Fisherfolk lauds rejection of Mega Harbour Project
Manila, Philippines – The militant fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA-Pilipinas) on Thursday lauded the rejection of Davao City Mayor Sara-Duterte Carpio of the Mega Harbour project, a joint-venture signed by her father, then City Mayor and now President Rodrigo Roa Duterte with Mega Harbour Port and Development Corporation.
The P40-billion Mega Harbour project covers the areas from Sta. Ana Port to Bucana and involves 200-hectare reclamation intended for mixed-use, commercial, and residential use. Mayor Carpio terminated the project in July for its implications on the environment and livelihood of the people living along its target coastal area.
“We welcome Mayor Carpio’s decision to reject one of the most destructive corporate activities to our fishing waters. Coastal reclamation always leads to destruction of marine biodiversity and moreover, wide dislocation of fisherfolk and coastal settlers in exchange for business ventures of few developers,”
“The City Mayor must completely put the project to an end even if the proponent finds its way to slip through the project’s technicalities and flaws. For the fisherfolk who have been always the target of its devastating impacts, reclamation can never be legal, environmentally, and socially viable,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA Chairperson said in a statement.
The fisherfolk group said President Duterte must follow the step of his daughter by terminating all the reclamation projects pending throughout the archipelago packaged under the National Reclamation Plan by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA). This includes some of the projects that already started in Manila Bay like the 650-hectare Navotas Boulevard Business Park (NBBP) that if completed, would effectively displace more than 20,000 fisherfolk and urban poor in the two barangays of Navotas City.
“President Duterte must declare all reclamation projects illegal and disastrous to environment and the people. His daughter’s step was a welcome development, but it would be more beneficial to the Filipino fisherfolk if all reclamation projects nationwide would be totally terminated,” ended Hicap. ###
