SAVING A DYING RIVER

"A journey of a thousand mile begins with a single step," Olongapo City Mayor James J. Gordon Jr. borrowed the famous phrase to emphasize the enormous task of reviving the rivers in the city during the launching last Friday of the an environmental preservation project.

Gordon said city government employees and officials including members of the city council, barangay and community leaders fully support this worthy project

Both the Olongapo City government and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) vowed to continuously implement the project that includes an educational program involving outlying communities and the passage of city ordinances that would impose stiffer penalties to violators.

"Let’s all help to preserve and save mother earth." This was the message SBMA Administrator Alfredo C. Antonio delivered during the launching of an environmental preservation campaign to clean the stinking and polluted rivers separating the Olongapo City and the Freeport zone.

"Kalaklan river is being used as a demarcation line to identify the boundaries separating the Freeport zone and Olongapo City but with this river clean-up project it is now a symbol of cooperation and teamwork aiming at a common cause in environmental preservation," Antonio added.

Antonio said the Kalaklan River clean-up project is just the start of a more vibrant mutual collaboration between the SBMA and Olongapo City particularly in tourism-related projects, investments generation and more importantly, in the creation of more employment opportunities through job fairs.

SBMA labor department manager Severo Pastor, project coordinator, said the project "aims to bring a hero in all of us" through Bayanihan, a famous Filipino tradition that depicts the spirit of cooperation.

"Bayanihan can easily solve problems or crisis that will arise in our society and this river clean-up project would serve as a model in this Filipino concept for the new generation," Pastor explained.

Dubbed "Tulong-tulong Sa Kalinisan ng Ilog Kalaklan", the project is also being supported by various investors inside the Freeport zone, civic organizations and non-government organizations

Cubi Port opposition

RESOLUTION NO.187
TITLE: A RESOLUTION BESEECHING HER EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO TO LISTEN TO THE PLEA OF THE PEOPLE OF OLONGAPO CITY WITH REGARD TO THE PORT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT AT THE SUBIC FREEPORT ZONE
Date Passed: Nov. 04,2003

RESOLUTION NO.188
TITLE: A RESOLUTION DENOUNCING THE ACTS OF MR. RUFO COLAYCO, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPEARTING OFFICER, BASES CONVERSION DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (BCDA) DURING THE MEETING SPEARHEADED BY THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (NEDA) ON NOVEMBER 3, 2003

Cubi Port opposition

RESOLUTION NO.191
TITLE: A RESOLUTION DEFINING THE STAND OF OLONGAPO CITY REGARDING THE PORT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT AT THE SUBIC FREEPORT ZONE

Bantay Kalikasan

RESOLUTION NO.184
TITLE: A RESOLUTION ASKING ABS-CBN'S BANTAY BATA AND BANTAY KALIKASAN FOUNDATIONS AND ITS CABLE NETWORK CAN TO LEND HELP TO THE CITY OF OLONGAPO REGARDING ITS OPPOSITION TO THE SUBIC BAY METROPOLITAN AUTHORITY'S PORT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

ECC EMB DENR CUBI PORT

RESOLUTION NO.162
TITLE: A RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES (DENR) THROUGH THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT BUREAU TO CONDUCT A PUBLIC HEARING REGARDING THE SUBIC BAY METROPOLITAN AUTHORITY (SBMA) PORT PROJECT IN THE CITY OF OLONGAPO

Plans to speed up the Subic Bay Port Development Project, a $215-million venture funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), have b

Plans to speed up the Subic Bay Port Development Project, a $215-million venture funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), have been "temporarily called off" after what was described by local news media as objections to the project from "multi-sector groups" and some investors opposed to its implementation of the project, who cited "economic and environmental concerns."

Fishermen from Morong, Olongapo and Subic town claim that reclaiming some 29 hectares of land for the port will have adverse environmental consequences and render them jobless.

A spokesperson for the Subic Resort Owners Association claimed that the dredging that would be required for the reclamation work would affect local beaches and "kill their businesses."

ADDRESS THE PROBLEM BROUGHT ABOUT THE NEWLY CONSTRUCTED DRAINAGE

RESOLUTION NO.62
TITLE: A RESOLUTION URGING THE PUBLIC WORKS GROUP OF THE SUBIC BAY METROPOLITAN AUTHORITY (SBMA) TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM BROUGHT ABOUT THE NEWLY CONSTRUCTED DRAINAGE SYSTEM ALONG PERIMETER ROAD, SUBIC BAY FREEPORT ZONE.