CA: No TEPO as it would disrupt Samal-Davao bridge project

CA says no TEPO as issuing it would disrupt Samal-Davao bridge project 

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 11 July) — The Court of Appeals on Friday denied the issuance of a Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) sought by environmental groups to halt thec onstruction of the Samal Island-Davao City Connector (SIDC) project, as issuing it at this stage “would cause undue disruption to a government infrastructure project already in progress and may potentially harm the greater public interest.”

“Unfortunately, in this case, the petitioners failed to demonstrate that the case pertains to matters of extreme urgency and that grave injustice and/or irreparable injury will arise if no TEPO is issued at his stage of the proceedings,” the Special Twenty-First Division of the Court of Appeals in Cagayan de Oro City said in its six-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Anisah B. Amanodin-Umpa. Associate Justices Evalyn M. Arellano-Morales and Jill Rose S. Jaugan-Lo, concurred.

^{The approved alignment Samal Island Davao City connector bridge project. Courtesy of DPWH-11.}

The Supreme Court on July 1 issued a Writ of Kalikasan against the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Samal Island Protected Landscape and Seascape Protected Area Management Board, and the China Road and Bridge Corporation, gave them 10 days to file a verified return on the petition and referred  the payer for a TEPO to the Court of Appeals in Cagayan de Oro for action. 

Petitioners Carmela Marie Santos, Mark Peñalver,  Sustainable Davao Movement and Marvelous Dainty Camilo said the SIDC project will cause actual, serious, and irreversible damage to coral reefs in Paradise Reef in Samal and the Hizon Marine Protected Area in Davao City. 

“Kini ang pinakanindot  nga balita… PADAYON ang TULAY (This is the best news… The bridge project will continue) … thank you Lord,” Samal mayor Remuel Reyes posted on hi social media page. 

No statement has been issued by Davao City Acting Mayor Sebastian Duterte and the petitioners as of 7 pm. 

The P23-billion bridge project, funded through a loan agreement between the Philippine government and China, is being implemented by the DPWH in partnership with the China Road and Bridge Corporation.

Once completed, the 3.98-kilometer bridge is expected to cut travel time between Davao City and Samal Island from 30 minutes by ferry to just five minutes by car.

But the project will add to the government’s growing foreign debt portfolio, as the terms of the multibillion-peso, China-funded infrastructure project show.

Davao-based marine biologist John Michael Lacson lamented the lack of transparency about the project’s environmental impact, on the extent of damage to coral reefs that are rich spawning grounds for many species, and the threat to the fish catch and incomes of fisherfolk in the area.

The present alignment of the bridge on the Samal side has fueled concerns about its impact on the 7,500-sq m coral reef system which is home to eight seagrass species, 118 species of corals and 73 fish species, and on the livelihood of the fisherfolk. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)