Navotas fishers oppose the 650-ha Navotas Boulevard Business Park
Manila, Philippines – Members of the militant fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) in Navotas yesterday held a meeting consultation regarding the Navotas Boulevard Business Park (NBBP) which was approved during former President Noynoy Aquino’s administration.
The NBBP covers 650-hectare reclamation and will range 50 from the shoreline up to the communities situated along the water. This will result to the demolition of around 20,000 fisherfolk and urban poor residents. The reclamation project was approved by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) as requested by City Mayor John Rey Tiangco.
“This is the sum of all our fears. Manila Bay is already in throe courtesy of past reclamation and conversion projects, if its grand sell out will be pushed through, this will bring the former into its final deathbed. With the guarantee from the government through the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), big developers continue to destroy our environment and seas for their profit-generating businesses to the detriment of the fisherfolk and poor families’ lives and livelihood,” Fernando Sevilla, a fisherman from Navotas and member of Pamalakaya said in a statement.
Pamalakaya said the project in Navotas is part of the PRA’s grandiose plan to reclaim and convert Manila Bay from productive fishing grounds into a complete eco-tourism zone.
“There are now markers in the shoreline that prevent our fishing boats from going out of the shore,” Sevilla lamented.
The fisherfolk and residents after the consultation signed a petition letter opposing the project and will submit it to the concerned agencies like the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), PRA, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Fisherfolk and residents said they will not leave their community and will intensify their resistance against NBBP and all the ‘development’ projects that pose threat to their rights and livelihood. ###
