previous decades, much of the land area had been submerged due to subsidence and rising sea levels, and eventually converted into privately-owned fish pond businesses. What is being undertaken by our international contractor, Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, is restoring submerged land into land form again,” it said.

SMC president and CEO Ramon Ang, in a recent meeting with Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, has committed to help solve Bulacan’s perennial flooding problem by conducting an extensive cleanup of polluted river systems and waterways in and around the province, using its own resources at no cost to the government and the people of Bulacan.

SMC’s flood mitigation program for Bulacan initially covered rivers surrounding the future site of the NMIA. However, upon the request of the different Bulacan LGUs, it expanded the program to other tributaries.

Ang also addressed allegations by some that the airport project is the cause of flooding in the province, pointing out that there are many contributing factors to Bulacan’s floods, one of which is land subsidence caused by over-extraction and the depletion of ground water.

He emphasized that this is one of the reasons why SMC invested in putting up the Bulacan Bulk Water System Project some years back in order to provide potable water to residents without having to resort to unsustainable use of ground water.

SMCs top executive stressed that they are deeply invested in the future as well as the well-being of Bulacan and its residents. “We would not pour in billions in resources if we didn’t consider all possible risks, including flooding in the province. As with any major undertaking of this magnitude, extensive studies were done even before construction started. And even  now, we continue to work with experts and to consistently ensure we adhere to the highest environmental and social standards and regulations,” Ang said.

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