SMC: P740-B NMIA, not a reclamation project

The P740-billion New Manila International Airport (NMIA) project, soon to be the country’s largest international airport with four runways, is not a reclamation project, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) president and CEO Ramon S. Ang clarified on Friday, Aug. 11.

NMIA is being built, not on reclaimed land, but on existing low-lying land that, historically, are vulnerable to heavy flooding and were converted to commercial fishponds.

The construction of the airport project, covered by Republic Act 11506, does not involve creating new land from Manila Bay, he reiterated.

It is important to clarify this amidst recent discussions surrounding Manila Bay reclamation projects.

The truth is, the NMIA involves re-developing existing land inundated by water in previous decades due to flooding from heavily-silted river systems, conversion to fish ponds and over-extraction of groundwater that made it more susceptible to land subsidence.

“The airport project does not involve reclamation. The project site has existing, valid land titles indicating its original status as land,” Ang underscored.

“Due to natural processes over time, this land had become prone to regular inundation. Instead of creating new land, we are redeveloping it to its former state ensuring its productive and sustainable use for the future,” he said.

Notably, the site is an island, as can be seen in maps of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Mapping Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) from the 1990s.

Surrounded by the Meycauayan, Taliptip and Maycapiz rivers, the low-lying land has been converted into fish ponds.

This has, however, contributed to flooding in nearby towns, as the flow of the rivers out to Manila Bay had been impeded, and since the rivers themselves had become shallow due to siltation and pollution.

The land re-development for NMIA is being done with international experts and partners, including global maritime services expert Royal Boskalis, to ensure that it follows international standards in environmental and social impacts mitigation.

As part of the airport’s development, SMC is also implementing a massive river cleanup and rehabilitation effort covering not just the nearby Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando river systems (MMORS), but other rivers throughout Bulacan.

“Our goal is to rejuvenate the inundated land and repurpose it into a more productive and transformative asset for Bulacan,” Ang concluded.

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The article was originally published in Manila Bulletin and written by Emmie V. Abadilla.