Manila Bay Is Alive, Not a Lifeless 'Sewer of Mud' That a DENR Official Claims It Is

On January 30, Jeoffrey Santos, a regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural resources (DENR), claimed that Manila Bay is lifeless and that no fish can be found in the bay anymore.

“We told them Manila bay is dead. There is no point in going out there to fish. Because of the pollution it suffered, there’s no more fish living in its waters,” said Santos in a report by UCA News. 

“Since 2000, we have recorded 12 oil spills in Manila Bay that increased the presence of oil and grease in the water, together with the presence of oil terminals and the discharges from industries and cargo ships that dock in Manila,” Santos added. 

According to UCA News, the DENR described Manila Bay as a "sewer of mud" and that people should not fish there. 

But despite the high levels of pollution in the bay, it is still alive. 

“Manila Bay is not a sewer,” Edlyn Rosales told the Inquirer in an investigative piece published on January 31, 2023. “They’ve been telling us that Manila Bay is dead, but that is not true. We can still fish from its waters.”

In fact, in 2021, a group of divers discovered a coral garden at the Bay’s portion in Ternate, Cavite. 

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These Photos Show the Breadth and Scale of Manila Bay's Reclamation Projects 

Manila Bay is one of the most important fishing grounds in the Philippines. Oceana, an international marine conservation group, is fighting the hard battle against land reclamation in the bay. 

Diuvs De Jesus, a marine scientist and conservationist, tells Atom Araullo in the documentary Reclamation Nation, that there are living things being buried alive in the reclamation projects. “Iyong tatambakan mo na dagat, ecosystem iyan. Akala natin, buhangin lang iyan pero may buhay diyan. May isda, may mga shells, at iba pang organisms. Kailangan din natin tingnan iyong mga maaapektuhang mga lokal: iyong livelihood nila,” says De Jesus. 

(“Where you dump soil in the sea is actually an ecosystem. We might think that it’s just sand but there is life there. There are fishes, shells, and other organisms. We also need to look at the local livelihoods that will be affected.”) 

Even the government’s official news outlet, the Philippine News Agency, reported in 2017 on the different fishes that could be caught in Manila Bay: “Hasa-hasa, bisugo, bagaong, and lapad still abound in the bay,” it wrote. 

“With its stinky smell and tons of garbage washed up to the shore -- one might think that it’s dead. However, experts tell us otherwise, Manila Bay still supports marine life,” it added. 

As recently as February 2022, the DENR itself reported that there were marine species found in Manila Bay’s Dolomite Beach Shore. 

“Coastal rangers of the Manila Baywalk find a sea hare and its eggs also called pansit-pansitan, and a file snake, commonly called malabasahan along the shore of the Dolomite Beach in Roxas Boulevard, Manila during a cleanup activity on February 18, 2022. Sea hares (Dolabella sp.) feed on algae, and its eggs are eaten raw or cooked as a delicacy in some areas in the Philippines. The file snake (Acrochordus granulatus), is a non-venomous species that feeds mainly on fish. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources aims to bring back the water quality of Manila Bay to the acceptable level for Class SB waters with the ongoing Manila Bay rehabilitation,” the DENR reported. 

Far from being a sewer of mud, Manila Bay is fighting to stay alive, despite the failures of the government through the decades to protect its ecosystems. Currently, the Bay faces the biggest threat to its survival: Massive reclamation projects. 

In October 2022, Senator Cynthia Villar lashed out at DENR officials after learning that they approved 21 reclamation projects, which the senator claimed could cause more flooding in Cavite and Las Pinas. 

There are 24 planned reclamation projects in Manila Bay that will occupy 9,000 hectares of the sea—that's larger than four Makati cities, or even the combined size of Manila, Makati, Pasay, San Juan, and Pateros.