DON’T get carried away by those bleeding heart stories about the reported collapse of the resort houses at the coastal town of San Felipe in Zambales. They did not collapse because of dredging activities along the coastlines of that idyllic town, as some parties want us to believe.
They collapsed because of the huge waves, strong winds, and heavy rainfall brought by the southwest monsoon, or what is popularly called “habagat.” Dredging activities are happening elsewhere, not along the coastlines of San Felipe. Dredging by legitimate private entities is heavily regulated, as indicated by official documents.
In Zambales, what is happening is not a classic mining contract between the government and private dredging contractors. Dredging activities there are covered by the River Restoration Through Dredging under DENR-DPWH-DILG-DoTr Joint Memorandum Circular No. 01-2019 and its implementing order DENR Administrative Order No. 13, Series of 2019 for Zambales.
DAO 2019-13 specifically rationalizes dredging in heavily silted channels to protect rivers and prevent flooding:Bucao River in Botolan, Maloma River in San Felipe, and Sto. Tomas River traversing the towns of San Marcelino, San Narciso, and San Felipe. It is not easy to argue against the efforts of three government agencies in a tripartite agreement of cooperation.
According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Joint Circular says that what is taking place there is river restoration is dredging, not quarrying in its simplest form, and it is not covered by the traditional industrial or commercial sand and gravel permit. The DAO 2019-13, DAO 2020-07 , and Joint Memorandum Circular say the following:
First, dredging is done at no cost to the government. The template clearly says: The dredging activities are being conducted at no cost to the government.” Holders of dredging permits are required to provide financing, technology, management and personnel. The interagency committee assigned tasks to private entities which earn from dredged materials mixture of rocks, boulders, soil and lahar. These state agencies include the DENR, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and Department of interior and Local Government (DILG).
Second, securing permits is required before any actual dredging operations. Dredging of those areas is being sought because of the heavy volume of rocks, boulders, sand, and other lahar materials that came out from the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo volcano. Its eruption has caused some dramatic changes along the coastlines of Zambales. The coastlines of towns like Iba, Botolan, Cabangan, San Felipe, San Narciso, San Antonio, and San Marcelino have extended by a kilometer because of the accretion of those volcanic materials. Hence, new lands were created and settlers, mostly from elsewhere, arrived there putting up new resort houses.
The dredging clearance comes from the DPWH Regional Office based on DPWH’s dredging master plan and upon submission of the letter of intent to the DENR secretary. Hence, the Memorandum of Agreement comes out with the DENR regional office granting authority to dispose of materials extracted from River Dredging Zone (RDZ). The dredging operators have to seek accreditation as trader and dealer from the MGB regional office and environment compliance certificate (ECC) from the EMB Regional Office.
Third, there are also technical considerations in the dredging permits, which private contractors have to follow. Only dredging is allowed within the exclusive River Dredging Zone (RDZ) and quarrying is strictly prohibited. Moreover, the prescribed extraction method and sequence has to be approved by DPWH. Dredging operators have to follow buffer zones so that dredging would not go wayward or outside the assigned areas. In the Maloma Project, it is 50 meters from the Maloma River and Lower Maloma Steel Bridge; 200 meters from shoreline to dredging basin, pilot channel at middle 1/3 of river width, constant 40 meters wide, 2 meter deep and 2,300 meters long from 363 meters upstream to 350 meters from shoreline. Hence, the dredging basin has to be 150 meters by 150 meters by 4 meters deep.
Fourth, there is no extraction limit. The DAO 2020-07, issuance of ECC shall not be subject to any extraction limit provided extraction conforms to approved work program. Also, DAO 2020-07 says there is no extraction limit.
The bureaucratic requirements are the State’s way to protect itself. The government agencies have to form an inter-agency committee led by DENR and composed of DPWH and DILG to synchronize varying standpoints to fulfill their separate mandates. The Department of Transportation (DoTr) monitors the Multipartite Monitoring Team (MMT) as the oversight body looking at benchmark levels. PENRO-Zambales provides daily monitoring to ensure environmental regulations.
Furthermore, private dredging contractors have to submit a cash bond, the value of which is determined by the committee, which holds it for compliance of the Environmental Guarantee Fund (EGF), which is equivalent to 1% of Gross Income deposited in escrow managed by the MMT. Any work deviation of more than 15% from approved work program without prior concurrence sufficient ground for suspension or cancellation of the permit.
Hence, commercial disposition does not make activity unlawful “so long as regulatory prerequisites are fulfilled and approved work is adhered to.” The DENR issues Notices of Violations, warnings and suspension orders on erring private groups. According to the recent report of Engr. Ralph Pablo, DENR Regional Director, “province of Zambales remains entitled to its share from the commercial disposal of the dredged materials, while permit holder retains obligation to undertake river restoration”
Hence, extraction fees go to the provincial government per Local Government Code; excise taxes on actual market value at time of removal goes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), while monitoring and supervision fees not less than 5% of market value of gross output exclusive of other taxes – in offshore dredge-fill version formula has this sharing formula: 40% NRDC, 40% PEA, and 20% LGUs. Private dredging contractors recover cost through sale of lahar. Still, cost recovery through sale of dredged materials, is subject to appropriate government regulations.
Dredging activities are pursued and authorized only in river channels and estuaries and deltas within designated zones. DENR-3 Director Ralph Pablo denied operations in Sitio Tektek, Sto. Tomas and in drainage areas of San Narciso and San Felipe (Maculcol), saying operations are confined to designated dredging zones and estuaries. In practice, Maloma and Bucao and Sto. Tomas RDZ are used.
The volumes of dredged materials speak for themselves. The Maloma River project of Spartan Mining and Development Corp. has an estimated 12.120 million million lahar. A Senate resolution said Spartan was scheduled to extract an estimated 12.12 million cubic meters. For all three rivers, PHI Group / Spartan JV have estimated extraction of 1.4 billion metric tons of lahar sand from Sto. Tomas, Maloma and Bucao Rivers.
Certain environmental groups opposed the dredging there for certain reasons. But this is another story. These groups include the Zambales Ecological Network (ZEN), Pamalakaya, and Save Zambales Kalikasan Movement (SZKM). (To be concluded)
STIFF REGULATIONS COVER DREDGING IN ZAMBALES (Last of two parts)
CERTAIN environment groups have opposed the dredging there for certain reasons. But this is another story. The alphabet soup of self-proclaimed environmental groups include the Zambales Ecological Network (ZEN), Pamalakaya, and Save Zambales Kalikasan Movement (SZKM). They alleged irregularities in the dredging activities, which the government through various agencies is supposed to regulate.
They alleged that what the dredging operators did was sand-mining, which was disguised as river dredging and flood-control, resulting in coastal soil erosion and socio-economic harm to all residents, including new settlers. They hardly spoke on the issue of the adverse effects of the monsoon season or “habagat,” treating it as if it does not exist.
They alleged that the collapse of more than 50 resort houses in the coastline of San Felipe town was due to what they described as dredging activities there. It was unfounded. It was unsupported by facts. Besides, critics hardly mentioned the huge waves, strong winds, and heavy rain downpour as factors that led to soil erosion along the coastline of San Felipe, which extended since the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo volcano by almost a kilometer because of the accretion of volcanic materials along the coastlines.
They also claimed more than 5,000 fisherfolk across San Felipe, Botolan, and San Narciso were affected, claiming further that their traditional fishing grounds were allegedly destroyed by the noise and vibrations caused by the large dredging vessels sucking sand within municipal waters since October 2023. They alleged their operations were conducted about 50 meters from shoreline. They alleged that Chinese vessels belonging to the state-owned China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. were (CHEC) operating to gather sand and other materials allegedly for reclamation projects in the Manila Bay area.
They also made the claim that Zambales never was a calamity area for floods because the West Philippine Sea is a natural drainage and that diking of rivers in the town of Botolan traps water. The DENR gave a counter argument that could be noted for its brevity: erosion is due to Mt Pinatubo volcano lahar accretion, and the monsoon or habagat season.
Many of the resort houses that collapsed in San Felipe were illegally built on unclassified public land and accretion areas. Hence, the Central Regional Office (CENRO) of DENR issued earlier what they called as Notice of Violations (NOVs) to certain resort owners, who were identified as Allan Fernandez, Ferdinand Bugarin, Erwin Cruz, among others. Those NOVs could also be seen as short of eviction notices.
The DENR said that the most adversely affected areas in Sitio Liwliwa are accreted unclassified public lands, which cannot be privately owned. Incidentally, what the resort owners have are mere “rights” to those pieces of public land. The term “right” is undefined, although some people refer to it as the “right to squat.”
So who composes those environmental groups there? There were observations that resort owners themselves could be the members of environmental groups, but not all. SZKM is described as a network including fishermen’s groups Pamamalakaya, Deep Sea Fishing Inc., San Narciso Bangus Fry Association, San Narciso Resorts Owners Association, women and other groups. The preliminary damage assessment report covering typhoon impacts came from the San Felipe Resort Owners Association.
The business interest of certain resort owners coincides with their environmental interest. Resorts in Sitio Liwliwa in San Felipe town are beachfront resorts. Hence, coastal erosion emanating from the habagat onslaughts of combined huge waves, strong winds, and heavy rain, destroys cottages, agoho trees, and other beach amenities.
Resort owners, mostly settlers from elsewhere, could only complain of what nature has brought to their fortune. Lili Marlene (not her real name), a resort owner in Sto. Tomas, said “Halos ‘yan sira-sira lahat. Hindi na kami makapagtanggap ng guest”. They claim they bought land in good faith with documents and provide local employment.
The DENR and the Zambales LGUs, said there are now 2,000 illegal private resorts in the coastal areas. Since 2008, permanent warning signs have declared the danger zones and that their construction are considered illegal, so resort owners joined protests to defend their investments and push the narrative that dredging, not squatting, causes their losses.
