ANGELES CITY – Umbrella organizations of fisherfolk and farmers have urged the Commission on Audit (COA) as well as Congress to investigate the use of some P2 billion funds purportedly for the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport (Apeco) project, even before releasing yet another P332.5 million proposed for it.
“Some P2 billion of public funds were reportedly spent by the Angaras for the project since 2007 and anomalies in that amount would constitute a heinous crime.
We cannot allow that against taxpaying public if Congress releases another P332.5 million for it,” said the militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and the umbrella alliance Resist Apeco! Defend Aurora Movement, an umbrella alliance of grassroots organizations.
The latter alliance group is composed of local Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (AMGL), Panlalawigang Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid ng Aurora (Pamana) and national based groups Katribu partylist, Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Kamp), Government Employees for Genuine Land Reform (GE4GLR), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Anakpawis party list.
This, even as the two umbrella groups hit Sen. Edgardo Angara for branding Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona of the Prelature of Infanta as “absentee bishop” of Aurora province.
Pamalakaya Vice Chairperson and Resist Apeco! Defend Aurora Movement Convener Salvador France said Angara’s tirades against Tirona was because the bishop’s opposing Apeco.
They described the Apeco project as “an ambitious undertaking that seeks to convert Casiguran town of Aurora into a major gateway to countries in Pacific Ocean.”
“According to the gospel of the Angaras, Bishop Tirona is an absentee bishop and Pamalakaya is front of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
This is how Angara treats opponents of the Apeco project, the brainchild of the Angara dynasty composed of the senator, his sister Gov. Bella Angara-Castillo and the senator’s son Rep. Sonny Angara,” France lamented.
France said Angara should be probed on the project which he described as “a mother of all dispossession and displacement” of local folk in Aurora.
France said his group had obtained a tape recording of Angara’s speech during the 402nd anniversary of the province last month, where the senator allegedly hit Pamalakaya and Tirona for being anti–Apeco.
Last July, Pamalakaya wrote a letter of appeal to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to investigate the involvement of Senator Angara and other elected officials of Aurora on alleged anomalies in Apeco.
Meanwhile, Pamalakaya and Resist Apeco, Defend Aurora Movement urged the Commission on Audit (COA) to conduct a thorough audit of some P 2-billion funds spent by the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Free Port Authority from 2007 to 2010.
“The ruling Angara dynasty and the Apeco authority should explain to the public how they spent 2 billion pesos of the taxpaying public in the name of a highly questionable and extremely anti-people and anti-environment project.
The COA should step in and discover the underworld operation of the Angaras in Casiguran, Aurora,” said Elmer Dayson, vice chair of Panlalawigang Alyansa ng Mga Magbubukid sa Aurora (Pamana), and one of the conveners of Resist Apeco movement.
Dayson noted that the Angaras had wanted nother P3 billion for the project next year, but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only approved P 332.5 million.
He insisted, however, that “Apeco deserves a zero budget for 2012 and the law creating the first phase and second phase which Republic Act No. 10083 should be repealed by Congress since it violates the 1987 Constitution provision on social justice.”
The groups said Phase 2 of the Apeco project entails “landgrabbing” of 12,427 hectares of prime agricultural lands in San Ildefonso Peninsula.
They said the project will affect 5,430 residents in five barangays and will eventually displace 22,043 residents of Casiguran and nearby towns, mostly indigenous people, fisherfolk and farmers.
Pamalakaya also noted the project will affect fishing activities and rice production in Casiguran and Northern Aurora.
He said farming villages of Dibet and Esteves, which are considered the rice granary in Casiguran and made up of 493 hectares of productive rice farm will be converted into support infrastructures for Apeco.
