CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The country’s biggest fisherfolk alliance claimed victory yesterday after hearing that Congress last Monday finally slashed by about 80 percent the budget for the controversial Aurora Pacific Economic and Freeport Zone (Apeco) in Casiguran, Aurora province.
The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) claimed credit for the budget slash, saying its “sustained protest against Apeco compelled legislators to reduce the budget from the proposed P353 million to P 76 million.”
Pamalakaya also sought investigation into the allegedly anomalous use of some P300 million funds allocated for the project since 2007.
This, as Anakpawis Partylist Rep. Fernando Hicap sought “a comprehensive audit of the more than P2 billion allocated for Apeco since 2007.”
Hicap cited specifically the alleged use of some P300 million Agricultural Competitive Enhancement Fund (ACEF) for Apeco, including P100 million was used for the construction of Aurora State College of Technology and P200 million for the Baler- Casiguran Road.
“It is illegal for Apeco to use ACEF money since the fund was earmarked for farmers and rural producers in Central Luzon affected by dumping of foreign agricultural products under the World Trade Organization and neo-liberal globalization,” he noted.
Salvador France, vice chair of Pamalakaya who attended the deliberation on Apeco’s budget in the House the other day, said “ the budget slash for Apeco was “a tactical victory for us, but work is not yet done, “.
The P76 million would just be enough for the salaries and allowances and other operating expenses of the controversial freeport facility under Apeco,” he noted.
But Hicap said even the P76-million Apeco budget should be rechanneled for relief and rehabilitation efforts in Casiguran and other affected municipalities battered by recent monsoon rains and typhoons.
Pamalakaya noted that earlier, 300 farmers, indigenous people and fisherfolk in Aurora questioned before the Supreme Court the constitutionality of the laws which created Apeco.
The group also cited House Bill No. 257 filed last year by partylist lawmakers under the Makabayan bloc composed of Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan and Act Teachers as being opposed to Apeco.
HB No. 257 insisted that the Apeco project establishing a freeport “ushered in a new era of landgrabbing and plunder of natural resources to the detriment of indigenous people, farmers and small fisherfolk in Casiguran.”
The Supreme Court earlier asked Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte to comment on the petition filed by Pamalakaya and other parties questioning the constitutionality of Apeco laws passed by Congress to give way to the establishment of freeport zone in Casiguran, Aurora.
France, however, noted that both chambers of Congress have so far not submitted their comments. “Under Apeco, Casiguran, composed of more than 12,000 hectares of productive lands and fishing communities is being offered at the altar of global landgrabbing and corporate plunder,” Pamalakaya said.
It noted that under the Apeco program, only 105 hectares would remain for the local folk to depend on. In 2OO8, Republic Act No. 9490 created the Aurora Special Economic Zone (ASEZA) on 500 hectares of public agricultural lands covering Barangays Esteves, Dibet and Dibacong in Casiguran.
A survey done for the project, however, indicated that private lands and farm lots awarded to farmer beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of the government were among those included in ASEZA’s
coverage.
