Fisherfolk hit Mar Roxas on No Build Zone policy
Manila, Philippines – The militant fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya-Pilipinas) chided Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Mar Roxas for espousing the ‘no build zone’ policy during the 2nd Presidential debate yesterday.
Roxas made a pitch on this policy in the context of a question on the status of the rehabilitation of the devastation caused by super typhoon Yolanda, claiming the ‘no build zone’ policy, have secured victim-families out of danger zone areas.
But Pamalakaya said the real intent of this policy is to take over and replace the fishing villages and communities with commercial and eco-tourism projects. The No Build Zone policy prohibits the fisherfolk and other residents to build houses and settle 40-meters away from the shoreline.
“Don’t try to fool us Mr. Roxas, we know that the real score behind the ‘no build zone’ policy is to wipe out the fishing villages and the productive fishing activities of small-fisherfolk to pave way for private infrastructures for the money-making ventures of the rich,” Salvador France, Pamalakaya vice-chairperson said in a statement.
The fisherfolk group said the victims of the super typhoon Yolanda have yet to recover since the super typhoon struck the country in 2013 due to the slow response and criminal negligence of the Aquino administration. Nearly 20,000 fisherfolk from Roxas and Panay have yet to return to their livelihoods and communities that were fully devastated by the typhoon.
“The fisherfolk and other residents of Visayas, once victims of the natural catastrophe, are now once again victimized by the corporate-dictated anti-people policy like the ‘no build zone’,” France added.
“It is clear the Roxas will continue this inane policy of President Aquino if ever he wins the election. He really is a total disappointment to the Filipino people and doesn’t deserve any single vote from the ordinary people,” France ended.
The fisherfolk demands to scrap the ‘no build zone’ policy and to provide adequate and genuine rehabilitation to the victims of super typhoon Yolanda and other natural calamities especially the fisherfolk. ###
Is the No-Build Zone policy still being enforced?? I read a long time ago that they were changing the policy so that people would not be evicted. I talked with a lot of people in the coastal barangays a couple years ago who were in the No Build Zones so I’m wondering what’s happening with it. Thank you.