MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Corp. said Friday its P740-billion New Manila International Airport project in Bulacan province will rise on an island with titled properties.
San Miguel Corp. president and chief executive Ramon Ang made this point to deny that the project would be built on reclaimed land. He said it is important to clarify the nature of its airport project amid recent discussions surrounding Manila Bay reclamation projects.
The construction of the airport project, covered by Republic Act 11506, does not involve creating new land from Manila Bay, Ang said.
He said it involves re-developing existing land that had been inundated by water in previous decades due to factors that included flooding from heavily-silted river systems, conversion to fish ponds and over-extraction of groundwater that made it more susceptible to land subsidence, among others.
“The airport project does not involve reclamation. The project site has existing, valid land titles indicating its original status as land,”’Ang said.
“Due to natural processes over time, this land had become prone to regular inundation. Instead of creating new land, we are redeveloping it to its former state ensuring its productive and sustainable use for the future,” he said.
He said the site is an island as could be seen in maps of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the National Mapping Resource Information Authority from the 1990s.
Surrounded by the Meycauayan, Taliptip and Maycapiz rivers, the low-lying land has been converted into fish ponds.
This has contributed to flooding in nearby towns, as the flow of the rivers out to Manila Bay had been impeded, and since the rivers themselves had become shallow due to siltation and pollution.
Ang reiterated that the land re-development was being done with international experts and partners including global maritime services expert Royal Boskalis to ensure that it follows the strictest international standards in environmental and social impacts mitigation.
SMC is also implementing a massive river cleanup and rehabilitation effort covering not just the nearby Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando river systems but other rivers throughout Bulacan to help address the province’s perennial flooding problem.
“Again, our goal with this massive project is to rejuvenate the inundated land and repurpose it into a more productive and transformative asset for Bulacan, the country and the Filipino people. The NMIA will not only provide a world-class facility, it will also serve as a catalyst for local and national economic growth, opening doors to countless job opportunities and paving the way for a future-ready Philippines that is competitive on the global stage,” Ang said.
“We will stay committed to ensuring that this development uplifts the lives of our kababayans and balances progress with responsibility,” he said.
