People-centric improvements are in the pipeline for advancement of areas where Pasig Rivers passes. Also in this urban development plan for the rehabilitation of the 'dead' waterway, is the preservation of its historical and cultural value.
FOR the nth time, the government hopes to revive what experts described as a dead Pasig River as the Inter-Agency Council for the Pasig River Urban Development (IAC-PRUD) presented to Malacañang its proposed master plan targeting a costly rehabilitation of the historic waterway connecting the Laguna de Bay and the Manila Bay.
According to the IAC-PRUD, the project is not limited to river rehabilitation as it embarks on maximizing its economic potential by creating commercial hubs on both sides of the waterway hoping to draw taxes from the business establishments that would come in.
Dubbed as the Pasig Bigyang Buhay Muli (PBBM) Project, the massive urban development would see the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) as the lead agency.
Why not DENR?
Under Executive Order 35 that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed on July 25 this year, DHSUD will take the lead, with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) as vice chair of the IAC-PRUD.
Interestingly, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which has direct mandate over the waterways is not part of the endeavor – raising suspicion of the rise of a condominium strip along the Pasig River banks with a property developer at the helm of the lead agency.
No less than DHSUD in a press release issued to various media organizations admitted that the master plan that was submitted to the President contains development plans – composed of mixed-use commercial areas and open public parks – along the 27-kilometer stretch of the Pasig River from the Manila Bay to Laguna Lake.
Eviction Spree
According to a study conducted by the Environmental Engineering Research (EER) based in South Korea, 4.4 million residents — of Metro Manila’s estimated 15 million population — are residing in the Pasig River area.
Hence, the need for the government to raise more funds if only to defray the heavy cost of clearing the riverbanks, relocation, or compensation for the affected residents and businesses which could take years in the making.
Taking cue from the previous government projects which required clearing of existing residential structures, eviction is taking years especially if the affected residents would show resistance against the idea of being transferred to a relocation area far from their workplace, school, inaccessibility, absence of essential facilities and inadequate utilities.
Misplaced Priority
Establishment of commercial hubs along 27-kilometer riverbanks does not qualify as rehabilitation of the Pasig River which has become the final ‘resting place’ of plastics and industrial wastes.
According to a study conducted and published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) showed Pasig River as the top polluter of the world’s oceans, with an estimated 38,000 tons of plastics ending up in the oceans (via Manila Bay) every year.
Of 1,656 rivers in the Philippines that were found to contribute plastic wastes to the oceans, Pasig River (with an average width of 91 meters and an average depth of 1.3 meters) topped the list.
Pasig River’s water quality is supposedly Class C in terms of usage as per the DENR classification, which means the waterways should be suitable for growing fish and other marine resources — on top of its geographical advantage it being an ideal route for travel and trade as it directly leads to the country’s main port.
Looking Back
Pasig River rehabilitation efforts goes way back in 1973 when the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. launched the Pasig River Development Program (PRDP) through the Pasig River Development Council (PRDC).
From the time the program was launched, PRDC focused on dredging silted portions of the river and putting up walls along its banks — until Marcos Sr. was forced to step down in view of the historic EDSA Revolution in 1986.
With Marcos gone in the scene, both PRDC and PRDP were abolished in 1987 due to lack of support.
The government again tried to revive the Pasig River in 1999 through the creation of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC). Its main goal was to supervise, monitor plans, programs, projects and activities, and enforce rules and regulations for the rehabilitation of the river.
No More Rehab
In September 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte declared Pasig River to be “uncleanable.” A couple of months later, he ordered the abolition of PRRC, calling it a waste of time and money.
The commission’s powers and functions, listed by Executive Order No. 93, was then transferred to other government agencies and offices like Manila Bay Task Force, the DENR, DHSUD and the MMDA.
According to EER, failure to achieve the target water quality for Class C rivers, like Pasig River, was due to insufficient government funding aside from lack of support from Metro Manila residents and natural disasters.
“The lack of monetary resources had resulted in the weak implementation of government projects. The government has not been able to provide enough wastewater facilities to treat huge discharges coming from domestic, industrial and solid wastes, with the majority of these wastes being discharged directly into the river without proper treatment,” the study said.
Renewed Rehab Bid
For a start, the IAC-PRUD identified eight key areas where the people-centric improvements, such as jogging paths and bike lanes, could be made from the city of Manila up to Rizal province, traversing major cities in the metropolis.
The project also covers permanent relocation for thousands of informal settler families (ISF) along the Pasig River banks even as DHSUD claimed that plans are already laid out for the resettlement of the affected ISFs, with the collaboration of other national government agencies, such as the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA).
DHSUD Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar, a known real property developer before being appointed by Marcos as housing czar, said the project complied with EO 35, which tasked the IAC-PRUD to formulate an urban development plan for the rehabilitation of the Pasig River while preserving its “historical and cultural value.”
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