Environmental groups belonging to the Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) laughed off on Monday Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu’s plan to implement a Boracay-like rehabilitation plan for Manila Bay.
In rejecting what it describes as an “all-out delusion” of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) chief in doing a Boracay in Manila Bay, Kalikasan-PNE said the government’s past efforts to rehabilitate Boracay “cannot even be considered a success,” considering the failure to fully enforce environmental laws among tourism-related business establishments, and the massive loss of jobs and livelihood.
“In the first place, only less than 10 percent of establishments were environmentally compliant after six full months of closure, and at least 35,000 disrupted jobs and livelihoods,” Leon Dulce, national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE told the BusinessMirror.
Dulce was reacting to the DENR chief’s statement as the agency mandated to manage the country’s environment and natural resources gears up to embark on an ambitious campaign to restore Manila Bay’s water back to its pristine state.
Cimatu is banking on the support and cooperation of various stakeholders, particularly local government units (LGUs) around the Manila Bay area. He vowed to exercise political will, which, Cimatu said, he demonstrated during the six-month closure and rehabilitation of Boracay Island, in Malay, Aklan.
Dulce said Cimatu’s “final solution” is off-target by zeroing in on the poor again with his promise of demolishing the homes of 300,000 mostly marginalized residents across the coast.
He cited a 2010 World Bank study which indicates that lower and lower middle income level groups generate 0.60 to 0.79 kilograms of solid waste per day per head on average, compared to 2.1 kg of solid waste per day per person among high income level groups.
Moreover, the leader of the environmental advocacy group said the Boracay lockdown even facilitated the further privatization of Boracay’s wetland ecosystems, public utilities and infrastructure.
“This impending Manila Bay crackdown may be the same modus, and will, in fact, feed into the Duterte government’s plan to destroy and convert more than 30,000 hectares of the bay’s coastal ecosystems into reclamation and other big business developments,” he warned.
Last week the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas criticized the government’s plan to relocate thousands of fishermen along Manila Bay. The plan, Pamalakaya said, in effect, blamed poor residents for the water pollution, while allegedly turning a blind eye to the chemical and toxic wastes being discharged by industrial and commercial structures on a regular basis, as well as other government projects that are destructive to marine ecosystem.
The relocation order of Cimatu is a prelude to reclamation projects pending in Manila Bay, Fernando Hicap, national chairman of Pamalakaya said.
There are 43 reclamation projects covering 32,429.56 hectares of waters lined up under President Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program, he said.
“Thousands of hectares of mangrove forests and coral reefs were destroyed before to pave way for commercial business districts and establishments. From decades ago until 1995, mangrove areas in Manila Bay used to cover 54,000 hectares but they have significantly shrunk to 2,000 hectares and at present, only less-than-a-500-hectare is left. This systematic destruction of mangroves not only affects the habitat of fish and other marine species but also the livelihood of small fishers who now suffer from the trend of fish-catch depletion; from 10 to 15 kilos down to 2 to 5 kilos of average catch per day,” Hicap lamented.
Pamalakaya said Cimatu should refrain from his subjective decisions that put the socioeconomic rights of small fishermen at stake.
“Cimatu should not use the issue of pollution as an excuse to demolish fishing communities in Manila Bay when in the first place, it is the government’s incompetence and sellout to corporate plunderers that put our fishing waters in a dying stage. We reiterate our call to genuinely rehabilitate Manila Bay in a form of mangroves restoration and rejecting all destructive projects such as land reclamation,” Hicap said.