Petition seeks to compel DENR to address pollution in Verde Island Passage

MANILA, Philippines — Green groups and fishers filed a petition Tuesday seeking to compel the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to issue guidelines designating parts of the Verde Island Passage (VIP) as non-attainment areas to prevent the further degradation of the marine corridor. 

Protect VIP, Center for Energy, Environment and Development, and fishers’ organizations in Batangas and Mindoro filed a petition for a writ of continuing mandamus with the Court of Appeals against the DENR. 

The petition seeks to compel the DENR and its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to perform their duties under the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004. 

It calls for the designation Batangas Bay and several coastal waters of Mindoro provinces, Palawan and Antique as non-attainment areas for pollutants such as lead, chromium and zinc as well as oil and grease. 

The petition also aims to pressure the environment department to issue guidelines for the designation on non-attainment areas, and implement a program preventing new sources of exceeded water pollutants in non-attainment areas in the VIP.

The National Water Resources Board, Department of Health and Department of Agriculture were also named as respondents in the petition. 

VIP is located between the provinces of Batangas, Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, Romblon and Marinduque. Home to 60% of all known shore fish species and over 300 coral species, it is dubbed by scientists as the “center of the center” of the world’s marine biodiversity. 

Despite its significance, VIP is under threat from pollution originating from gas plants and liquefied natural gas terminals in its vicinity, the oil spill off Mindoro, and the impacts of the climate crisis. 

Water quality tests in July revealed five of six marine protected areas (MPAs) in oil spill-hit Pola and Pinamalayan towns in Mindoro exceeding water quality standards for oil and grease. A follow-up test in September found all six MPAs failed to meet the standards.

An MPA in Brgy. Ilijan in Batangas City, the site of gas plants and terminals, also exceeded oil and grease, and ammonia limits. 

Ivan Andres, CEED’s deputy head for research and policy, said that