“It may cause permanent damage to corals resting on the floor of Manila Bay, alter the ecosystems around the body of water and obstruct the natural flight patterns of bird species.”
It is being touted by many as the biggest flagship project of the Marcos administration. The Asian Development Bank calls the 32.15-kilometer Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge (BCIB), or Manila Bay Bridge, a climate-resilient bridge that will connect Bataan and Cavite provinces across Manila Bay and decongest Metro Manila traffic.
Few will argue about the economic benefits of the mega infrastructure project. The ADB says it will enable greater mobility of labor and goods and enhance economic productivity in the country’s largest region of Luzon.
The BCIB Project, according to an ADB statement early this month, will complete the transport loop around Manila Bay and better link Metro Manila to central Luzon and nearby Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon provinces. The project, it added, will help boost economic activity in these areas, which together account for 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
“This project will transform the economic landscape of central Luzon, unlock the full potential of Bataan and Cavite for trade, manufacturing, and industrial output, and boost their tourism,” said ADB vice-president for East and Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Scott Morris. “Once completed, BCIB will offer a platform for reimagining a more vibrant, resilient, and dynamic greater Manila Bay area.”
Such infrastructure projects are aimed at speeding up the flow of services and goods. Like toll roads, airports and seaports, the BCIB will create new economic opportunities and jobs. It will reduce travel time between Bataan and Cavite to 1.5 hours from 5 hours, and to about 2 hours from 4 hours between Bataan and Metro Manila.
The traffic decongestion in Metro Manila and the reduced travel time will help lower annual greenhouse gas emissions in the country by an estimated 79,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the ADB justified.
The project, it says, will build one of the world’s longest marine bridges, including 2 cable-stayed bridges, 24 km of marine viaducts, and a total 8 km of approach road in the two provinces.
BCIB will provide the road connectivity to Manila, Cavite, and southern Luzon that will boost Bataan’s potential to host more manufacturing industries in the Freeport Area of Bataan, the only freeport in the Manila Bay area, making it an ideal transshipment hub. The project can also help expand the use of Bataan’s Mariveles port to provide an alternative to the busy port of Manila.
“The bridge will offer easier access from northern Luzon to Cavite, one of the most industrialized provinces in the country, and host to businesses in the service, export, logistics services, facilities, and information technology sectors.”
But as in any mega infrastructure project, the Manila Bay Bridge presents many environmental challenges and risks. It may cause permanent damage to corals resting on the floor of Manila Bay, alter the ecosystems around the body of water and obstruct the natural flight patterns of bird species.
The ADB has prepared a comprehensive impact study on the environmental and livelihoods impact of the bridge project. It conceded that fishing birds that hunt in the waters along the BCIB alignment may be indirectly affected by construction activities that may degrade fish local populations..
The project’s Environmental Impact Assessment study provided a comprehensive report on the potential environmental impacts of the large and complex project, “one which spans a diversity of ecosystem types, environmental resources and land use patterns, and which will require several years to build and will operate for upwards of a century.”
“Placement of the infrastructure on land unavoidably displaces existing agricultural uses as well as terrestrial biodiversity resources, and the footprints of the marine foundations do the same to benthic habitat, including coral habitat in some locations,” the report conceded.
The bridge link will also be a bane to fishermen making a living from the bounties of Manila Bay. The ADB study proposed a livelihood restoration program, including cash compensation, and a plan to establish a string of fish sanctuaries along the entire length of the BCIB alignment.
The government, through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, may also have to relocate displaced coral habitat from the construction site to other suitable areas.
The Manila Bay Bridge, unfortunately, will alter the biodviversity landscape of the bay area and disrupt the livelihood of fishermen along the coastlines of Cavite and Bataan provinces. The government should do its best to minimze the bridge’s environmental impact.
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