ANGELES CITY- The country’s biggest fisherfolk alliance forwarded yesterday to Environments and Natural Resources Sec. Ramon Paje an “omnibus demand” for him to “cease and desist from issuing environmental clearance certificates (ECCs) to large-scale land reclamation projects.”
The letter-demand of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in 43 provinces all over the country, cited reclamation projects in the Manila Bay and “other areas covered by the National Reclamation Plan (NRP) of the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).
It warned that thousands of folk, not only would Metro Manila cities, but also in the coastal areas of Pampanga and Bulacan would be adversely affected by the projects.
“We are highly disturbed by the admission of your department that DENR will not be a major obstacle to the reclamation projects to be undertaken by the PRA under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program of the Aquino administration.
There are 102 reclamation projects which the PRA will complete in the next few years, and these projects are nothing but pro-big business, anti-poor and anti-environment,” said Pamalakaya said in the letter.
One of the documents is a letter dated Dec. 5, 2011, by the PRA to Paje requesting clearance from DENR for at least 102 reclamation projects from Metro Manila to different areas in Visayas and Mindanao.
“The DENR ‘s open arms acceptance of the PRA reclamation projects expose reclamation target areas to extreme danger, threaten wholesale destruction of fisherfolk livelihood and environment,” said Pamalakaya.
The latter cited the land reclamation Las Pinas-Paranaque Coastal Bay project as one that “will directly and indirectly affect the economic and social being of 552,660 population in 16 barangays of Paranaque City and 532, 330 residents of Las Pinas City, excluding tens of thousands of fisherfolk and coastal villagers in nearby Bacoor town and neighbor cities of Manila, Navotas, Malabon and coastal towns in Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan provinces who will also be affected by the large-scale reclamation project in various levels.”
“Mr. Secretary, if the DENR insists in granting ECCs, it would be accused of pushing an open invitation to economic displacement and environmental catastrophe.
This across-the-Manila Bay reclamation escapade warrants DENR to refrain from enjoining PRA in pursuing these projects,” Pamalakaya said.
Pamalakaya also noted that already, the finished Bacoor, Cavite land reclamation project that gave way to construction of R-1 Expressway Extension Project has “resulted to drastic decline in fish catch in the Bacoor Bay.”
“Due to reclamation, several hundreds of hectares of mussel farms were demolished causing grave economic difficulties to small and medium scale mussel operators in Bacoor.
Those who were allowed to operate mussel growing in Bacoor Bay likewise suffered further decline,” Pamalakaya noted.
