ON December 18, 2008, the Supreme Court in a landmark decision issued a mandamus ordering 13 government agencies “to clean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay, and restore and maintain its waters to SB level [Class B sea waters per Water Classification Tables under DENR Administrative Order 34 (1990)] to make them fit for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of contact recreation.”
The case started when, on January 29, 1999, concerned residents of Manila Bay filed a complaint before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Imus, Cavite, against several government agencies, among them, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Education, Health, Agriculture, Public Works and Highways, Budget and Management, Philippine Coast Guard, PNP Maritime Group, and Department of the Interior and Local Government, for the cleanup, rehabilitation and protection of Manila Bay. The complaint alleged that the quality of the Manila Bay had fallen way below the allowable standards set by law, specifically Presidential Decree 1152 of the Philippine Environment Code. The complainants alleged the continuing neglect of these government agencies in abating the pollution of Manila Bay.
On September 13, 2002, the RTC rendered a decision in favor of the complainants and ordered the government agencies concerned, jointly and severally, to clean up and rehabilitate Manila Bay and directed the DENR as the lead agency, within six months to act and perform their respective duties by devising a consolidated, coordinated and concerted scheme of action for the rehabilitation and restoration of Manila Bay.
On appeal by the government agencies concerned, the Court of Appeals by a decision on September 28, 2005, denied the appeal and affirmed the decision of the RTC in toto, stressing that the RTC’s decision did not require these government agencies to do tasks outside of their usual basic functions under existing laws. The decision of the Court of Appeals was elevated to the Supreme Court (GR 171947-48) on the ground, among others, that the cleaning or rehabilitation of the Manila Bay is not a ministerial act that can be compelled by mandamus.
In upholding the decision of the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court said:
“This case turns on government agencies and their officers who by nature of their respective offices on by direct statutory command, are tasked to protect and preserve, at the first instance, our internal waters, rivers, shores and seas polluted by human activities. To most of these agencies and their official compliment, the pollution menace does not seem to carry the high national priority it deserves, if their track records are to be norm. Their cavalier attitude towards solving, if not mitigating, the environmental pollution problem, is a sad commentary on bureaucratic efficiency and commitment.
At the core of this case is the Manila Bay, a place with a proud historic past, once brimming with marine life and, for so many decades in the past, a spot for different contact recreation activities, but now a dirty and slowly dying expanse mainly because of the object official indifference of people and institutions that could otherwise have made a difference.”
It took the Philippine government 10 long years to heed the decision of the Supreme Court. With the confidence gained during the Boracay cleanup, President Rodrigo Duterte on January 8, 2019, mandated a major cleanup of the Manila Bay, warning hotels and other establishments in the area to refrain from dumping their waste into Manila Bay or else they face closure. In a speech before local officials during the Barangay Summit on Peace and Order, President Duterte announced that he had ordered the environment secretary to start cleaning up Manila Bay.
As early as 1975, Architect Felino Palafox Jr. and his colleague from the Planning and Project Development Office of the DPW, published the Manila Bay Metropolitan Region (MBMR) Strategic Plan. With the President’s strong political will, DENR’s clean directive and Arch. Palafox’s Strategic Plan, the Supreme Court’s 2008 mandamus hopefully will be respected.
That’s what the Rule of Law is all about!