MANILA - San Miguel Corporation on Friday clarified that the New Manila International Airport (NMIA) in Bulacan is not built on reclaimed land but on a low-lying area.

The statement came a day after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that all 22 reclamation projects in Manila Bay have been suspended, pending a review of their environmental and social impacts.

• DENR says all 22 Manila Bay reclamation projects suspended

San Miguel said the construction of the airport, which has four runways, "does not involve creating new land from Manila Bay." The corporation re-developed existing land for the project, it said.

“The project site has existing, valid land titles indicating its original status as land. Due to natural processes over time, this land had become prone to regular inundation. Instead of creating new land, we are redeveloping it to its former state ensuring its productive and sustainable use for the future,” San Miguel Corporation (SMC) president and CEO Ramon Ang said.

The area is an island, based on maps of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Mapping Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) from the 1990s, the corporation said.

San Miguel will be spearheading a massive river cleanup and rehabilitation effort covering the nearby Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando river systems and other rivers throughout Bulacan, it said.

The NMIA may be partly operational by the end of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista said in July.

• New Bulacan airport may be partially operational by end of Marcos term: Bautista

The new airport is expected to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and cater to 100 million passengers annually once finished.

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