VICE MAYOR ADAM RELSON JALA

This was the categorical statement of Vice Mayor Adam Relson Jalain an exclusive interview byTagbilaran Baywatch at his office on Friday, December 29.

The Vice Mayor’s assurance came in the wake of the apprehensions expressed by Tagbilaranons, including lawyers, triggered by the mixed signals brought about by City Mayor Jane C. Yap’s order stoppingall activities pertaining to the reclamation project of Tagbilaran Waterfront Development Corporation (TWDC) and the SangguniangPanlungsod’s mere issuance of a statement consigning the issue to the archives for being “moot and academic.”

Pressed to make a clearer and stronger stand in the form of a resolution revoking the original proponent status of TWDC, the SP instead issued Resolution No. 23-261, Series of 2023, adopted on December 22 entitled, “RESOLUTION FULLY SUPPORTING THE DECLARATION OF HONORABLE JANE CENSORIA C. YAP, CITY MAYOR, CITY OF TAGBILARAN, NOT TO CONTINUE WITH ALL ACTIVITIES RELATING TO THE UNSOLICITED PROPOSAL OF WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION FOR THE PROPOSED TAGBILARAN CITY WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT.”

When asked why the resolution was short of revoking the original proponent status of TWDC as requested, the Vice Mayor explained that the SP was being careful with the procedural implicationsof the passage of such resolution that might raise legal questions.  The Vice Mayor assured, however, that there is no more chance that the project would be revived, as the Mayor’s stoppage of the project was absolute and unconditional.

“The project is practically dead.  Even if revived, I will go with you in the streets,” the Vice Mayor guaranteed.

When asked aboutpossible legal challenges, like Mandamus, for such stoppage, the Vice Mayor, also a lawyer, expressed confidence and pointed out that while Mandamus is an order to perform a ministerial duty without any exercise of judgment or discretion, the stoppage of the reclamation project by the Mayor and the SP is an exercise of the discretionary power of the government to protect its environment and to avoid divisiveness and disunity among the people.

Even with this clarification, the Vice Mayor invited the Tagbilaran Baywatch to attend the SP session of the Committee of the Whole to deliberate on the group’s Position Paper asking for a revocation of the original proponent status of the TWDC and to discuss possible partnerships to advance its environmental advocacies.

As it was the first time that the city embarked on a project under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP), the Vice Mayor admitted the city’s inexperience and agreed that in retrospect, a research on the environmental and sociological impact of a reclamation project should have been conducted by the city government even before its acceptance of the project and the conferment of the original proponent status to TWDC.

With this realization, the Vice Mayor invited Tagbilaran Baywatch and other legal and scientific experts to help review the City Environment Code and the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) which is on its mid-year revision.  The Vice Mayor likewise expressed interest in partnering with Tagbilaran Baywatch and other scientific experts through the allocation of funds for the conduct of an environmental research to assess marine ecology, cost-benefit valuation, the socio-economic impact and the overall well-being of coastal residents.

In a welcoming move, the Vice Mayor undertook to study other possible legislative measures, like the passage of a trailblazing city ordinance banning reclamation within the city, on the strength of the research the city government would jointly undertake with the scientific and legal experts.

On this note, the Tagbilaran Baywatch invited the Vice Mayor and the city officials to attend its second environmental forum on February 19, 2024 at 2 p.m.  Invited during this activity are three (3) Boholanos – an environmental planner/Associate Professor at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) in Cagayan de Oro City, a UP geologist now based in Saudi Arabia, and aresearcherof the Bohol Island State University (BISU) who will talk about the study of the seagrasses, the “lungs of the sea,” in Maribojoc Bay.

It may likewise be recalled that Tagbilaran Baywatch received Solidarity Statements from NoTo174Dumaguete Coalition, Silliman University-Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences, and recently, the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC)-Palawan stating that the “Dump and Fill (or Reclamation) Project is environmentally inappropriate in Tagbilaran.

(Contributed by Atty. Esther Gertrude Biliran, based on the interview with VM Jala conducted by Tagbilaran Baywatch members)