“Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30)
At the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session last Aug. 23, the Board declared marine protected areas along the Negros Oriental shoreline “reclamation-free”.
By this act, the Provincial Board seems to have dealt a death blow to Dumaguete City’s ‘smart city’ project.
Considering that five existing MPAs on the City’s shoreline are located right in the middle of the proposed reclamation, EM Cuerpo Inc. — if it is still seriously interested in pursuing the project — will have to do drastic redesigning of its proposed ‘smart city’ islands. This means that the areas for reclamation will have to be modified by, first of all, skirting around the five MPAs.
Presumably now, the revised reclamation project should receive a modicum of approval from environmental advocates, as the redesigned reclamation would be careful to avoid, or least minimize the seabeds thick with seagrasses, corals, and fish.
In one sweep of a Provincial Sanggunian ordinance, our Board members presented what could possibly be a win-win situation for everyone.
That is, unless the Governor, for reasons of his own, vetoes the Board ordinance.
There seems to be no reason for a veto, however. The Governor cannot afford to be perceived as anti-environment. It would not only be politically-unpopular, the optics for him would be bad, and invite negative national media attention.
Moreover, a veto would be inconsistent with the Governor’s public persona, identifying himself with fisherfolk, himself having been born and raised in a fishing community.
So the likelihood is that the Governor will sign this ordinance into law.
What’s the win for the environmental advocates? For them, they can claim a victory in stopping the project as originally proposed.
Additionally, they can now offer their positive inputs on the redesigning of the revised reclamation site.
Unless they merely opposed the project for the sake of opposing it, or because they had a personal beef with the Mayor or the majority in the City Council, the positive inputs from the environmental advocates will be most welcome, in contrast to all the negative arguments they have previously put forth.
However, if these advocates insist on pursuing a negative tack, public opinion will shift as they will be perceived as obstructive and anti-development.
What’s the win for EM Cuerpo? If it is a bona fide developer, EM Cuerpo has the chance to whitewash its image.
As the unsolicited proponent in the ‘smart city‘ project, EM Cuerpo’s image and reputation were badly tarnished and battered. Failing to pay attention to the applicable laws and procedures, relying instead on an accommodating and friendly City administration, EM Cuerpo committed mistake upon mistake, effectively disqualifying itself from undertaking the project.
With a reset occasioned by the Provincial ordinance, EM Cuerpo can “recreate” itself as a qualified, respectable, and serious proponent.
Of course, this may mean having to drop Poly Changda or any other Chinese partners as it remakes itself, hopefully to the satisfaction of all sectors of Dumaguete City.
This also means there will be full transparency and no short cuts in providing feasibility studies and other relevant studies to the City.
If EM Cuerpo is willing to go through a do-over, it redeems itself not only to the people of Dumaguete, but it repairs its reputation as a respectable developer in the national public eye.
What’s the win for the City? Most of all, it is a face-saving opportunity for the Mayor, the Vice-Mayor, and the six Council members in favor of EM Cuerpo’s proposal to wash their hands clean of the errors and blunders they got themselves stuck in.
Now, they can step backwards without having to withdraw their actions, including the Mayor’s authority to sign the MoU with EM Cuerpo.
This authority has been mooted by the Provincial Board ordinance.
Effectively, the unsolicited proposal would be deemed abandoned or withdrawn because the design under the proposal covered the five MPAs on the Dumaguete shoreline.
Addressing the objections to the project, and the glaring procedural deficiencies, the City will also benefit from a reset.
Thus, instead of spending all its energies in defending its actions and the ‘smart city’ project, which ironically forced the City to defend EM Cuerpo’s proposal, it can start fresh, and look forward to entertaining proposals for a ‘smart city’ from EM Cuerpo or other credible developers like SMDA, San Miguel Development, DMCI, etc.
The Provincial ordinance frees the City from past criticisms, defensible or otherwise, and look ahead to a ‘smart city’ integrated into the City’s 2016 Master Plan.
In going back to the revised master plan, the City can explore new ideas like the creation of a Metro Dumaguete consortium of Dumaguete, Sibulan, Bacong, and Valencia.
The consortium can address the problem of Dumaguete having the smallest land area in tbe Province.
With the combined land area and populations of the local governments in the consortium, their internal revenue allotments would dramatically increase, and there would be more resources to pursue infrastructure, and develop projects in the consortium.
The Dumaguete Master Plan may then be expanded and modified into the Metro Dumaguete Master Plan.
A common landfill for all local governments may be identified and developed, the same with waste water treatment facilities, and an integrated sewage system. Expanded roadways traversing the local governments would make travel convenient and traffic management efficient.
With all these big ticket projects, EM Cuerpo may even choose to make unsolicited proposals, or present bids to undertake implementation of the Expanded and Modified Master Plan. Under the Expanded and Modified Master Plan, the ‘smart city’ may even be realized in the new Metro Dumaguete consortium.
Post Script. A former student of mine with a Master of Laws degree in Environmental Law, gently reminded me that under the Local Government Code, there are no “provincial waters” to speak of, only municipal waters.
Consequently, the Provincial ordinance could have been ultra vires in so far as it “bans” reclamations in MPAs, except for the fact that the Fisheries Act already bans such reclamations. The ordinance is simply superfluous.
It appears, therefore, that our Board Members were simply making a statement for “political optics”, knowing full well that their Ordinance could not be enforced.
So are my assumptions deemed wrong because the Ordinance has no force and effect? Not necessarily.
As this former student of mine also pointed out, the Fisheries Act already prohibits reclamation activities in MPAs
So a win – win situation may still be achieved if the parties, for the good of Dumaguete, so desire. The moral burden is on them! This would be a win for everyone.
So is it finished? That’s up to all of us in the give-and-take of our vested interests. Or in a selfless effort to achieve our common good.
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Author’s email: joseriodil@yahoo.com
