About a hundred squatter families in Cavite City are facing possible eviction as part of the rehabilitation efforts of Manila Bay, a region that covers a 190-kilometer coastline from Cavite to Bataan.
Fisherfolks belonging to the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) condemned the plan, noting that business establishments that violate environmental laws like the Clean Water Act were issued a warning while squatter dwellers are facing the prospects of an outright eviction.
“We condemn this double-standard, pseudo-rehabilitation in the strongest possible terms. While business establishments that violate proper sewerage standards were only given a fair warning and grace period, coastal settlers, on the other hand, will be demolished automatically just because they can’t afford a septic tank,” Fernando Hicap, national chairman of Pamalakaya said.
“This is the sum of all our fears; we know it from the very start that the end game of this rehabilitation is to displace hundreds of thousands of poor families, mostly fisherfolk from their communities and deprive them of their livelihood. On the other hand, establishments that have been cited as Manila Bay polluters were given a second chance to address their mess,” Hicap, a fisherman from Rosario, Cavite added.
The former Anakpawis Party-list Representative said fishermen in Rosario fear they will be the next target of a possible dislocation.
“If the government can easily pinpoint what community and how many families will be demolished, then they can do it too to other communities including us, and eventually to the whole coastal municipalities in Cavite,” added Hicap.
Pamalakaya said there is a long-standing plan to reclaim 2,700 hectares of Manila Bay waters in the part of Sangley Point in Cavite City for an international airport.
The group claimed that the planned international airport will affect 26,000 coastal families from Bacoor, Noveleta, Kawit, Rosario, and Cavite City.
“We reiterate our call to stop using the rehabilitation campaign to wipe out coastal communities around Manila Bay,” he said.
Last week, Pamalakaya assailed the ambitious P47 billion, 7-year Manila Bay rehabilitation program and dubbed it as Duterte Administration’s “Mock Battle of Manila Bay.”
The group issued the statement in reaction to Presidential spokesman and chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo pronouncement that “reclamation projects will benefit the government” through infrastructure projects.”
Pamalakaya said that only the government and big-time developers will benefit from reclamation, not the fisherfolk and poor families who will be displaced from their communities
“We were right after all; after the coordinated cover up of the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) on the real score of the Manila Bay rehab, the Malacañang Palace itself has already admitted that our fear of reclaiming our fishing grounds to turn it into a world-class commercial and business hub will actually happen at the expense of the environment and, moreover, our livelihood and community rights,” Hicap said.
Although Hicap said their group is fully supportive of the plan to rehabilitate Manila Bay, they are particularly suspicious of the sincerity of the government to restore Manila Bay when thousands of hectares of reclamation projects are pending and already approved.
“Panelo’s statement all makes sense; the effort to clean-up Manila Bay is driven by the plan to sell it to private entities afterward,” he said.