Press Release
August 4, 2007

Senate to probe La Mesa watershed invasion

The Senate is set to investigate the controversial 58-hectare housing project at the La Mesa Watershed and Lake -- an incursion that could endanger Metro Manila's main source of potable water. Sen. Loren Legarda, who has championed the environment for years, introduced the resolution enabling the Senate inquiry.

In Senate Resolution 41, Legarda urged the appropriate Senate committees to promptly look into the threat, and to find out whether extra legislation might be needed to further secure the watershed and lake.

The watershed and lake cover a total area of 2,700 hectares -- 2,000 hectares of forestland and 700 hectares of man-made reservoir.

The reservoir is Metro Manila's main source of drinking water, with some 1.5 million liters coursed through the basin every day.

President Macapagal-Arroyo only last July 18 proclaimed the watershed and lake as "a protected area, but subject to private rights."

In her resolution, Legarda stressed the need for the Senate to investigate, in aid of legislation, "as to what private rights, if any, are to prevail over the watershed."

"We have to ascertain whether we need a new law specifically reinforcing La Mesa's status as a protected area. We also have to determine the possible consequences that such new law might have on the supposed private rights," Legarda said.

The Metro Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) has a housing project for 1,141 retired employees. The intended project site falls within the "critical area" of the watershed -- inside the rim of the lake.

The Supreme Court has recognized the existence of a bargaining contract between the MWSS and its former employees for a housing project, but not necessarily in the watershed.

A previous study by the University of the Philippines' College of Engineering concluded that: "It is in the best interest of the MWSS and the general public who eventually use the water in La Mesa, that the 58 hectares of the watershed being proposed as housing site, shall remain a protected area, and not be converted to a housing project."

In pushing the Senate probe, Legarda invoked Section 16, Article II of the Constitution, which mandates the State to "protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature."

Legarda also pointed out that Congress "is duty-bound to provide every Filipino adequate access to clean and safe drinking water."

The environmental threats to La Mesa have become the subject of intense media scrutiny, amid the persistent dry spell that has endangered Metro Manila's water supply.

Legarda chaired the Senate environment and natural resources committee and authored the Solid Waste Management Act and the Clean Air Act in the 12th Congress. She also founded Luntiang Pilipinas, the nationwide tree-growing program that received the United Nations Environment Program Award in 2001.

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