The furor on the Taal resort spa

THE DIFFERENCE between a local government strongly in favor of a project, compared to one that is not or at best indifferent, is illustrated by the ongoing furor on the proposed resort spa near the crater of Taal volcano in Batangas. Activist farmers and fishermen are against it, joined by the outgoing governor and vice governor of Batangas province as well as the mayor of Tagaytay City. “If Taal Volcano was (sic) under my administrative authority, I would have scrapped that project even during its initial phase,� Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham Tolentino was quoted as saying. Only the municipal government of Talisay, which has jurisdiction over the volcano, is clearly in favor, with the mayor, Florencio Manimtim, entering into a memorandum of agreement with the Korean developer, Jung Ang Interventure Corporation. That the community around the famous volcano only got to learn about the project last June 14, 2007 when the Environmental Clearance Certificate was issued on November 8, 2006, tells volumes about the secrecy attending the whole project. The procedures for a securing an ECC in an environmentally critical area (which applies to Taal Lake) are found here, specifically on pages 21 to 23. It provides for a 120-working day processing period (roughly five to six months) starting when the submitted documents have been verified for completeness. This means the application for that Taal spa project was submitted to the DENR Regional Office sometime in June or July last year, or even earlier. The procedures require at least two public consultations, one before the 120 days and the other during the review of the application. The most relevant questions are: Who attended these two public meetings? Did these really take place, or merely on paper? Another set of relevant questions worth asking: Did the Sangguniang Bayan pass a legislative measure authorizing Mayor Manimtim to enter into a MOA with their Korean partners? If it did, were there public hearings conducted on the matter? Did those consultations really take place, or are they merely on paper? Another aspect that should be looked at is the role of the preparers of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) report that is one of the "must" document requirements for an ECC. The procedures require an accountability statement from the consultant hired to conduct the study. It will be very interesting to find out how the EIS was completed by these consultant-preparers -- a cottage industry spawned by our environmental regulations -- in complete secrecy. Maybe their consultations were held in Korea, and not in Batangas? Photo by R. W. Decker of the University of Hawaii Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes.