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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT—Senators investigating the controversial
apartment complex built by Hanjin Heavy Industries
Corp.-Philippines (HHIC-Phil) at Subic’s forested
Cubi-Triboa District said on Friday they will seek
stiffer penalties for companies violating environmental
clearance requirements for development projects.
Sen. Pia
Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Committee on
Environment and Natural Resources, said that instead of
the P50,000 penalty imposed daily for companies that
failed to secure environmental compliance certificates (ECC),
the fine should be increased to $50,000 per day.
Cayetano
said a stiffer fine would show violators “how serious we
are in protecting our environment.”
She
added that “P50,000 is nothing for investors who could
spend millions of dollars for a single project.”
Cayetano
made this announcement in a public hearing here on the
Hanjin project, as she hammered on the fact that the
South Korean investor proceeded with the construction of
its $20-million apartment complex without first securing
an ECC.
Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA),
who testified in the hearing, admitted that Hanjin was
granted an ECC for its apartment project only in July
last year, but that the firm actually began construction
in January 2007.
The
agency, however, had penalized Hanjin in March 2007 for
failing to secure an ECC prior to starting construction,
said Amethya de la Llana-Koval, head of the SBMA Ecology
Center, which issued a notice of violation to the erring
company.
With
this, Cayetano and Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the
Committee on Government Corporations and Public
Enterprises, who also attended the hearing, said they
will file a Senate resolution seeking to impose a
stiffer penalty against ECC violators to avoid similar
incidents in the future.
“This
case is a big deal because the [project site] is in a
protected area. [That is why] we have to come down to
Subic to personally see the area,” said Cayetano, who
inspected the apartment site with Sen. Juan Miguel
Zubiri, chairman of the Committee on Urban Planning,
Housing and Resettlement, before the hearing.
Cayetano
said the Senate hearing was brought to Subic primarily
to inspect the project site and determine whether the
condominium construction violated any environmental law.
Cayetano
and Zubiri were joined in the site inspection by SBMA
chairman Feliciano Salonga, SBMA administrator Armand
Arreza, and engineer Dong Kim, Hanjin’s project chief
engineer.
The two
SBMA officials later testified in the public hearing
held at the Formosa Hall in the Subic Bay Gateway Park,
along with Undersecretary Manuel Gerochi of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and
SBMA Ecology Center manager Amethya dela Llana-Koval.
Several
groups from the
Subic Bay community were also present on the occasion.
Aside
from the technicality on the ECC requirement, however,
the senators later conceded having found nothing
significant to pin down the SBMA or Hanjin for any
environmental violation connected with the apartment
project.
Gordon
and Zubiri said they believed SBMA did not violate any
law in approving the Hanjin apartment project, but
suggested that the agency should prohibit further
construction of similar projects within or near Subic’s
forested areas.
“For me,
SBMA did not violate any law and I believe in your good
intention,” Gordon told SBMA officials, as he commended
them for being open to inquiries about the controversy.
“But please don’t allow another one [of this kind]
anymore,” he added.
Gordon
had earlier protested the project allegedly due to
environmental violations, but had since backtracked and
confined his opposition to the height of the buildings,
which he said were “above the tree level.”
Zubiri,
who had issued a statement saying the project would
contribute to global warming, also cooled down on his
protestations on Friday.
“There
is nothing we can do now, but make sure that all
mitigation measures should be put in place to protect
the environment and the people,” Zubiri said.
Cayetano
also emphasized that the public hearing was not meant to
scare away Hanjin or any investor in
Subic, adding the
Senate has the responsibility to make sure that the
interests of the people are guaranteed.
Both
Cayetano and Zubiri, as well as Sen. Loren Legarda, had
filed separate Senate resolutions seeking an inquiry
into the Hanjin apartment complex “in aid of
legislation.”
In the
hearing, SBMA officials reiterated that there was no
environmental violation committed since the area was
already cleared of trees by the US Navy as early as
1968.
Arreza
said that area was used by the US Navy as a shop where
air and underwater weapons were stored, tested, checked,
assembled and maintained.
“We
didn’t clear new areas because the SBMA only allows
construction activities in previously cleared areas that
were designated for development,” he added.
HHIC-Phil
officials said earlier that the apartment complex is
part of Hanjin’s overall development plan to provide
quarters for its Filipino and Korean workers and their
families.
The two
buildings, one with 22 stories and another with 10, have
a total of 184 rooms and are being developed within a
three hectare lot, which has a lease term of 50 years.
The SBMA
said the Hanjin apartment complex is about two
kilometers away from the 3,000-hectare Subic’s Core
Ecological Zone, an area classified as a “no-development
zone” under the SBMA’s Protected Area Management
Program. |
