But five years after the order, the "toilet bowl" status lingers.


The Manila Bay Coordinating Office was created to help comply with the order. Every quarter, it collects water samples to measure the number of coliform bacteria -- the bay's chief pollutant -- which are found in feces.


Director Noel Gaerlan checks the numbers regularly.


That is one-billion parts of microorganisms per 100 milliliters of seawater. Gaerlan said the acceptable level for swimming is 5,000 parts per 100 milliliters. He said the coliform counts for Manila Bay are usually in the millions, if not billions.


Gaerlan is working on a comprehensive cleanup plan that must be submitted to the court by 2015. That plan includes relocating tens of thousands of squatters from waterways. An estimated 11 million residents in metro Manila are without proper sewage infrastructure, which meaning their untreated waste ends up in the bay.


In addition to human and industrial waste, garbage is a major problem.


As part of the interior and local government agency's efforts to meet the court order, municipalities like Navotas City, just north of Manila, have been hosting twice-monthly garbage cleanup events for almost two years.


On a recent Saturday, scores of volunteers clear away trash from a small stretch of the 3.5-kilometer Navotas shoreline, which is piled with garbage. Navotas Mayor John Rey Tiangco leads the project.


"There's still a lot but compared to the previous year, I think we're going in the right direction. I think people are more conscious," Tiangco said. "But again, it won't change in a day, a week or a month. It has to be a habit."


Tiangco said his grandfather's tuna business had to fish further and further away in cleaner waters and now they are based in Papua, New Guinea.


The Navotas shore has hundreds of squatter shanties. Salvador de la Cruz and his wife Priscilla have lived here for more than 30 years. Salvador used to shrimp at his doorstep long before plastic bags and fast food utensils proliferated. Now he travels an hour north to shrimp, but still catches some plastic debris.


Today the couple struggles to keep trash away from their shanty.


They said garbage keeps being dumped there and when they try to stop the dumping, people fight back.


Gaerlan of the Manila Bay Coordinating Office said once the comprehensive plan is in place, cleaning up will be more efficient.


"We still have hope, although we're looking at a 20-25 year program. But, if we do this right, implement everything, enforce the environmental laws, no political agenda, then we could do something about it," Gaerlan stated. "So this time, we need to be serious."


Getting serious about the bay's cleanup is likely to be expensive. Gaerlan estimates his office needs some $3.7 billion - ten times the entire budget of the government department his office belongs to.




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Pollution Cleanup Progresses in Manila Bay