Philippines

FORMER Mayor Florencio “Jun” Bernabe of Parañaque City and four showbiz personalities-turned city councilors are facing graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for approving a proposal to develop more than 100 hectares of reclaimed land in Manila Bay.
Now in hot water are councilors Venesa Alma Moreno-Salic, Jason Webb, Val Sotto and Roselle Nava after a group of residents of the city filed a letter-complaint assailing the agreement with Avesco Marketing Corp. for the implementation of a project that might allegedly cause irreparable damage to the environment.

Local officials of Bontoc town have allegedly ignored an order issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) to shut down and rehabilitate its illegal dumpsite which has been polluting the Chico River.

A team from the Kalinga Anti-pollution Action Group (KAPAG), which lodged the complaint against Bontoc officials last year, claimed that the local government of the province’s capital town has not been following the CA’s order to close and rehabilitate its dump site six months after the Court’s issuance of a Writ of Kalikasan order on February 22.

This review is prepared as part of the FAO Project “Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and monitoring in aquaculture”. The review provides a compilation, review and synthesis of existing EIA and environmental monitoring procedures and practices in aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific region, the largest aquaculture-producing region in the world. This review, as in other regions, gives special consideration to four areas related to EIA and monitoring in aquaculture including: (1) the requirements (2) the practice (3) the effectiveness and (4) suggestions for improvements.

The Pasig-Marikina-San Juan River System, of which total catchment area is 635 km2, runs through the center of Metro Manila and flows out to the Manila Bay. Its main tributaries, the San Juan River and Napindan River, join the main stream at about 7.1 km and 17.1 km upstream from the Pasig River mouth, respectively. The three largest waterways contribute largely to the flooding in the metropolis brought about by the riverbank overflow of floodwaters.

The Project is located in Barangay Tina-an, one of the Coastal Industrial Corridor of Naga City, where most of the existing industrial establishments are located. The project site is situated at the titled Property of the Province of Cebu. It is approximately 120 meters away from the national road which is next to Barangay Poblacion at the northern side and fronting the seawater of Bohol Strait at the eastern side of Naga City.

What is ‘genuine development’ in the context of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for mines proposed to be developed in the Philippines? This article examines the EIA process, related legislation, administrative and judicial decisions. The Philippine EIA system will be compared with the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),1 and the American experience with mining.

This paper provides an overview of key elements of a number of different countries’ Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures. These elements will be compared to the current EIA process of the Philippines in order to draw out lessons for possible improvement. The EIAs reviews are from the following countries: China, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, United States, and the regional regime in the European Union (EU). The paper also includes a brief discussion of the value of EIA in the international context, and reflections on assessing the effectiveness and cost of EIAs.

An open coal yard in the premises of the Korean Electric Power Corp.-Salcon Power Corp. (Kepco-SPC) in Naga was the source of the coal dust pollution that bothered several households.

Only a closed, tight storage for coal deliveries was approved in the company’s Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), said Engr. William Cuñado, environmental impact assessment management division chief of the Environmental Management Bureau in Central Visyas.

Last Tuesday, EMB-7 staff inspected the company’s coal yard . Results have yet to be released.

ENVIRONMENTAL groups are gathering evidence in preparation for filing charges against Philex Mining Corp. for the accidental discharge of wastewater from its Padcal mine in Tuba, Benguet, that contaminated nearby water bodies in Benguet and Pangasinan last August.

The evidence being gathered will back complaints against the company to be filed before the environmental court specifically tasked by the Supreme Court to try environmental cases, said Clemente Bautista of the Kalikasan - People’s Network for Environment (Kalikasan – PNE).

The government may fine the Philippine's biggest miner Philex Mining Corp at least 1 billion pesos ($24 million) for leaks out of its now shut Padcal gold and copper mine, the environment minister said on Tuesday.

Water and sediment from the mine are flowing to a river supplying water to a major power plant on the main Luzon island and the company, the country's top gold and copper miner, is struggling to contain the leaks which began last month, said Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje.