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SBMA execs face raps over Hanjin condo row

By Angie M. Rosales

05/02/2008

Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) are facing numerous charges over the construction of two high-rise condominium buildings within the economic zone.

Sen. Pia Cayetano said SBMA officials may have committed grave violations in allowing the construction of the buildings within its forest reserve area and would likely be facing numerous serious charges.

“We will strongly recommend, in our committee report, that it was SBMA itself that committed grave violations of the law and dereliction of its duty in protecting the environment,” Cayetano, chairman of the upper chamber’s environment committee, said yesterday, following the conduct of the initial investigation on the $20-million project of a Korean firm Hanjin Corp.

Cayetano, in a radio interview, said she will enumerate in her report the violations allegedly committed by SBMA that they noted during the on-site inspection conducted Friday last week.

Most likely, the foreign firm would also be slapped with charges as the senator noted documents pertaining to its construction permit that work for the building started even before the environmental certificate clearance (ECC) was issued.

Cayetano, lead prober on the Hanjin controversy, disputed claims made by SBMA officials that the area in which the structures are being constructed had been long “cleared” for such project.

“It’s clear, based on the pictures we’ve taken and actual inspection we made, that it’s within the forest reserve (area),” she said.

The senator echoed the concerns aired by the environmentalist groups that presidential proclamations made several decades ago naming Subic as a forest reserve watershed prohibited such projects.

“For me, strictly speaking, we should interpret it strictly. That’s the objective. But that is not the way they read (the law). It seems, they think, they have the discretion to read it otherwise. They said they were not the ones who cleared the area and that those formerly used by the Americans during the 1960s consist of the area being developed.

“So the next question is, what kind of development is being done there? From the land use plan, developed by SBMA, it’s supposed to be a part of Ilanin Forest East. If you look at their land use plan, Ilanin Forest East is pure forest reserve, so no development (should take place),” she pointed out.

Even in their documents presented to the committee, including the ECC, Cayateno revealed that the area was described as “in Ilanin Forest East.”

“Then later on, they’re saying it’s part of Cubi-Triboa District. Which is which?” she asked.

In the process of scrutinizing the documents presented to her panel, the lawmaker noted that the ECC was given to the developer in July last year.

“And yet, the construction, and we have pictures to show, that as early as January 2007, construction took place and it went on uninterrupted. By March (last year) they already managed to dig deep and by March-April, there was already a two-storey building until it became a four-storey (structure)…at that time, there was no ECC yet,” she said.

Cayetano said it’s impossible to tear down the building given its status now.

Furthermore, Cayetano said, all protected areas must have a protected area management board (PAMB) which is composed of multi-sectoral representatives, national government, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and local officials.

“In SBMA, because they are supposedly an independent freeport, it is the one in the PAMB. But it did not get any representative from the multi-sectoral group. So when we inquired when was it that the project was approved, if its ecology department made a presentation since it’s in the middle of a forest land, the reply was that ‘it is assumed.’

“Apparently the management presented it without describing the environmental impacts (of the project),” she said.

“Here is a clear case (where authority is abused), so I would recomment that the SBMA board, would really have to include multi-sectoral representation because I have absolutely no assurance that they would be sitting as a PAMB, they would be sitting there always at SBMA. There’s innate conflict here,” said Cayetano.