Deadly mix at Smokey Mountain

CROSSROADS

Deadly mix at Smokey Mountain

By Jonathan de la Cruz

Instead of the promised multibillion-peso redevelopment of that sorry blot called Smokey Mountain after Edsa I, what we have is a monument to folly. Far from being transformed into a dynamic enclave of the empowered dis-possessed, it has turned for the worse. Instead of just hosting a “mountain of garbage,” it now also hosts a “coal mountain” as Agham party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones exposed recently.

Worse, the residents of the unfinished model community now have to contend with paying exorbitant fees for their basic utilities like power and water courtesy of the concessionaires which were only too happy to “re-connect” the families to the basics at the cost of an arm and a leg.

It appears that only the contractor/developer — the Reghis Romero Group of Companies — not the residents has its fortunes turn for the better. Such has been the sad turn of events that the Romero Group has been able to parlay that original contract into multibillion-peso other joint ventures with government including, by some magical arrangement, putting up a coal yard at its reclaimed Harbour Centre despite the existing Writ of Kalikasan issued by the Supreme Court on such undertakings within the Manila Bay influenced areas.

If, as reported lately, DENR Secretary Ramon Paje has actually issued a cease and desist order on Harbour Centre then that is really good news. But Paje should not stop there. The DENR should look deeper into this operation to determine why it was even given the green light at all and bring the guilty parties to justice. That writ, in case any DENR official or other agencies worm their way out of any responsibility, is all encompassing and, as Palmones had advised, can very well cover not just the entire coal stockpile but other possible environmental violations which Harbour Centre may have committed and may still committing to this day.

That mountain of coal sitting by Manila Bay is definitely a pollutant and violative of the most basic environmental laws such as the Clean Air, Solid Waste and Clean Water Acts. It exposes not just the residents in the area but its workers as well to such hazards as dusts and to possible spontaneous combustion since those handling the coal do not have the required protective gears and training to handle this kind of cargo. As Palmones advised, the workers don’t even have protective masks or suits to use in the coal handling operations.

After issuing that CDO, Paje should now replace his Environmental Management Bureau (of the Smokey Mountain Urban Renewal and Redevelopment Project should not stop with the “Coal Mountain CDO”). He should be asked to report on the progress of this multibillion-peso project and the use of government assets and funds for the purpose.

In the process, the residents should be asked how much they have paid for “re-connecting” their community to the providers of power and water, among other basic services and utilities, and how much burden they are now carrying as a result. In the case of power, for example, did they collect “re-connection” fees? If so, how much? Are they now fully lighted? How much are they paying?

In the case of water and sewerage is the community properly serviced and at what cost? Do they now have full household connections? What about sewerage facilities which should have been provided by the Romero Group and the service providers as part of the original redevelopment plan? How much are they being asked to pay for such services?

Did the Romero Group and the service providers collect water and sewerage re-connection fees, for example? And if so how much? Did they also build a sewerage catchment facility in the area and if so did they collect any fee for the purpose? Such collections, if any, should be looked into and if the residents have any problems with that they can work with and, if needed, affiliate with the group called Water for All Refund Movement (WARM) which has taken the cudgels for all consumers within the MWSS concession areas now being serviced by the Ayala-led Manila Water Co. (MWC) and the Metro Pacific’s Pangilinan led-Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI).

WARM has filed a syndicated estafa complaint against the shareholders and officials of the two service providers before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office for “failure to refund its customers the advance collection in their water bills amounting to P6 billion.”

These collections are embedded in the monthly water bills of all consumers and were supposed to have financed two huge multi billion projects — the Laiban Dam Project and the Angat Dam Reliability Project — both of which, for some reason, have been set aside indefinitely. But the collections continue. Presumably, the collections from the Smokey Mountain residents formed part of the refundable funds as well. That is apart from the so-called re-connection fees which were earlier reportedly collected from the community as the Romero Group went about the “redevelopment plan.”

Well, we will soon see how far government, not just the DENR, will go to look into the mysterious operations of the Romero Group at the once and future model re-development project” called Smokey Mountain.

We will also find out soon whether the deadly mix of continuing environmental hazards and illegal and unwarranted collections for every basic service being provided to what remains a problematic community remains unresolved and why.

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