ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATE SUSPENDED

TRUE to his promise, Dagupan Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. has ordered a stop to the controversial reclamation project on a portion of the Calmay River.

He issued the order after establishing that the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) issued to a company undertaking the backfilling operation was suspended by the Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

City Administrator Alvin Fernandez secured on Thursday a copy of a letter of EMB Regional Director Joel Salvador dated October 31, 2008 informing 888 Dagupan Properties Inc., the company behind the project that it’s ECC is being suspended.

Salvador, who issued the ECC on August 5, 2008 himself, suspended the permit pending the submission of a relocation survey report from the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Dagupan City for evaluation by his office.

Salvador‘s letter was addressed to Catherine Bermachea, the project coordinator who was identified in the ECC as the company’s representative.

Earlier attempts by the city government to stop the reclamation were rebuffed by the company which claims to hold an ECC for the project.

The reclamation, which the mayor considers an environmental hazard, is also deemed to pose a flooding risk to residents of the nearby Barangay Poblacion Oeste.

City Legal Officer George Mejia said following the suspension order of Salvador, city government personnel have been sent out to the site to ensure that the backfilling operations do not resume at anytime.

Mejia also cited a provision in Article 420 (i) of the civil code which states that private lands which have been invaded by the water or waves of the sea and converted into portion of the shore or beach shall become part of public domain by virtue of the so-called “natural expropriation”.

Mejia stressed that under the law, this kind of property, even if titled, reverts back to being state-owned and therefore the government now has control and administration over it.

The company reportedly holds Transfer of Certificate of Title No. 85932 for the area it is backfilling,

Residents of Poblacion Oeste led by Kagawad Lolita Vallejos have protested the project because it blocks off the only exit of runoff water during the rainy season to the river, thus causing flooding to their community.

Mejia told The PUNCH that with Salvador’s directive the city government can now move for the suspension of the company’s ECC and recover the portion of Calmay River already backfilled with boulders and gravel.

City Administrator Fernandez told THE PUNCH that the company appears to have been unloading boulders to the backfilling project at night when there are no monitors from the city and DENR, which frustrated earlier attempts to stop the project.

Romeo Nalupa, the CENRO officer in Dagupan, said “evidence on the ground” indicate backfilling activities despite the cancellation of the ECC. The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office, the CENRO’s mother office, is only about 500 meters away from the site.

Nalupa had already directed the company to stop its backfilling operation until it secures an ECC. But by the time the ECC was issued on August 5, the company has already reclaimed one hectare of the river.

He confirmed that the other backfilling activities along the De Venecia Expressway Extension are in order as these are titled property and the owners have secured ECC from EMB.—LM

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