Noynoy rejects P18.5-billion Laguna Lake dredging

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has disapproved a project to dredge Laguna de Bay, saying he found it pointless to spend P18.5 billion just to move dredged matter from one area of the lake to another nearby site.

The dredging of the lake is supposed to prevent the water level from rising and flooding nearby areas.

“I rejected it in its present form,” he said yesterday at a roundtable with STAR editors.

He said a project presentation a few weeks ago revealed that the dredged material would simply be dumped into another part of the lake. “How would that work? It would be the same thing and we would be spending P18.5 billion for it.”

Environmental group Kilusang Lawa Kalikasan, however, said the President may have been misinformed about the project’s benefits.

The group’s spokesman said the silt dredged from the lake would be placed in geotubes that would be placed on the lakeshore to act as a sieve for the water runoff.

“The silt to be recovered from the upper layers of the lake bed will be treated through bioremediation and phytoremediation, which would free it of pollutants,” Navarro said.

He said the Belgian firm that would undertake the dredging of the lake has a hundred years’ experience in Belgium and has completed projects in China, South Korea and Hong Kong.

“It is a pity that many obstacles are hindering a project that already has financing and adjudged by the Department of Justice thrice as aboveboard. It has been approved by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the National Economic and Development Authority. Must we always have all projects to be tainted by graft even when there is none?” Navarro said.

Last year, residential areas in Laguna and Rizal were submerged for weeks because of the flooding caused by tropical storm “Ondoy.”

Delon Porcalla, Philippine Star