Photos confirm Hanjin built condo before it got ECC

Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Phil. Inc. had finished concreting the eighth floor of its 22-story condominium when the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority issued the project and environmental compliance certificate on July 13, 2007.

Sen. Pia Cayetano discovered the violation based on Hanjin’s own photographs of the construction activities.

Fifteen large photographs documented the phases of the work for the two condominium buildings (the other building is 12-story high). Both were built on a three-hectare land in the middle of the lush forest within the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales.

Cayetano’s technical team saw the photographs at the company’s makeshift office at the construction site. The senator showed copies of those photographs to SBMA officials when she and Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri inspected the site on Friday.

Cayetano raised this issue with SBMA ecology chief Amethya dela Llana-Koval during the Friday hearing at the Subic freeport.

Koval said the SBMA has fined Hanjin P50,000 for the violation. She admitted that the SBMA did not suspend the construction, which Cayetano said should have been the proper thing to do under the environmental impact system law (Presidential Decree No. 1586).

Cayetano belittled the fine. “That’s pathetic. We definitely have to change the law. Is this the message we want to send to our locators? Come to this country [and] if you miss any permits, we are just going to fine you $1,000? Nakakaawa naman tayo (We are pitiful),” she said.

SBMA Chair Feliciano Salonga said the SBMA made a mistake. “We goofed,” Salonga told Cayetano.

Manuel Gerochi, DENR undersecretary for lands management, said in the same hearing that “besides the penalty, they are to be suspended until the issuance of ECC.”

Cayetano said under SBMA guidelines on the implementation of the EIS, “all new and existing projects” within the freeport must get an ECC first or a certificate of non-coverage.”

Cayetano found Hanjin’s construction work prior to the ECC issuance as a “grave violation” of the law and SBMA guidelines.

Delegated authority

“Here we are in a situation where the function of the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) has been delegated to the SBMA, and it is clear to me that SBMA is not really certain as to what laws apply and what constitutes development, construction, plan, or whatever activities before the ECC permit,” she said.

“So how can you tell us that [DENR could] delegate these powers when it would take Undersecretary Gerochi over and over to even tell you when permits are due, when penalties are due, what activities are allowed,” Cayetano said.

SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said the SBMA allowed Hanjin to start building the condominiums in January 2007 because “our position is that the clearing and demolition did not require an ECC because what were demolished were existing bunkers.”

Arreza said the site of Hanjin’s condominiums had previously been used by the Americans for the storage, test, check, assembly and limited maintenance of weapons. He said it was cleared by the United States Navy as early as 1968.

Koval said aside from the penalty and admonitions, Hanjin was required to apply for permits for demolition, clearing, tree cutting and soil testing surveys. Tonette Orejas with reports from Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon