Stop being enabler for Chinese reclamation; terminate the Sangley airport — Fishers’ group to Gov Remulla

Stop being enabler for Chinese reclamation; terminate the Sangley airport — Fishers’ group to Gov Remulla

Manila, Philippines — Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla must seriously reconsider tying up with a Chinese firm involved in massive reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea, on his international airport project at Sangley Point in Cavite City, according to a group of small fishermen on Tuesday.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. earlier called for the termination of projects with Chinese firms that are blacklisted in the United States. These firms include the China Construction & Communications Corportaion (CCCC), the mother company of the China Airport Construction Corporation (CACC) which would be the foreign partner of the MacroAsia Corporation and the provincial government of Cavite for the contruction of the P500-billion Sangley International Airport.

The fishers group said that the CCCC has been engaged in environmental destruction through large-scale reclamation in the South China Sea. Satellite images earlier showed that a subsidiary of CCCC dredging company operated most of its giant barges digging sand from the seabed and piling it on remote coral attolls in the Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef), Zamora Reef (Subi Reef), and Kagitingan Reef (Fiery Cross Reef), which are all located in the Kalayaan Island Group (Spratlys) in the West Philippine Sea.

“We call on Governor Remulla not to lay open Manila Bay to a Chinese firm that is involved in a massive reclamation and construction of military facilities in the West Philippine Sea. He should not compromise the sovereignty, environment, and most especially the socio-economic rights of tens of thousands of Caviteno fishermen to pave way for a mega project of an established Chinese plunderer and aggressor,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.

PAMALAKAYA’s Hicap, who is currently a resident in Rosario, Cavite, said that around 26, 000 fishing families or roughly 150, 000 people along the coastline of Bacoor to Cavite City will be displaced from their main source of livelihood to pave way for the international airport project.

The fishers group also warned that the project is a prelude to another “Chinese takeover of the Philippine waters”, as the CCCC has been widely established as China’s instrument for its expansionism activities.

“We humbly appeal to the incumbent Governor of Cavite to completely terminate the airport project. The people of Cavite, most especially the fisherfolks and coastal population, do not need an airport, but a coastal community integrated to a sustainable livelihood,” added Hicap.

“Governor Remulla should save himself from being a Chinese apparatus in the South to pursue Beijing’s military agenda across the country. International airport is not the right prescription for development, but a genuine rehabilitation of the already degraded Manila Bay and its restoration as a traditional fishing grouds,” ended Hicap. ###

Sangley Point in Cavite City.
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