SEN. Francis Pangilinan on Wednesday said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) must strictly enforce environmental laws and permit requirements on reclamation, quarrying, mining and land conversion, warning that poorly planned development can magnify flooding already worsened by extreme rainfall and rapid urbanization.
In a statement, Pangilinan said the DENR must fulfill its mandate and ensure that projects do not compromise watersheds, waterways, wetlands, coastlines, and communities for present and future generations.
“The cumulative impact of overlapping permits for reclamation, quarrying and land conversion exacerbates flooding; environmental permits are not a license to condemn present and future generations to suffer from floods,” Pangilinan said.
“The DENR’s role does not end with processing permits. The department’s mandate is to protect and conserve the ecosystems that protect and sustain us,” he added.
Citing DENR’s cumulative impact assessment on reclamation projects in Metro Manila warning of a possible “bottleneck” effect on floodwaters discharge into Manila Bay, Pangilinan underscored the need to assess projects collectively rather than approve them one at a time without adequately accounting for their combined impact on an entire bay or watershed.
“As I said, water does not recognize political or project boundaries. And it also does not recognize environmental compliance certificates,” Pangilinan said.
“Therefore, the DENR must look at the entire watershed — from the mountains and rivers down to the cities and Manila Bay — before authorizing projects that permanently alter the flow of water,” he added.
The DENR earlier said that widespread urbanization and paved surfaces, which prevent rainwater from infiltrating the ground, have a much larger impact on Metro wide flooding.
Pangilinan said this makes stricter scrutiny of land conversion equally urgent, particularly where farms, wetlands, floodplains and other permeable areas are replaced by subdivisions, roads, warehouses and commercial developments.
He urged DENR to impose no-go zones in critical watersheds, wetlands, mangroves, floodways and river easements; require transparent cumulative flood-impact studies; strengthen monitoring of quarry and mining operations; and suspend or revoke permits when environmental safeguards are violated.
“We cannot keep engineering our way out of floods while approving developments that remove the very forests, wetlands, floodplains, and waterways that absorb and carry water,” Pangilinan said.
“Development must work with nature, not force present and future generations to suffer and pay for destroying it,” he added.