‘If reclamation is stopped, how do we pay P23M loan for port?’

Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy said the ongoing reclamation project would create jobs for his people and that halting it would limit economic activities especially the town’s new roll-on, roll off port.

“That project will generate more jobs for Cordova. Nganu ila man ng gidaginot nga gamay ra man na nga project? (Why would they still take notice of a small project?),” Sitoy asked.

He said he would leave it to the Capitol to answer the call of the Philippine Earth Justice Center for a “moratorium on reclamations”.

Sitoy said the 20-hectare reclamation was “a provincial project, not mine. I would depend on the action of the Province.”

“If the reclamation project is stopped, our port would be useless,” Sitoy said.

He said Cordova town needs revenue to pay back the P23 million loan secured from the Land Bank of Philippines to develop the port.

“If we can’t generate income from the port, how are we going to pay our loan?” Sitoy said.

Ecology advocates led by lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos wrote the Capitol and national agencies to complain that the reclamation project, whose full scope is 132 hecaters, would ruin one of the largest beds of sea grass in Cebu, harming marine biodiversity in the area, and affecting fishermen’s livelihood.

Sitoy said the reclamation project would be a jump-off site for tourists to visit n earby islands and could be the station for the Cebu Port Authority and the Philippine Coast Guard.

Sitoy said he agreed for the area to be reclaimed because the soil from the salt water gives off a foul smell.

When asked if the smell came from the garbage allegedly dumped in the area, he did not comment.

The PEJC letter signed by its founder Gloria Estenzo Ramos urged Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to halt the project.

They also asked Interior and Local Government Secertary Jesse Robredo and the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) to call a “moratorium on reclamation projects” in the country.

Sitoy said he tapped Dr. Filipina Sotto, chairperson of the Department of Biology in the University of San Carlos, in assessing the effects of the reclamation project .

According to Sitoy, the initial assessment of Sotto, who inspected the area last Wednesday, was that it wasn’t harmful to marine biodiversity in the area.

He said Sotto would send her assessment report to his office next week.

During Saturday’s science forum, local environment activists asked for a three-day biological study to identify what sea grasses and other marine life were being affected in the area.