Noy to LLDA chief: Explain remarks

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino yesterday asked Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) general manager Rodrigo Cabrera to explain his declaration before media that the dredging contract for Laguna de Bay would be reviewed.

Aquino said he had already cancelled the dredging contract and Cabrera apparently misinformed the media about the purported review.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the President called the attention of Cabrera after he was quoted in newspaper reports Thursday that the deal is not yet off.

“The President has instructed Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to invite Cabrera to explain his statements,” Lacierda said.

“I spoke to President Aquino. It’s clear that his views on this deal have not changed. It has already been cancelled,” he said.

Cabrera was quoted as saying before Laguna fisherfolk that “the project is not totally shelved, but he (Aquino) just wants to make some revisions to put in some more components.”

Aquino had declared the Laguna de Bay dredging project as a waste of government resources.

In his speech on his first 100 days in office, Aquino said the government was to spend P18.5 billion, but dredged materials would only be transferred from one area of the lake to another.

Before a panel of STAR editors last month, the President revealed that he thumbed down the proposal after discovering the futile attempt for the government to spend taxpayers’ money only to transfer dredged materials to a site nearby.

“I rejected it in its present form,” he said. The Chief Executive pointed out that such proposals don’t make sense.

Aquino also wondered why the silt from the lake would only be transferred to the lakeshore and not disposed of elsewhere, the purpose of which is to prevent water in the lake from rising, and eventually prevent flooding.

An environmental group, the Kilusang Lawa Kalikasan (KLK), claimed the President was not properly informed about the dredging project’s benefits. The group supports the implementation of the Laguna Lake Rehabilitation Project.

KLK spokesman Gil Navarro said Aquino should have known that the silt to be recovered from the lakebed would be placed in geotubes that would be placed on the lakeshore to act as a sieve for the water runoff.

Navarro asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to brief the President on the project, noting the company that would undertake the dredging had already agreed to support the rehabilitation of the Marikina watershed, which dumps more than four million metric tons of silt annually into the various waterways that empty into Laguna de Bay.

Navarro noted the technical flaw of the 850-day rehabilitation project that Environment Secretary Ramon Paje was talking about and which he regards as the hindrance for the issuance of the notice to proceed.

He added the Belgian company undertaking the project has 100 years of experience in protecting Belgium from the onslaught of seawater and it has completed similar projects in China, South Korea and Hong Kong without any question being raised.

He said the Palace must think of the benefits that the dredging project would have on the people of Laguna and Rizal whose villages went underwater for weeks due to typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” last year.

KLK will pursue its advocacy for the lake to be dredged to improve its water holding capacity and thus minimize, if not eliminate, flooding since typhoons and the La Niña phenomenon will continue to affect the country in the years to come.