Big things, they say, come from small beginnings.
When people complained of the foul smell of the wastewater from the public market going out into the Rizal boulevard, the City addressed the problem by constructing a box culvert.
This box culvert, costing P3.4 million, was designed not to necessarily stop the cause of the foul smell, but to lead the water farther away from the shoreline so that people would not have to smell the wastewater.
Then one thing led to another. To support the infrastructure, engineers of the City recommended to the Mayor to fill up both sides of the box culvert so it can withstand big waves.
Still, it wasn’t enough. The idea of building wave deflectors then came about, to protect the lives of the people of Tinago, including the City’s properties.
Then the idea of filling up the beach with more sand came about so that the City could host beach volleyball games. And why not?
Then, the beach was expanded to hold eight volleyball courts to host the Palarong Pambansa and other sporting events.
The project got bigger and bigger until the officials thought of doing the first step — applying for an Environmental Compliance Certificate.
Finally, the prerequisite, called the ECC, came out on June 18, long after the project was completed.
The DENR refers to the project as the “proposed Rehabilitation/Improvement of Rizal Boulevard.”
How this ECC was issued is another story, as a prerequisite for an ECC is a public consultation, which the public now says they didn’t know about.
As an ECC is not meant to be a reclamation permit, so came the need to submit the required documents to the Philippine Reclamation Authority to seek approval for the “illegal reclamation”.
The City likes to think of its style as visionary.
Truer words were never said. After all, hindsight is always 20-20.
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