What is being built
The land being built in the bay
In front of me, where the water used to be, a new district is being built. The land I live on was itself dredged out of Manila Bay, and more of it is planned beside it. Whether the work goes ahead is a decision of the national government, and the record of that decision is public.
The projects and the orders
| Project | Developer | Area | Cost, as published | Status and date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pasay 360 | SM Smart City Infrastructure and Development Corp., a joint venture with SM Prime.PTNI, March 2025 | 360 hectaresPTNI, March 2025 | PHP 150 billionPTNI, March 2025 | Environmental compliance certificate dated 24 October 2017; dredging from September 2021; about 86.13 hectares reclaimed by December 2022; completion before the end of 2028.PTNI, March 2025 | Inside Retail, 5 September 2024 |
| Manila Bay reclamation, all projects | The national government, through the environment department. | Twenty-two projects, on the coast. | Not published here. | 10 August 2023: the President suspended the reclamation projects in Manila Bay for review.Presidential Communications Office, read 7 October 2026 | PCO release, read 7 October 2026 |
| The Pasay Eco-City projects | Two private developers, named in the release. | Not published here. | Not published here. | 29 November 2023: two Pasay projects cleared to resume, after the department found they had substantially complied with the requirements.Presidential Communications Office, read 7 October 2026 | PCO release, read 7 October 2026 |
I hold several things back from this table: the state of the two Pasay projects today, the published cost of Pasay Harbor City, the projects in Manila, and the outcome of the court petition against the reclamation. Each of them appears in the press, and none has a page I have read on the agency's own site.
No official image or video of the project has been published that I may reuse. When one is, it goes here.
What this could mean, and what could go wrong
| What this could mean | What could go wrong |
|---|---|
| More land means more towers, and more units to choose from when a lease comes up. | The bay that was dredged to build it is the same bay I look at every evening, and the shoreline is where it is because someone drew it there. |
| The works bring roads, jobs and services to a district that already has the mall, the arena and the terminal. | They also bring years of trucks, dust and closed lanes, and the orders that started the work can stop it again. |
| The new district, when it is finished, will sit on land that did not exist when my neighbours were born here. | New land at this price is built for the market that can afford it, which may not be the people already living beside it. |
One habit the record taught me: on this coastline the work is never simply on or off. It is approved, suspended, reviewed, cleared and approved again, and each of those steps is a document with a date. So I keep the documents, not the headlines.
The bay itself
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