I do not support the move that DENR has made for the beautification of Manila Bay.

During this time of

pandemic, the government should have their priorities centered on health care and education. Yes, we
could say that the beautification of Manila Bay was already a project before the pandemic and that the
budget allocated for it was already set aside but the fact that a pandemic is ongoing should be an eye
opener for them to delay the project and focus more on strengthening our response against COVID.
Another reason on why I do not, wholeheartedly, support this project is that researches was not well
done. An environmental group called Oceana Philippines warned the government that they could be
destroying both the natural ecosystem of Manila Bay as awell as the source of the synthetic sand since
the sand does not naturally occur at the bay. Marine Scientist Diovanie de Jesus supported the claim of
Oceana Philippines with his finding . He stated that the dolomite could cause hazards to creatures in and
around the water. Furthermore, there were also researches in which proves that dolomite can be
harmful to humans. According to a 2012 safety data report by Texas Distributor and building Lehigh
Hanson Inc., dolomite can cause irritation to the skin and eyes. A much worse effect of it is the damage
that it could cause to the lungs, or even cancer when it is breathed in. This is due to the varying levels of
crystalline silica which can be found in the sand. What furious me the most is that the budget allocated
for the project was too much, and unnecessary. We could rehabilitate the manila bay without putting
white sands on it. We could rehabilitate it by simply cleaning the bay and mainting its cleanliness.
Putting dolomite sand will not guarantee that the manila bay will maintain its cleanliness.

Globel network is defined as the interrelations and interconnections of people, services, and instituitions
around the world. It is clear that the speech delivered by President Duterte is an example of a global
network. Since UN and ASEAN are intergovernmental organizations which aims to aid countries who are
members of the organization and during this pandemic, it is a must that we keep our connection to
them since our government is just waiting for the vaccines and is doing only minimal efforts to help the
public with its fight with Covid 19. And in the speech delivered by the President, we could say that he is
very dependent on the organizations because he simply believes that the vaccine is the only way to get
things back to normal.