Monday, March 24, 2008 DENR urged to verify Idis claims on Shrine Hills
HOUSE Speaker Prospero Nograles called on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to look into claims that Shrine Hills would collapse if unabated housing projects in the area continue.
In his reaction to the Sun.Star Davao article dated March 23 entitled "Shrine Hills, a tragedy waiting to happen: Idis," Nograles said concerned agencies must readily conduct verification to validate or refute the claims of environment group Interface Development Interventions (Idis).
In a statement, Idis executive director Lia Jasmin Esquillo branded Shrine Hills as "a tragedy waiting to happen."
"Ang dami namang flatlands for housing, bakit yun pa pinupuntirya? (There are so many flatlands for housing, why that place?) It's a tragedy waiting to happen. Stop real estate development in the area," Esquillo said.
"I want the DENR to verify, validate and make sure that no accident will ever happen. It's a matter of engineering and DENR clearances. If the hills collapse, then those government agencies were either ignorant or careless or both. It's they who will answer," Nograles said.
Ma-a homeowners are presently opposing subdivision developments in the area fearing these would trigger landslides. The homeowners association already sent a letter to the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) for a moratorium on the development "until safety can be assured."
The Ma-a homeowners environmental committee debunked the Engineering Geological and Geohazard Assessment Report for Palm Grove West Housing Subdivision in Barangay Ma-a and Matina, which claims that the land on which the subdivision stands is stable.
Meanwhile, Davao City vice mayor Sara Duterte says the news about Shrine Hills is tragic.
"A tragedy, 15, 20, 30 years from now. Developers (at Shrine Hills) should reexamine their conscience and corporate responsibility," she said in a text message sent to Sun.Star Davao.
In an earlier press statement, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau Southern Mindanao cautioned against "alarmist" protests but washed hands off saying for certain if housing projects in the area were safe or not.
MGB Southern Mindanao Regional Director Edilberto L. Arreza said in a statement it sent to Sun.Star Davao Sunday last week that the question on whether the projects should still push through or not is up to the local leaders and the residents around Shrine Hills and not the MGB.
"What MGB would like to emphasize is that natural hazards are not inevitable. In the case of Shrine Hills, the proper scientific study of its areas and the implementation of mitigating measures imply that we can objectively evaluate these hazards and address them properly without resorting to alarmist tendencies," Arreza said in the statement.
In the same statement, Arreza admitted that while the two major projects going on at Shrine Hills did undergo the so-called second screening for the ECC as against the general scientific research on natural hazards for the whole region, not all projects on Shrine Hills went through the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and thus do not have ECCs.
"It is these particular locations that have more potential to trigger mass movement. This is because these portions have not undergone the detailed geotechnical second study, therefore their site-specific mitigating measures have yet to be identified and implemented," Arreza said. (BOT)
