For Valentine’s Day, three letters carried an appeal to stop the ongoing Cordova Reclamation Project.
Environment advocates wrote Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia urging her to halt the joint province-municipal project and asked the Interior and Local Government Secertary Jesse Robredo and the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) to call a “moratorium on reclamation projects” in the country.
“Quarrying of filling materials and covering the tidal flats and sea grass, one of the biggest this side of Cebu, would not only permanently ravage cosystems but exacerbate landslides, flooding and displacements of the people in a country which is the disaster epicenter of the world,” said the Philippine Earth Justice Center Inc. letter signed by its founder Gloria Estenzo Ramos.
An initial 20 hectares is being reclaimed for a roll-on roll-off port that started operating last January.
In a stakeholders forum last Saturday, Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy defended the project, saying tourism and commercial developments that will follow are the answer to his small fishing town’s poverty.
A 120-hectare “mini-Boracay” with a man-made beach is indicated in a project map shown to local fishermen, who complained that access to the sea was blocked, forcing them to dock their bancas farther away.
The earth dumping in southwest Mactan island has raised questions as well about the impact on coastal marine life, the tourism industry, shipping and implications of climate change.
Ramos’ letter raised the prospect of flooding.
“It is undeniable that sea level rise is a reality. The reclaimed land will eventually be reclaimed by the sea,” she said.
She noted that no approval was given by the PRA for the project and that the Environmental Compliance Certificate by the DENR for the initial 20-hectare reclamation “is not proof that CRP does not devastate the environment.”
The ECC has conditions that have to be complied with. Part of the conditions stated in the Jan. 31, 2009 Environment Impact Study—a detailed oceanographic study—was not complied with, she said.
Capitol lawyers this week said the province does not need permission from the PRA to undertake the Cordova reclamation because this infrastructure project falls within the powers of the province under the Local Government Code.
During Saturday’s science forum, environment activists asked for a three-day biological study to identify what sea grasses and marine life are being affected in the area.
On site this week, Cebu Daily News observed young mangroves several meters from where payloaders and trucks were hauling and dumping filling materials.
Marinebiologists have identified mangroves as habitats for marine life and coastline protection against storm surges.
Cordova is also a popular site for mangrove planting by volunteers and companies out to exercise corporate social responsibiity.
Separate letters were sent to Garcia and Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, the DILG secretary and DILG-7 regional director Ananias Villacorta, and PRA general manager Peter Anthony Abaya and his assistant general manager for reclamation and regulation Josefina Castro.
Ramos said the reclamation would “magnify our pollution and disaster woes.”
“Cebu recently experienced an earthquake, incessant and unprecedented occurrence of flooding and landslides. Yet the local authorities pretend as if they are not happening,” she said.
The lawyer said land use and coastal resource management plans, if they exist, are not updated.
“We cannot afford to be silent in the face of this appalling indifference and lack of prioritization for environmental protection and capacity building of stakeholders to be disaster-resilient,” Ramos said.
The CRP plans includes a roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) terminal with a total foreshore area of 100,000 square meters, and causeways with reclamation activity covering 3,000 square meters, a ro-ro ramp and a passenger terminal.
It will also have a parking area and wastewater treatment facility.
Many details of the project were not subject to wide stakeholder consultation.
In the PEJC letter, Ramos asked the Capitol to allow them to copy the following documents:
a map of the 20-hectare project and updated EIS and the Environmental Compliance Certificate issued by the DENR, a Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Coastal Resource Management Plan for the Province of Cebu and the Provincial Board resolution on the Cordova project and the corresponding approved Annual Investment Plan of Cebu province.
In Saturday’s forum, a sea grass expert, Prof. Rene Rollon of the University of the Philippine said sea grass can’t be replanted, once removed. It is a habitat where fish and seashells are found, and is “interconnected” with the mangroves and corals.
Dr. Lourdes Montenegro, an economist, discussed a 2001 study of the impact of a proposed reclamation project of the Malayan Integrated Industries Corp., which didn’t proceed.
It covered a bigger area, almost 1,000 hectares. She said it would have resulted in heavy environmental damage that cost more than the revenue from the project.
PRA General Manager Peter Anthony Abaya wrote to Ramos in Dec. 14, 2011 confirming that Cordova applied for a 20-hectare reclamation project as component of its port project.
“To date, both the Municipality and the Province have not complied with the requirements for PRA to evaluate and process the application for reclamation … ” he said./Candeze R. Mongaya Reporter