The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is looking at the environmental compliance of the contractors involved in the reclamation project in Manila Bay.

"We are looking at compliance for those that have already begun working and also calling them in. So, we are now talking to those who have already started (their reclamation)", Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said in a Palace press briefing Tuesday.

When asked if the agency has monitored any violation, Loyzaga mentioned that "there are discussions ongoing with at least one party".

"Since the information was newly released, they will be called in for a technical conference to see whether they have an explanation on the potential non-compliance that was observed," she added.

Loyzaga added that the cumulative impact assessment on the reclamation projects is ongoing

"Well, right now what I have been given some latitude to do is to actually present a cumulative impact assessment of the different individual projects because in the past, the evaluation of these projects have been on an individual basis," she said.

"Globally the practice is whenever you have several projects in a single ecosystem, you need a cumulative impact assessment and so we are undertaking that," she added.

Loyzaga said the agency is comparing the baseline of the Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan that was also contracted during the previous administration with the technical descriptions of all the different reclamation projects in Manila Bay. Robina Asido/DMS