By Danielle Deloria
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — When storms hit Metro Manila, floodwaters rise faster than residents can escape. Families lose homes, workers are stranded, and livelihoods are washed away.

Amid this crisis, San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has positioned itself as a savior, with its Chief Executive Officer Ramon Ang vowing to solve flooding for free — at no cost to the people and to the government.

But local community accounts and scientists’ groups tell another story: SMC’s reclamation and airport projects are not saving lives, they are deepening the disaster.

Bulatlat cross-checked Ang’s offer to solve flooding issues and revisited SMC projects and their contributions to the worsening floods and environmental problems in Metro Manila.

Reclamation projects

Reclamation is the process of creating new land, usually offshore, on rivers or on coastal wetlands, by filling the area with sand, soil, or rocks.

The Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) implements reclamation projects in partnership with local government units and private companies like SMC.

The government has supported reclamation, which it says generates jobs, economic growth, and urban expansion.

However, rights groups from the science and fisheries sectors do not agree with these reasons.

Read: Fisherfolk group challenges BFAR to oppose destructive reclamation projects

San Miguel Corp. is among the largest players in reclamation and related projects in and around Manila Bay. Its ventures have significantly affected the environment and local communities, particularly by worsening flooding in Metro Manila.

According to a recent Bulatlat article, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) commissioned the UP Marine Science Institute and the Marine Environment and Resources Foundation (MERF) to conduct the 2024 cumulative impact assessment.

Scientists from UP have warned that reclamation poses several negative impacts, including the destruction of marine habitats, threats to marine biodiversity and increased flood risk.

They could also have severe consequences for livelihoods and coastal communities.

The assessment also reinforced the observations of Navotas fisherfolk and environmental groups, who linked massive flooding in Metro Manila during typhoons to SMC’s ongoing reclamation activities in Manila Bay.

By obstructing natural drainage pathways, these projects delay the outflow of floodwaters, especially during heavy rains.

In a recent interview, Engineer JA Montalban, public information officer of Pro-People Engineers and Leaders (PROPEL), explained that the worsening flood problem is mainly caused by rapid infrastructure construction in watersheds and waterways, particularly reclamation projects.

New Manila International Airport / Bulacan Aerotropolis

In 2018, SMC cut down 643 mangroves in Taliptip, Bulakan, Bulacan to give way to the construction of the New Manila International Airport (NMIA). 

Typhoon Ompong struck the community that year and residents of Sitio Capol told Bulatlat that the flooding was two feet higher than usual. The flooding also took longer to recede.

Agham Youth Diliman stressed that mangroves are crucial to the environment, noting that those in Taliptip serve as marine sanctuaries, protect coasts from storm surges and floods, and store carbon.

Their destruction, they said, would worsen flooding, intensify typhoon impacts, and release carbon emissions.

Local fishermen also recalled how the cutting of mangroves disrupted bird habitats: “Before, when we passed by those mangroves, there was a constant hum, the sound of birds and beating wings. Sometimes there were so many birds that even at night, the place seemed bathed in light, as if it were early morning, but it was just the white of their feathers.”

The loss of mangroves also displaced and devastated the lives of locals.

In 2020, villagers in the area continued to be evicted in exchange for P250,000 ($4,424.91), which was barely enough to cover the loss of livelihoods, food sources, and homes, especially during the pandemic.

Read: Lab Notes | Mangroves 101: Why we need to #SaveTaliptip

In 2021, SMC began planting mangroves in other parts of Bulacan as part of their conglomerate-wide initiative to improve “sustainability and flood mitigation efforts.”

That same year, the Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (Agham) and the People’s Network for the Integrity of Coastal Habitats and Ecosystems (People’s NICHE) raised concerns to the DENR, warning that SMC’s corporate wide initiative could do more harm than good as the wrong species of mangroves were being planted in the area.

In response, the DENR suspended the project while a monitoring team investigated the reported malpractice.

Narod Eco, a UP researcher specializing in disasters and geohazards, remains skeptical that the company’s actions will help mitigate the damage. “It’s just greenwashing. It’s a superficial fix for an irreversible problem,” he explained. 

NMIA: Not a Reclamation?

In 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. temporarily suspended reclamation projects nationwide pending a review of their social and environmental impacts.

SMC, however, defended the NMIA project as “land development” rather than reclamation, arguing that it is being built on land with existing valid land titles.

They also insisted the site was not on reclaimed land but rather on low-lying land historically prone to flooding and later converted to commercial fishponds.

But Dr. Murtah Shannon, senior policy advisor at Both ENDS, dismissed the claim: “Calling it land conversion is obviously nonsense. Dumping millions of cubic meters of sand into a permanently submerged area is, by any definition, reclamation.”

Global Witness revealed in an investigation published in January that the $15-billion NMIA is a “disaster prone project”.

Their findings highlighted experts’ warning that the airport’s runways could be flooded within 30 years due to rising seas and the sinking coastline on which the project is being built.

Flood solutions are more than clogged drainage

Ramon Ang, in his proposed solution, said that solving flooding is simple, even questioning why the issue is being made complicated.

He claimed all that is needed is to clean rivers, unclog waterways, and relocate those who built houses along them, adding that they should simply be given housing so it would not appear they were forcibly evicted.

However, JC Cabangon, national spokesperson of the Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (Yacap), said in an interview with Bulatlat that the flooding problem in Metro Manila goes beyond clogged canals.

Cabangon explained that it is a widespread issue tied to the global climate crisis. Citing the International Court of Justice’s  (ICJ) recent advisory that the climate crisis is a planetary crisis, he stressed that this is a reality we must adapt to.

Hence, Yacap continues to demand the government to pursue climate action and mitigation efforts that prioritize people and communities, not profit-oriented measures that favor private companies like SMC.

SMC was able to start work on these destructive reclamation projects because of Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) No. 74, series of 2019, which centralized the approval of all reclamation projects under the PRA, with the Office of the President as the final decision-maker.

Through EO 74, SMC was able to pursue large-scale projects like the NMIA in Bulacan, which required PRA recognition and presidential approval.

While the administration justified EO 74 as a measure to ensure uniformity and efficiency in reclamation, rights groups argue that it gave private companies like SMC an advantage.

They said it also weakened environmental safeguards and public consultation while enabling projects that pose serious risks to coastal ecosystems, fisheries, and the flood vulnerability of Manila Bay communities. (RTS, JDS, RVO)