Lifting of park’s closure order hit
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ handling of the case of Ocean Adventure, the first marine park in the country, has posed a “clear and present danger” to the country’s environment, eight environmental and animal rights groups said.
The DENR issued a closure order on Ocean Adventure on Aug. 3 but lifted it seven days later.
The groups said the lifting of the order allowed the park to continue operations without an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).
What the DENR has done, they said, showed a shift from a position of assertion to a “distortion” of the government’s own environmental impact statement system (Presidential Decree 1586).
The law, enforced after 1985, outlines stringent requirements and processes meant to protect the environment.
The ECC, a government-issued permit, binds the companies to adopt technologies and activities in controlling air, water and land pollution.
“This distortion of the law would now allow environmentally critical projects to operate without an ECC, and not be in fear of being penalized,” the Earth Island Institute-Philippines, Philippine Animal Welfare Society, Tanggol Kalikasan, Compassion and Responsibility for Animals, Bangon Kalikasan Movement, Salika, Center for Environmental Concerns and the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment said in a statement.
In reversing the court-approved closure order, the DENR, park operator Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium Inc. (SBMEI) and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority that issued the park’s ECC, risk being cited for contempt, the groups said.
They said the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau should not have issued the lift order because the SBMEI had yet to answer many technical, environmental and animal welfare issues since it operated in February 2001 here.
In a resolution on May 4 this year, the Department of Justice also found that SBMEI violated the Animal Welfare Act (Republic Act 8485) by not registering its operations with the Bureau of Animal Industry. The BAI has issued the SBMEI a notice of non-compliance.
Lormelyn Claudio, EMB Central Luzon director, said her decision to lift the closure order did not mean that the DENR had reneged on its responsibilities.
Claudio said she allowed the SBMEI to temporarily operate after the SBMA endorsed the appeal of the company and gave assurance that the latter’s continued operations posed no grave threat to the environment.
The SBMEI, according to her, agreed to undergo a validation of its SBMA-issued ECC and abide by the DENR’s rules.
The DENR, Claudio said, was enforcing the environmental impact statement system at the freeport now that the court had upheld the regulatory power of the DENR over the SBMA.
But this, she said, would not be done in such a way that it would disrupt the operations of some 600 locators at the freeport.
SBMEI officials told the Inquirer on Friday that legal and ethical issues raised by their critics were “without bases.”
SBMEI chief executive officer Tim Desmond, president and chief operating officer John Corcoran and vice president for corporate affairs Gregorio Magdaraog said their firm was “ready to comply with the ultimate actions of both agencies (DENR and SBMA) of government.”
They also said they were “ready at any time to cooperate [with the BAI] with equal transparency” after clarifications from the Department of Agriculture.
On the ethical aspects, Desmond said the whales, dolphins and sea lions the company features in shows were rescued in China and nursed to health in its facility here.
The deaths of three whales in the park since 2001 were not due to negligence or improper care, he said.
The DENR issued a closure order on Ocean Adventure on Aug. 3 but lifted it seven days later.
The groups said the lifting of the order allowed the park to continue operations without an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).
What the DENR has done, they said, showed a shift from a position of assertion to a “distortion” of the government’s own environmental impact statement system (Presidential Decree 1586).
The law, enforced after 1985, outlines stringent requirements and processes meant to protect the environment.
The ECC, a government-issued permit, binds the companies to adopt technologies and activities in controlling air, water and land pollution.
“This distortion of the law would now allow environmentally critical projects to operate without an ECC, and not be in fear of being penalized,” the Earth Island Institute-Philippines, Philippine Animal Welfare Society, Tanggol Kalikasan, Compassion and Responsibility for Animals, Bangon Kalikasan Movement, Salika, Center for Environmental Concerns and the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment said in a statement.
In reversing the court-approved closure order, the DENR, park operator Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium Inc. (SBMEI) and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority that issued the park’s ECC, risk being cited for contempt, the groups said.
They said the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau should not have issued the lift order because the SBMEI had yet to answer many technical, environmental and animal welfare issues since it operated in February 2001 here.
In a resolution on May 4 this year, the Department of Justice also found that SBMEI violated the Animal Welfare Act (Republic Act 8485) by not registering its operations with the Bureau of Animal Industry. The BAI has issued the SBMEI a notice of non-compliance.
Lormelyn Claudio, EMB Central Luzon director, said her decision to lift the closure order did not mean that the DENR had reneged on its responsibilities.
Claudio said she allowed the SBMEI to temporarily operate after the SBMA endorsed the appeal of the company and gave assurance that the latter’s continued operations posed no grave threat to the environment.
The SBMEI, according to her, agreed to undergo a validation of its SBMA-issued ECC and abide by the DENR’s rules.
The DENR, Claudio said, was enforcing the environmental impact statement system at the freeport now that the court had upheld the regulatory power of the DENR over the SBMA.
But this, she said, would not be done in such a way that it would disrupt the operations of some 600 locators at the freeport.
SBMEI officials told the Inquirer on Friday that legal and ethical issues raised by their critics were “without bases.”
SBMEI chief executive officer Tim Desmond, president and chief operating officer John Corcoran and vice president for corporate affairs Gregorio Magdaraog said their firm was “ready to comply with the ultimate actions of both agencies (DENR and SBMA) of government.”
They also said they were “ready at any time to cooperate [with the BAI] with equal transparency” after clarifications from the Department of Agriculture.
On the ethical aspects, Desmond said the whales, dolphins and sea lions the company features in shows were rescued in China and nursed to health in its facility here.
The deaths of three whales in the park since 2001 were not due to negligence or improper care, he said.
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