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The Court of Appeals (CA) junked for lack of evidence the petition filed by senatorial candidate Cynthia A. Villar which sought to stop a reclamation project along Manila bay’s coastline spanning the municipality of Bacoor and the cities of Las Piñas and Parañaque.
In a 48-page decision dated April 26, the CA 3rd division denied Ms. Villar’s petition for a writ of kalikasan (nature) against the Las Piñas-Parañaque Coastal Bay project and ruled that “[n]o credible, competent, and reliable evidence had been presented to support the allegations that the proposed coastal bay project would cause environmental damage of such magnitude as to prejudice the lives, health or properties of the residents of Parañaque and Las Piñas.”
Ms. Villar is the wife of outgoing Sen. Manuel “Manny” B. Villar, Jr. She is running under the administration-led Liberal Party and seeks to replace her husband in the upcoming May 13 elections.
In her petition filed on March 16, 2012 before the Supreme Court (SC), Ms. Villar alleged that the project, which is headed by AllTech Contractors, Inc. in partnership with the government, would “inundate two-thirds of the entire areas of the cities of Las Piñas, Parañaque and Bacoor.”
She claimed that the project would change the natural flows of the Las Piñas, Parañaque and Zapote rivers.
“Coupled with heavy rainfall, storm surge, and other factors brought about by a major typhoon, this will cause immense flooding in the areas and surroundings of the said rivers,” she said, adding: “Such project is not only replete with procedural shortcomings, worse, it is clearly damaging to the environment... and would place [residents] at great risk of losing their lives and properties to catastrophic flooding.”
On April 24, 2012, the SC issued a writ against AllTech Contractors, Inc., Philippine Reclamation Authority, Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Bureau and the Cities of Las Piñas, Parañaque and Bacoor, which required them “to file their verified returns (answers) which shall contain all defense.”
The SC then remanded the case to the appeals court for hearing.
In its decision, the CA, however, said Ms. Villar failed to show a “causal link” between the project and the “catastrophic environmental damage feared [by the petitioner].”
“The credibility, reliability and objectivity of the scientific studies presented by respondent AllTech and the totality of the evidence presented leave very little occasion to ponder that the constitutional right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology hangs in the balance because of the reclamation project,” read the decision penned by Associate Justice Apolinario D. Bruselas, Jr.
Associate Justices Rebecca De Guia-Salvador and Samuel H. Gaerlan concurred with Mr. Bruselas. -- DEDS.
Ms. Villar is the wife of outgoing Sen. Manuel “Manny” B. Villar, Jr. She is running under the administration-led Liberal Party and seeks to replace her husband in the upcoming May 13 elections.
In her petition filed on March 16, 2012 before the Supreme Court (SC), Ms. Villar alleged that the project, which is headed by AllTech Contractors, Inc. in partnership with the government, would “inundate two-thirds of the entire areas of the cities of Las Piñas, Parañaque and Bacoor.”
She claimed that the project would change the natural flows of the Las Piñas, Parañaque and Zapote rivers.
“Coupled with heavy rainfall, storm surge, and other factors brought about by a major typhoon, this will cause immense flooding in the areas and surroundings of the said rivers,” she said, adding: “Such project is not only replete with procedural shortcomings, worse, it is clearly damaging to the environment... and would place [residents] at great risk of losing their lives and properties to catastrophic flooding.”
On April 24, 2012, the SC issued a writ against AllTech Contractors, Inc., Philippine Reclamation Authority, Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Bureau and the Cities of Las Piñas, Parañaque and Bacoor, which required them “to file their verified returns (answers) which shall contain all defense.”
The SC then remanded the case to the appeals court for hearing.
In its decision, the CA, however, said Ms. Villar failed to show a “causal link” between the project and the “catastrophic environmental damage feared [by the petitioner].”
“The credibility, reliability and objectivity of the scientific studies presented by respondent AllTech and the totality of the evidence presented leave very little occasion to ponder that the constitutional right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology hangs in the balance because of the reclamation project,” read the decision penned by Associate Justice Apolinario D. Bruselas, Jr.
Associate Justices Rebecca De Guia-Salvador and Samuel H. Gaerlan concurred with Mr. Bruselas. -- DEDS.
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