An opinion piece entitled “Cleaning Bulacan’s rivers” caught my eye the other day not because it was written by Ducky Paredes (an old friend), but because I had been planning to write about the exact same subject one of these days. But it seems he has beaten me to the draw.

After reading the piece, I had to admit to myself that Ducky—that old scalawag—had just scooped me, and how! In journalist jargon, it was a clean scoop, which serves me right, I guess for taking my own sweet time gathering the facts.

Ducky’s story was a comprehensive account of how an entire province is trying to get its act together (under the leadership of Gov. Wilhelmo C. Alvarado) to finally get started in cleaning up the putrid Marilao, Meycauayan and Obando River System (MMORS).

A few months ago this column dwelt on just how abhorrently dirty this river system had become. Entitled, “Time to clean up world’s 5th dirtiest river” (April 12 issue of the BusinessMirror), it told of the findings of a New York-based private think tank called Blacksmith Institute that among the world’s 30 dirtiest rivers, the MMORS was outranked in filth and slime only by the Yellow River in Lanzhou, China; Buriganga River in Bangladesh; Yamuna River in India and the dirtiest of them all—the Citarum River in Indonesia.

It was the Blacksmith Institute’s finding that had jolted the Philippine government into action about four years ago. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) tried to whip up support from the local governments of towns and cities not only in Bulacan but also those where the river begins and ends, including all its tributaries.

At about that time, the Supreme Court even came out with an order to those local governments to do their share in protecting the ecology in the Manila Bay, starting with the massive cleanup of all river systems flowing into the bay. That order was named by the high court as the writ of kalikasan.

Sadly, however, the effort produced no results. The people, as well as the factories and commercial establishments along the banks, went back to their habit of using the rivers as a dump for every imaginable refuse only humans can produce.

The politicians of each town and city dutifully paid lip service to the idea of cleaning it up, but that was no more than that, lip service. No real cleanup effort was ever started.

Then DENR secretary even said: “The continuing mandamus [writ of kalikasan] imposed by the Supreme Court…for Manila Bay’s rehabilitation obligates us…to take the necessary legal recourse to compel the concerned local government units to do their part…Enough has been done to analyze why the river is dirty; putting a stop to wanton throwing of garbage into it is the first step.”

These were big words that rang loud and true. But the pep talk obviously fell on deaf ears. The enthusiasm to begin a cleanup momentarily flared, but just as quickly petered out.

Lately, however, there have been encouraging developments in Bulacan that have quietly taken place, indicating that the long-overdue rehabilitation of the river is about to start. It seems that this time it’s for real, at least as far as it pertains to the MMORS.

That’s what Ducky’s column is all about; the slowly unfolding drama of how the incumbent governor and mayors are trying to get it started despite what he described as “the parochial, commercial and political interests” of those who don’t want it to happen.

Ducky pointed out that an important element of the rehab plan is the designation of a safe place into which all the sludge and silt and poisons to be scoured out of the river could be dumped. He said:

“As a component of the MMORS rehabilitation effort, an idle 44-hectare fishpond in barangay Salambao, Marilao [it’s actually in Obando], is being converted into an engineered landfill…With private-sector support from Ecoshield Development Corp., the proposed landfill, when operational, would receive and process garbage and contaminated mud deposits that will be dredged from MMORS….

“Ecoshield has already secured the required DENR Environment Compliance Certificate and approval of the Municipality of Obando led by Mayor Orencio Gabriel. The Bulacan provincial government has also given its nod because the project is a direct response to the SC kalikasan writ and is in compliance with the Solid Management Act….

“Aside from the landfill initiative, the City of Meycauayan, DENR and Ecoshield have signed a memorandum of agreement to establish a septage-treatment facility that will be a public-private partnership [PPP] project to address the coliform contamination problem…. Ecoshield has also put up a nursery to nurture tree saplings in support of the mangrove tree-planting effort that would plant a million mangrove trees by December, 2011….

Ducky has paid tribute to the demonstration of political will by Governor Alvarado and the mayors who have begun pitching in to get the river rehabilitation under way…

“The provincial government has also organized a River Patrol with Ecoshield to stop residents and factories from dumping garbage and toxic wastes into the river.”

Ducky also lashed out at self-styled environmentalists who have criticized Alvarado’s initiatives to clean the river without offering alternative solutions. What’s amusing is his dig on Rep. Joselito Mendoza (Third District), Alvarado’s political archenemy. “The congressman has political differences with Governor Alvarado whose success at river rehab would make apparent that the former governor neglected MMORS during his term as governor.”

Ducky also criticized a group headed by one Maria Teresa Bondoc who works in the archives section of the Senate. Ducky wrote:

“Suspected as funding Bondoc and the opposition to the province’s landfill project is the Navotas Sanitary Landfill, which is operated by the Philippine Ecological Systems, which is owned by, among others, Reghis Romero.”

As I said, I got scooped. I, therefore, eat humble pie.

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