Senate conducts hearing on Hanjin condo project in Subic

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Senators Pia Cayetano and Miguel Zubiri yesterday conducted a public hearing here on the controversial Hanjin apartment complex.

The public hearing was carried out by the Senate committee on environment and natural resources headed by Cayetano and the committee on urban planning, housing and resettlement headed by Zubiri after an inspection of the structure built by the South Korean shipbuilder at Subic’s Cubi-Triboa District.

Cayetano and Zubiri, along with members of the media, were accompanied to the project site by Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman Feliciano Salonga, SBMA Administrator/Chief Executive Officer Armand Arreza and Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp.-Philippines president Jong Sup Shim.

The two senators, who had earlier voiced opposition to the project because of environmental reasons, said they were only conducting the probe in aid of legislation.

“We’re not here to quarrel with anybody,” Zubiri said. “We just want to verify if there were violations committed when Hanjin built the apartment complex.”

The committees had also invited representatives from Hanjin, national government agencies, the SBMA, local government units, non-government organizations and the private sector to shed light on the issue of the Hanjin apartment complex.

Present during the hearing were Undersecretary Manuel Gerochi of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Director Julian Amador of the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau, DENR Region III director Regidor de Leon, Rep. Herminia Roman of the 1st District of Bataan and Atty. Rolando Villones, corporate secretary of the Korean Chamber of Commerce.

The SBMA was represented by Salonga, Arreza, senior deputy administrator for operations Ferdinand Hernandez, deputy administrator for regulatory, Jocelyn Alvarado and Ecology Center manager Amethya dela Llana-Koval.

During the hearing, SBMA officials said the project had negligible impact on Subic’s environment because the site had been cleared by the US Navy since 1968.

“This used to be a compound for shops where the US Navy used to store, test, check, assemble and maintain air and underwater weapons,” Arreza said, pointing out during a presentation that the Hanjin project underwent all the required environmental clearance certificates (ECC) and zoning processes.

He added that the apartment complex is located outside of Subic’s Core Ecological Zone.

The zoning plan, Arreza said, was made in 2002 in accordance with the recommendations of a team composed of international land use experts and sponsored by the World Bank.

He also told the Senate panel that the biological environment of the apartment site “was characterized by patches of secondary growth vegetation, that no wild animals were noted in the project area, and that no threatened, endangered or rare species of plants were within the project site.”

Cayetano, Zubiri and Sen. Loren Legarda earlier filed separate resolutions to inquire into the Hanjin apartment complex.

Cayetano, who filed Resolution No. 355, noted that the Hanjin project is situated inside the Subic Watershed Forest Reserve, which is classified as a protected area under Proclamation No. 926 signed by former President Corazon Aquino.

Cayetano said the reserve has 745 plant species, three of which are endangered, while four others are potentially threatened.

Subic is also home to species like the Golden Crowned Flying Fox and the Philippine Giant Fruit Bat, which are on the DENR’s list of endangered species, she added.

Zubiri, meanwhile, filed Resolution No. 341, which directed the Senate committees on urban planning, housing and resettlement; environment and natural resources; and economic affairs to conduct an investigation on the zoning, housing and building permits as well as ECC for the Hanjin project.

He said that since the site of the project used to be an ammunitions storage, the site “may not be suitable for human settlement due to the presence of hazardous and toxic wastes in the area.”

“There have (also) been allegations of anomalies and abuse of authority in the issuance of ECC for the construction of the multi-structure complex,” Zubiri added.

Another resolution filed by Legarda sought an investigation into the issue “to ensure that preferred status of investors in economic zones (is) not abused.”

But SBMA chair Salonga stressed that the project met all environmental and zoning requirements.