[Kasalikasan] All roads lead to Ramon Ang’s airport

On May 11, the day after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that the fire in the Navotas landfill was already extinguished, government officials and business magnate Ramon Ang trooped to the area in a convoy. 

Facing cameras, officials said the former landfill manager must be held to account for the fire. They thanked Ang for the help in putting out the fire. 

The briefing was over quickly. As the crowd dispersed, Ang was talking to some more people about what a game changer it was to have built a dirt road that can move equipment and workers to the landfill area. He saw my phone recording. Then he spoke to the phone camera. 

“Lahat ng kailangang gastusin, gastusin,” he said. “At wala tayong sinisingil ‘day ha. Baka akala ‘nyo hanapbuhay ‘to, hindi ah. Public service ‘to.” (Every expense will be expensed. And we’re not charging for this. You might think this is business, it’s not. This is public service.)

This is a rhetoric often repeated. No cost to the government. The same thing was said of the controversial PAREX. There was San Miguel’s aid during the pandemic, the dredging of waterways and removal of silt and waste.

Ang motioned to a landmass seen from the landfill. “Pero nakita mo ba pare ‘yung airport?” He was then talking to another reporter. (But, man, do you see the airport?)

“Kalsada lang ‘to,” Ang said of the landfill. “Lahat nang iyan kalsada. Para from Manila Hotel you can go to Bulacan Airport, 15 minutes!” (This is just a road. All of this – road. So from Manila Hotel you can go to Bulacan Airport in 15 minutes!)

San Miguel Aerocity has taken over the landfill area — used to be managed by businessman Reghis Romero II’s Phil Ecology Systems Corporation — for airport development. 

San Miguel has laid out a massive infrastructure network that seeks to bring people to its P740-billion New Manila International Airport in Taliptip, Bulacan. The goal is to bring 35 million passengers to the airport annually, eventually expanding capacity to 100 million passengers. 

Then the next big environmental story after the Navotas fire? The tree-cutting along Quirino Avenue for San Miguel’s Southern Access Link Expressway or SALEX.

Groups decried the cost to communities and Manila’s heritage. Three undergraduates filed for a temporary environmental protection order. For many advocates, their opposition to SALEX is reminiscent of the fight to block PAREX.

On the opposite side is the proposed Northern Access Link Express, or NALEX. It will cover a total of 136.4 kilometers and connect Skyway in Balintawak to the New Manila International Airport.

There are other things one can see from the landfill: houses on stilts, thick clumps of mangroves that seem like cushioning from the expanse of water, and the dirt road that connects the former dumpsite to the baywalk in Tanza, Navotas. Far beyond is the Metro Manila skyline. 

When I joined a heritage walk along Quirino Avenue and Roxas Boulevard, our guide, Diego Torres, said that in the near future the view of the bay will change because of development. Manila will change face. New roads, new structures across the bay. 

I remember the old poets used to write about Manila Bay and freedom. It made me think of what and how we now write of the bay and of Metro Manila, the decaying and expanding dominion of our capital. 

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