Militant fisherfolk want P150-M budget for bay rehab disapproved

A militant fisherfolk alliance is asking Congress to disapprove the P150–million budget for the Manila Bay rehabilitation projects of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

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 fisherfolks and their families from coastal communities.

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

In the proposed P16.9 billion budget for 2012, the DENR plans to allot P150 million for the operations of projects under the Manila Bay Coastal Management Strategy.

According to the fisherfolk’s group, the DENR, then under Secretary Joselito Atienza in 2009, provided the provincial government of Cavite with more than P 800,000 for the demolition of fishpens and other structures for mussles in Bacoor, Cavite, and in Las Piñas and Parañaque cities.

The demolition of fishpens was in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling on 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 the 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.

Meanwhile, both Pamalakaya and KKK-Manila Bay believed that the position of the DENR on the proposed reclamation of the 175-hectare bird sanctuary in Manila Bay by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) was “indecisive.”

The reclamation of coastal waters including the area covered by the bird sanctuary will result into the construction of a business center.

The affected Las Piñas-Parañaque lagoon is the only remaining mangrove forest in the National Capital Region.

“DENR is not paying attention to this matter. They failed to do their assignment to check this rising and continuing tide of destruction in Manila Bay,” the groups said.