Press Release
October 13, 2007

Senate to probe rapid decay of RP's largest lake

Sen. Loren Legarda has vowed to seek a Senate inquiry on the rapid environmental degradation of Laguna Lake, amid concerns it could vanish in as short as five years unless the government resorts to more aggressive interventions.

"We will definitely ask the Senate committee on environment and natural resources to look into the problem," Legarda said.

The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) earlier warned that unless the lake's worsening pollution load is alleviated right away, the natural body of freshwater could soon perish.

"We have to ascertain whether the LLDA, based on its existing charter, has adequate powers to address the problem. If we have to reinforce the LLDA through new legislation, then we will propose to do so," Legarda said.

"If this is a question of additional financial resources, then Congress may have to find ways to supplement the agency's budget," she added.

Legarda also said she intends to find out whether the pertinent provisions of the Solid Waste Management Act, which she authored in the 12th Congress, are being rigorously enforced with respect to checking the lake's pollution load.

Edgardo Manda, the newly re-appointed general manager of the LLDA, lamented that the lake has been reduced into a massive septic tank, with 70 percent of its pollution load due to human waste from Metro Manila and other surrounding areas.

Manda cited the need for the government to find ways to "humanely resettle" more than 25,000 informal dwellers that occupy some 500 hectares on the banks of the lake.

The LLDA chief also expressed concern over the unchecked spread of more than a thousand illegally constructed fishpens in the lake. He said the use of chemical-based feed by the fishpen operators has contributed in a big way to the lake's contamination.

The rest of the lake's pollution load comes from the more than 10,000 small and medium enterprises as well as large industrial firms around the lake. They produce waste that eventually gets dumped into the lake, according to Manda.

Situated between the provinces of Laguna and Rizal, Laguna Lake is only two meters deep but covers a 950-square kilometer area with a 220-kilometer border.

The Laguna Lake "region" covers the whole of the provinces of Rizal and Laguna; parts of the provinces of Batangas, Quezon and Cavite; and large portions of Metro Manila.

Legarda chaired the Senate committee on environment and natural resources in the 12th Congress. Besides the Solid Waste Management Act, she also authored the Clean Air Act in that Congress.

The senator is also founder of Luntiang Pilipinas, the nationwide tree-growing program that received the United Nations Environment Program Award in 2001.

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