THE 10-year legal saga of whether the court can compel government to clean up and rehabilitate Manila Bay was taken up Tuesday by the Supreme Court en banc with environmentalist lawyers led by Antonio Oposa facing off with a government legal panel led by Assistant Solicitor General Amparo Tang.

Oposa, a United Nations Global 500 awardee for environment, said only the court with the power of law can compel the implementation of an action and operations plan to clean up Manila Bay that had been prepared by government agencies years ago.

On the other hand, Assistant Solicitor General Amparo Tang argued that it could not.

Oposa said instead of taking care of Manila Bay, we have "turned it into a toilet bowl that we do not even flush. And it is only a mirror image of what we are doing to the rest of the country."

Oposa was joined by top lawyers Sigfrid Fortun, Carl Castillo, and former Philippine Bar Association Presidents Linda Jimeno, Rico Agcaoili, and Rolly Vinluan.

Oposa chided the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for collecting garbage that is non-segregated.

Under Republic Act 9003, collecting unsegregated waste is punishable by up to six months of imprisonment. "If we just implemented this law, there would practically be no garbage left," Oposa said.

Environment Secretary Jose Atienza Jr., who appeared for the government during the oral argument, said it would cost P100 billion to clean up and rehabilitate Manila Bay. He said the private water service and sewerage concessionaires - Manila Water and Maynilad - have failed to put up a water sewage system and water treatment plants that would prevent polluted water from being dumped into Manila Bay.

Atienza also told the court that he would begin the clean up of Manila Bay.

The precedent-setting case dates back to 1999 when concerned residents of Manila Bay, led by former UP Law students, filed a quixotic legal action to compel the Philippine government to clean up Manila Bay.

The petition was filed in the Regional Trial Court of Cavite against some 12 government agencies.

The action sought was to legally oblige them prepare a plan of action - complete with budget, tasking and timetable - to clean up Manila Bay, a 180,000-hectare body of water bounded by Cavite, Bataan , Bulacan, Pampanga and Metropolitan Manila.

On September 2002, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Cavite presided by then Judge (now Elections Commissioner) Lucenito Tagle ordered respondent government agencies to prepare a plan of action on how it will clean up Manila Bay.

Government appealed the case to the Court of Appeals on the ground that the case is a political and policy question and is not the proper subject of judicial intervention. In September 2005, the Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the RTC.

In the intervening period, the Government prepared a detailed 25-year Manila Bay (Clean-Up) Operational Plan, complete with tasking, timetable, and indicative budget.