Solidarity Message of Senate President Franklin M. Drilon
2nd International River Summit
Marikina City
November 21, 2014

 REVITALIZING OUR RIVERS

Good afternoon everyone. I like short introductions. I always feel uncomfortable when my bio-data is recited before I speak as if I am going to depart the following day for St. Peter’s. Let me greet formally Mayor Del de Guzman – palakpakan po natin ulit lahat – the chairman of the 2014 International River Summit. Let me also greet Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz of Marikina City, Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the councilors of the City of Marikina, the local government officials of Marikina, fellow workers of the government, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant afternoon.

You know, Marikina does not only have a beautiful river. It also has the most beautiful women that I have seen. Congratulations, Del and congratulations too, Fabian. Let me first formally congratulate Mayor Del de Guzman and Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz for your efforts, and for sponsoring the 2nd National River Summit. It is only right that Marikina has the distinction of sponsoring this important event, because I am certain that of all the challenges that Mayor de Guzman and Vice Mayor Cadiz along with the city council, and all of the local government of Marikina – of all the challenges that they faced, one of the most difficult is how to maintain a clean Marikina River, and we all see how successful they are.

Two years ago, Iloilo City hosted the first International River Summit and was participated upon by the best minds from local governments, river councils, civil society, academe and private sector. The success of the said summit was a clear manifestation of our collective desire to leave the younger generation and the generations yet unborn with vibrant and healthy rivers.

For centuries, rivers have been the lifeblood of communities. They have supplied households with food and water. They have defined lives, carved communities and shaped nations. Even during medieval times, cities and towns have been built around rivers. Indeed, civilization was born in the rivers. Today, most of the world’s major cities are situated on or near river banks.

Sadly, rapid urban growth and development, climate change, flood risk, pollution, increasing poor water quality, agricultural and industrial activities and many more contributed to the slow death of many of our rivers.

Such was the case of Iloilo River, which for many years had been progressively deteriorating, and often derisively referred to as Iloilo’s community toilet. However, that is now a thing of the past.

I used the rehabilitation of a dying river as the anchor of the economic development of the city. This river we used as a tool for development. How did we do these? First, we made people conscious of how much deterioration the river had suffered over the past years of neglect. When I was a boy, I used to swim in the Iloilo River. Three years ago, I could walk across that river. That’s how silted it had become. So I decided and I told myself, not only are we going to clean up the Iloilo River, we are also going to use the river as a tool for economic development. We used these environmental problems – and climate change – in asking for funds for the national government. That is how we planned it. So what did we do?

First, there were about 15 sunken vessels in the river. It became not only a source for constriction of the flow of the river, it also constricted the whole port facility and a constriction of the whole improvement of commerce. What did we do? I ordered the Philippine Ports Authority – to remove all the sunken vessels. What happened, we now have a better port facility, and the river has been cleared of this debris.

Second, there was a ship-building facility. It was so successful that the frame of the vessels were already done along the river because their facilities were so full. So when the shipping vessels are building cleaned, you can imagine how dirty it was when they use oil to scrap the bottom. I told the owner, “Do you have an environmental clearance certificate for this facility?” Ang sabi niya, “What is that? I have been here in 25 years, I do not know what an environmental clearance certificate is.” Obviously, he had none. I said, “You have abused our river for 20 years. Get out.” So he had to leave. What we discovered is that he was squatting on 8,000 sqm of public land, and was polluting our river. What did we do? I directed the PPA to take over the property and convert the assets and build a passenger terminal which we use for Ro-ro vessels to travel from Bacolod to Iloilo. We now have a beautiful passenger terminal just because we have removed a squatter from the river.

There were also fishing vessels that docked on the river. You can imagine, a Navotas in the center of the city. A Navotas in the center of the city, because the port is being used. I asked the Secretary of Agriculture to repair the fishport facilities including the breakwater facilities, and we compelled the fishing vessels to get out of the river itself.

We had a slaughterhouse in the river. You can imagine all the innards were being thrown in the river. When I was a small boy, I knew it was 7:00 in the evening because at 7:00 I would hear the pigs crying in the way to the slaughterhouse. But the slaughterhouse was polluting the river. What did we do? I asked the Department of Agriculture and I said, “I know that you provide farm-to-market roads to all the legislators. There is no farm-to-market road in the city. Give me a slaughterhouse.” So there is now a double A slaughterhouse in the city which we now utilize, and we were able to close the river-side slaughterhouse. At the same time that we were able to remove a pollutant, by closing the slaughterhouse, we were able to improve the local hog industry which now have a double A slaughterhouse.

We also have informal settlers in the river, so you can imagine the pollution that it was causing. No matter what we do, the DENR measured the quality of the river, it never improves, since there is a thousand settlers in the river. And therefore I asked the National Housing Authority to put up 1,000 housing units in the city and they were able to remove all of those settlers. We now have one of the most beautiful housing projects for illegal settlers right in Iloilo City, and was able to remove all those informal settlers.

Of course, the illegal settlers did not complain because not only did they have a house, but also they saw that we had the political will to remove a barbeque plaza of a city councilor right in the mouth of the river and was using the river as his toilet for his resident customers. I told the city councilor, “Get out of the river.” He said no. So I said, “Tomorrow we will send a company of policemen and even without a court order – and I know my law, he was a squatter and he can be removed without a court order – and one weekend, we removed his illegal barbeque plaza." That was how we cleaned that river.

At least we showed our political will, that we can do it. There were fishponds that restricted the river. For years, they made the river part of their business. So one day, I called the owner, and I said, “You remove your fishponds voluntarily, or we will dismantle them and all your bangus will go to the river.” And he did, because he knew we were serious, and by removing the constriction, the flooding in the municipality of Oton was mitigated. There is still flood, but the water would recede at a very fast pace since we were able to reopen the river and allow water to flow more freely.

As Mayor Del probably knows, one of the most prolific source of corruption in this country is dredging. Why? Because you never know volume was lifted. Who measures the number of cubic meters? Well a contractor would say it was dredged. How would you know that? What we did, instead of hiring a contractor, I said, “Let us just buy a dredger.” So we have a dredger in the river, 24/7. We only pay for the operator and the fuel.

So today we established through our political will and united political leadership, we were able to show that indeed, we can do it. We put a 1.2-kilometer and 7-meter wide horizontal park that we call the Esplanade. We are now making this into 2.2 kilometers. With that, coffee shops have sprouted all over the place. It has become a favorite exercise area of the residents. It has become a commercial area, whereas before each one square meter before we put up the Esplanade was P5000 to P7000, but the latest figure is now P30,000 per sqm , and a Hyatt Hotel is going to be put up. As we can see, we are using the river as anchor for our development.

Today, the Iloilo River is vibrant and is once again the anchor of economic development in the city. I am proud to mention that last year, Iloilo river became a finalist in the Thiess International Riverprize alongside Bolshaya River in Russia, Mara River in Kenya, and the Murray Darling Basis in Australia. The Iloilo River has also become of the venue of an annual dragon boat race in order to raise the environmental consciousness of the Iloilo people. But this year, I was smarter than last year, I called Doubel Dragon, and I said, we are sponsoring another dragonboat race, it’s better if becomes a DoubeDragon boat race.” He then paid for all the expenses.

We also have another project that uses another river in Iloilo– the P11.2 billion Jalaur River Multipurpose Project. The project will be a game changer in the economic development of Iloilo. Once completed in the next 3 or four years, we will provide a year round irrigation to 32,000 hectares of farm land in 35 municipalities in Iloilo, benefiting more than 783,000 farmers, including 17,000 more jobs during the construction. It will increase our rice production from 142, 000 tons to approximately 300,000 tons per year which will help in the food security of our country.

I told you the story of Iloilo River and the Jalaur project to boast, but hopefully to inspire local governments and citizens to do their share in saving their rivers. I am glad that we are going to Cagayan in two years’ time, because you have a very dynamic mayor, and I am certain that people will appreciate the need to put their hands together in cleaning the Cagayan River, which two years back, was the scene of a very unfortunate incident. I always say that if it can be done in Iloilo and in Marikina, it can be done in other parts of the country as long as there is strong political will like here in Marikina, support from the private sector and cooperation of the people.

Friends, I need not convince you, and I cannot overemphasize the importance of revitalizing our rivers. I stress again, civilization was born in rivers. I thank Mayor Del de Guzman, Vice Mayor Cadiz, and the communities, individuals and organizations that are collaborating to raise awareness of the deteriorating health of our rivers and are seeking ways to save them. Be assured that I stand in solidarity with all of you.

Now, more than ever, we need to link arms to revive our rivers, protect our environment and ensure a bright future for our people.

With that let me once more congratulate Mayor Del De Guzman and Vice Mayor Cadiz and all of you for having once more successfully gathered all of you here who care for the environment this afternoon, who care for our future, and has gathered to exchange ideas as to how we can provide our children with a better future, and better rivers.

Thank you and a blessed good afternoon.