Septic means, toxic ways

FOR ONCE, I am in full accord with the Clark Development Corp. under President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade. In the instance of CDC stopping the construction of a purported sewage treatment plant along Sacobia River at the Clark Special Economic Zone, popularly known as sub-zone.

Yesterday, the papers reported that Regional Trial Court Branch 57 Executive Judge Omar Viola issued a temporary restraining order status quo ante on the project, which in the first place was never coordinated, much less contracted, with the CDC. Our faith not only in the sense of justice but also in the inherent and learned wisdom of Judge Viola is affirmed anew.

Indeed, the very first time this sewerage treatment – alternatingly termed water treatment and waste recovery– facility became public was via press release with an accompanying photo showing TesuPhils Inc. represented by its president Si Young Chon and L.C. Soliman Septic Tank Inc. represented by its chairman Lydia Soliman signing a memorandum of agreement for the purported $2-million project with Senator Lito Lapid, Central Luzon Police Regional Office 3 OIC Chief Supt. Ronald Santos, and Malabanias, Angeles City Barangay Captain Rey Gueco standing as witnesses.

The absence of any CDC representative in the initial undertaking of a big project within Clark was enough to ring alarm bells and raised red flags all over it. It’s no way to do business at the Freeport. (The tricolored green, white, and red flag though raised by the presence of politicians Lapid and Gueco was in aid of election. But that’s a story all its own).

Thus, CDC issuing a cease-and-desist order on the grounds that the project’s location is part of the CDC-controlled area under Republic Act 7227 as amended by Executive Order 80, Series of 1993, that it is subject to the Joint Management Agreement the CDC signed with tribal leaders, that it did not have the necessary papers from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, among others.

Which – CDC’s CDO, that is – the project proponents, along with certain tribal leaders and the barangay chair, ignored. Asserting inherent rights to their ancestral domain. Sans any claim of political push from Lapid. Nor any religious backing.

Comes now EJ Viola: "After considering facts and circumstances availing in this case and from the averments in the petition, there are several contentious issues that need to be addressed and resolved by this court."

Thus: "Effective immediately, and continuing for only 17 days or up to August 10, the respondents are hereby restrained and enjoined from implementing the June 16, 2015 Memorandum of Agreement, including the Joint Venture as well as other activities related thereto or in connection with the construction, establishment and operation of Waste Recovery Facility at Barangay Calumpang, Mabalacat City, CSEZ and from conducting further activity within the area."

Without delving into the actual merits of the case, neither judge nor even just a lawyer am I, stopping – not only via TRO but definitively – the construction of the subject sewerage treatment facility is the right thing to do.

By its very location – right within the Sacobia River channel, directly under the bridge linking Clark’s main and sub-zones – the project already violates zoning, infra and environmental laws.

A terrifying prospect obtains right there, given: 1) the structural integrity of the bridge compromised by the diggings in the construction of the facility; 2) the volatility of the behaviour of Sacobia River during heavy rains – scouring banks on one hand, swamping its channel with lahar deposits on the other. Not to mention the high probability of the contamination of the aquifer in case of leachate.

Aye, aye, septic means to toxic ways with all the appurtenant apocalyptic horrors presaging here.

That sewerage treatment facility, even at its construction, already poses not only  clear and present danger, but moreso imminent and certain devastation as much to the immediate village of Calumpang as to all the other communities downstream Sacobia River.

It should not only be stopped. It must be expunged.