Militants claim Manila Bay rehab means dislocation of poor folks

MANILA, Philippines—A militant fisherfolk alliance is asking Congress to disapprove a P150-million proposed allocation for the Manila Bay rehabilitation projects of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Groups belonging to Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and KKK-Manila Bay claimed that the budget would not be spent on rehabilitation efforts but on the dislocation of the fishermen and their families from coastal communities.

In an e-mailed statement, Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap said that the DENR-led rehabilitation would only pave the way for reclamation projects and other state-initiated infrastructure investments under the Public-Private Partnership program of President Aquino.

According to the fisherfolk group, the DENR, then under Secretary Joselito Atienza in 2009 provided the provincial government of Cavite with more than P800, 000 for the demolition of fishpens and other structures for mussles in Bacoor, Cavite, in Las Piñas and Parañaque cities.

The demolition of fishpens was in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling on a Manila Bay cleanup.

“The purpose of the cleanup was not meant to rehabilitate Manila Bay and restore it back to its old grandeur, but to clean up the bay of any obstacles for the construction and completion of the R-1 Expressway Extension in Cavite,” Hicap said.

He said all government projects involving reclamation and conversion of foreshore areas of the bay since the Marcos administration up to the present never improved the condition of Manila Bay.

“Manila Bay is now considered the largest septic tank in the Philippines due to industrial and commercial wastes and untreated water wastes flowing to the bay in large volume every day,” the group said.