by Benjamin Vallejo Jr.

That citizens have noticed the pile of white dolomitic sand off Manila Bay’s Baywalk promenade is good news. It only means many citizens are now aware of the value of Manila’s seafront and that the national government and the city government have taken steps to enhance it.

There was always a beach there. Old photographs dating from the Spanish colonial era show a wide sandy, low slope reflective beach, reflective means to beach scientists, a shore in which waves are dampened and make the beach safe for recreation. It was safe enough that the Spanish era Ateneo de Manila in Intramuros taught its students to swim approximately where Manila Ocean Park is now located.

The sand however was never white as dead coral. It was greyish -white. The grey sands come from the sediments brought in by the rivers which exit to the bay. The white sand comes from the remains of molluscs which then as now abound in the bay. Reclamation of this part of the bay shore began when the Spaniards established their Manila and continued throughout American Manila and to the present. With reclamation, the beach was lost. The Americans realized that bay front had to be protected from monsoonal storm surges and so the beach had to be reclaimed. What was reclaimed became Dewey (presently Roxas) Boulevard. As late as the 1930s there was a beach in Pasay since Dewey Boulevard ended where Harrison Boulevard (presently Quirino Avenue) met the bay.

The bay has been the subject of scientific research for more than 160 years. Based on records in museums in Spain, the US, UK and Germany I have examined, so many mollusc species (around 400 at last count) have been collected from Manila Bay, from the beaches near Manila since 1835. This makes Manila Bay part of a wider global center of biodiversity that extends to the Batangas and Mindoro area. Urbanization which started in the colonial period has changed the bay environment through reclamation and pollution but still based on our research, the bay is NOT DEAD, it is full of life that has adapted and supports a fishery. A new sardine species, Sardinella pacifica was first collected from polluted South Harbor. Many more species are likely to be discovered.

Our research team on Manila Bay has been observing the biodiversity and environment of the area for almost 20 years. And we have noted the positive steps taken to improve the bay, from the Supreme Court Mandamus and the civic society organizations and government’s actions. These have resulted in a some improvement in bay environmental quality but much more needs to be done of which DENR Secretary Cimatu is much aware. We support any effort to enhance the beaches only if this is informed by science and has been assessed to be least harmful to the environment.

And that’s where the pile of dolomite is questionable. The improvement of the bay’s environmental quality is possible only through natural processes with our engineering efforts to lessen sewage dumping and shore enhancement as merely assisting. If we want a beach on the Baywalk, then we should let nature do her job through natural sediment replenishment together with ensuring sewage is treated to make water suitable for recreation. The dolomite doesn’t belong in Manila Bay but to Cebu. But if we want to help Mother Nature, the first step is to stop reclamation and we will have the beach again with the sunset to match.

Posted with permission from Benjamin Vallejo Jr.’s Facebook page.