What can you do with the DENR's P389M Manila Bay "white sand" filling project?

At least 13, 000 hectares of mangrove forests that are vital to the historic bay's marine ecosystem and biodiversity!

[A THREAD]

Mangrove planting costs at least $607.7 or P28, 881.6 per hectare (Primera and Esteban, 2008), which means that the DENR's whopping P389 for Manila Bay "beautification" through "white sand" filling could plant a total of 13, 469 hectares of mangrove forests!

Compared to the baloney "white sand" project along the 500-meter baywalk, mangroves serve many important purposes. Its amenities include community defense against strong waves, storm surges, flood regulation, sediment trapping, marine wildlife habitat and nurseries.

Thousands of hectares of Manila Bay mangroves were destroyed before to give way to reclamation. From decades ago until 1995, mangrove areas used to cover 54, 000 hectares but they have significantly shrunk to 2,000 hectares and at present, only less-than-a-500-hectare is left.

Now the remaining coastal periphery of mangroves, salt marshes, and diverse biodiversity in Metro Manila known as the "Freedom Island" is threatened with the reclamation of 635-hectare Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA) project.

The DENR, which heads the task force to rehabilitate Manila Bay, has been facilitating such systematic and corporate-driven destruction of Manila Bay's marine environment, through releasing environmental compliance certificates (ECC) to several reclamation projects across the bay

[to be continued]