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the environment

the environment

The 160 year old science on Manila Bay that people need to know

September 11, 2020 by
T

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.

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the environment

Bitching about the beach

September 5, 2020 by
B

by Apa Ongpin

There’s been a lot of noise, since yesterday, about a pile of sand on Roxas Boulevard. I guess many people are fed up and disgusted with the gross incompetence, lies and insincerity displayed by this government in so many areas, to the point where in their eyes, everything this regime does is wrong. It’s just a pile of sand, but it has begun to assume the proportions of the Sierra Madre.

The point of this piece is not to defend the government’s actions, but try to examine this issue a little more objectively.

In fact, let’s talk about science, and numbers.First of all “this government” is not monolithic. It has many moving parts, many of which act independently of the others, and this happens in at least three dimensions: over time, across geographic space, and across intellectual space.

President Duterte could not control every single part of this government, even if he wanted to (and every indication is that he wishes he could), for many reasons. One of them is that he simply lacks the leadership and management ability. I believe this has been well demonstrated. He is unfocused, disorganized, ad hoc, and has no strongly defined overall policy or agenda except to exact political revenge against his imagined enemies and to kiss Chinese ass.

Duterte has also shown (with a few exceptions) that he cannot effectively delegate authority, and in many cases, appoints people to critical positions who are not only unqualified for the positions, with no strong experience in the field and no track record except of loyalty to him personally, but downright incompetent as well.

Worst of all, he is often a micromanager, preferring to devote his time to trivialities, and interfering in matters that he has no clue about, like telling the public to wash their facemasks in gasoline or diesel fuel.

The pile of sand on Roxas Boulevard is a tiny component of a project that originated well before the pandemic was even on the horizon. This project, formally named the “Manila Bay Rehabilitation” was launched on January 26, 2017, by DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu, and you can read about it right here.

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