SC denies Akbayan’s offer to intervene in the Manila Bay case on the Dolomites beach

MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) dismissed Akbayan’s offer to intervene in a 2008 case in an attempt to subpoena the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in contempt of court for allegedly violating an ongoing order to keep the land clean. Manila Bay. pouring crushed dolomite there.

In a statement Thursday, the South Carolina Public Information Office (PIO) said the court ruled Tuesday that it could no longer allow Akbayan to intervene because “the case has been closed for a long time.”

He also said that the only jurisdiction left for the court is to oversee the implementation of the ruling by submitting periodic reports to the Manila Bay Advisory Committee.

The higher court noted that the DENR has not been negligent in the submission of its reports and that it “has not yet found any violation of the continuing order” according to the quarterly reports submitted.

He also clarified that the specific directive delivered to the DENR and other agencies is “to clean the waters of the bay and carry out maintenance measures to keep it within the legal standards of cleanliness suitable for recreation”, and does not cover the program of feeding the beaches of the DENR. .

The higher court, he said, will only intervene if the material used for the project, dolomite, can be shown to be dangerous.

“The Court held that this appeal is a challenge to the wisdom behind the use of the dolomite component, which is a factual issue that is not normally considered by the Court,” said the brief SC PIO media outlet.

“It is a challenge that is properly in the realm of political questions in which the Court can not venture even incidentally in a process of contempt in the given circumstances,” he added.

DENR and the Department of Public Works and Highways spent P389 million to dump artificial white sand along a part of the coastline of Manila Bay, which is actually crushed dolomite rock from Cebu.

Akbayan had said that the man-made beach improvement project is a “hazard” to the environment, purportedly because “it contains varying levels of crystalline silica that can damage human lungs, cause cancer when inhaled, and irritate the skin and eyes.” .

Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta is the member in charge of the case, the only magistrate left out of those who issued the landmark ruling in 2008 that ordered 13 government agencies to clean, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay.

Peralta is also the chairman of the Manila Bay Advisory Committee, who visited the so-called Dolomite Beach in October and commented that the water in Manila Bay is already clean.

“What we can say about Manila Bay, it is already clean. All the waters that go to the bay from the estuaries are already clean. So, in other words, the purpose of the ongoing mandamus is to have clean water. And if they ask me if I am satisfied, I am satisfied because the waters are clean, ”he had told the media, despite Akbayan’s request being pending and despite DENR’s warning that swimming in Manila Bay is not safe.

Peralta would later clarify in a press conference on October 23 that he was not referring to the water in Manila Bay itself, but to the wastewater that undergoes treatment before it flows into the bay.

Akbayan was represented by the former Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission Etta Rosales, the Executive Director of the Youth Advocacy Center, Rafaela Mae David, and the Chairperson of the Akbayan Youth, Dr. Raymond John Naguit, when the group raised the issue before the CV in September.

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