Wednesday, April 09, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Anthony Bayarong, Correspondent
South Korean firm complied with Freeport regulations, was not given preferential treatment
SUBIC BAY Freeport: Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Administrator Armand Arreza on Tuesday said that he is open to any inquiry or investigation regarding the controversial 22-storey Hanjin Condominium.
He also stressed that the construction could no longer be stopped even if some senators and environmentalists over the weekend made an issue out of its construction, even demanding an investigation.
The Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR) also sought to cancel SBMA’s power to issue Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECC) but Arreza was quick to say that in order to do that DENR has to amend the law, specifically the RA 7227 which allows SBMA to issue ECC and other permits to locators.
“If they want to do that and remove the issuance of ECC from us they must first amend the law,” Arreza said while stressing that under the circumstances, the condominium development has been regarded as the “best use of land” for the former assembly of weapons area left by the US military in 1991.
“This area was previously used for conversion of second hand vehicles, which is more of an environment risk. Under our current zoning guidelines, the Cubi-Triboa area is a residential area, and is better suited to the environment,” Arreza clarified during a press conference on Tuesday.
Arreza said the $20 million condo project was built on a pre-existing developed area and will have a state of the art solid waste and wastewater treatment facility.
“All lands in Subic are protected, but in varying degrees. Under our management plan, this area may be used for residential purposes and the core ecological zone, which are the no-touch, no development areas are more than 2 kilometers away,” Arreza explained.
He also explained that the two condo units, one with 22-storeys and another with10 storeys will be used by Hanjin officials and staffs.
“All rules and regulations were complied by Hanjin, so it is rather unfair to say that they were given special treatment in this project,” Arezza said.
He also explained that the trees that were cut during the construction of the units were non-prime species of trees and that Hanjin has replaced them with a ratio of 1:25.
“This only shows that the 3-hectare land being developed by Hanjin was already cleared and flat way before the construction began,” Arreza said.
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