Here comes another issue involving the controversial man-made “lagoon” in Parañaque: The airlines, both domestic and international, are worried.
As pointed out in news reports by environmentalist groups (the real honest-to-goodness ones), government people in Parañaque and the DENR, the government has declared the “lagoon” a protected area.
Over the years, although the area was originally part of a government reclamation project in Manila Bay, the DENR experimented with it and the DENR was able to convert it into a sanctuary for migratory birds.
The reclamation project was actually started a couple of decades ago, but it was held up by issues over corruption and such. Naturally, abandoned and idle, the reclaimed land attracted informal settlers. These “squatters” were booted out of the area when the DENR took control of it, converting it into an experimental mangrove-replanting project.
Since then, the man-made “lagoon” has been able to attract migratory birds from China and other countries.
And so today, the DENR is against the plan of another government agency, the Philippine Reclamation Authority, or the PRA, to resume the reclamation project.
The environmentalist groups claim that the project can disturb the ecosystem in the area, despite the care that the PRA promises to incorporate in its project planning and design to protect the “lagoon.”
It has become, officially, the “Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area.”
Perhaps the environmentalist groups, DENR and other public officials in Parañaque are right to be wary about the PRA project.
But other sectors are saying that the real problem is that the “lagoon” is right smack on the flight path to the Naia, the country’s premier international airport.
That is the airport used by five domestic airlines and some 30 international airlines, serving close to 30 million passengers a year, including the 10 million or so OFWs, who in turn are earning the foreign exchange that keeps this country afloat.
It seems that a group of airline pilots have pointed out the problem to the airport authority, citing documented cases of airplane crashes abroad caused by so-called bird strike.
The phenomenon is known in the airline industry as BASH, or Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard, which the international airline industry describes as a “threat” to flight safety anywhere in the world.
The industry estimates that the damage to aircraft engines caused by bird strikes reaches more than $1 billion a year.
And so it boils down to this: Do we keep the “lagoon” as a bird sanctuary that is right on the flight path leading to the Naia or do we move the sanctuary elsewhere to protect the millions of people who are using the Manila airport?
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CUSTOMS Commissioner Angelito Alvarez joined the Aquino (Part II) administration less than a year ago.
Why is he being linked to the wholesale smuggling of luxury cars and motorcycles in Mindanao, even to the extent that some ambitious factions in Malacañang are using the issue to discredit Alvarez to our leader Benigno Simeon (a.k.a. BS)?
Officials of the LTO have testified in congressional hearings that the government actually seized those vehicles in late 2009 and early 2010.
Based on the claim in media, as leaked out by those ambitious factions in the Malacañang, because Alvarez was not yet the BoC chief when the smuggling took place, he must answer for the issue.
Why, if he was really any good as the “future” BoC chief, he should have done something about the smuggling, in which he had absolutely no clue, and therefore he should be removed from office for his lack of gift of prophecy, or something like that.
From what I heard, business groups nevertheless are backing Alvarez.
Okay—maybe not those groups that have been hit by the changes at the BoC that Alvarez has been undertaking. Oil companies, for example!
Anyway, it seems that some factions in Malacañang want the BoC position for themselves for whatever ungodly reason.
As everybody knows, except perhaps their boss, Alvarez was not among the close friends of BS, in the mold of Pagcor chair Bong Naguiat, for instance, who earlier on in the Aquino (Part II) administration threw a tantrum because of the suggestion that the government should privatize Pagcor, claiming that he would introduce changes in the state-owned gambling outfit, although we have heard nothing about those changes.
Actually, Alvarez is part of the team handpicked by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima. BoC is under the finance department. From what I gathered, Purisima is keeping Alvarez.
Well, a recent survey conducted by Pulse Asia showed that the business community perceives a dramatic decline in the corruption at the BoC, and such a perception must be based on the real experience of those with transactions at the piers.
Perhaps the factions in Malacañang do not want a cleaner BoC. Perhaps it is not good for their own…well, “business.”