Group denounces ‘no-build zone’ policy

By: DJ Yap - 11 years ago

THE DESIRE to rise from the destruction wrought by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” manifests itself in the form of makeshift homes that have been built around a ship that was swept inland by storm surges in Anibong, Tacloban City. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—An environmental advocacy group is calling for the revocation of the government’s “no-build zone” policy within 40 meters of shorelines, saying it was only an excuse to eject coastal communities for commercial interests.

The Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) alleged in a statement released on Friday that the real objective of the policy was not to build disaster-free communities but to clear coastal areas to pave the way for private developers.

“The national government is again using this policy to displace coastal communities particularly in Yolanda-affected areas in Leyte and Samar provinces,” Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE, said in the statement.

“President Aquino claims it is for the purpose of building safe and disaster-resilient communities, but its apparent real intention is to clear communities off the coastal areas to pave the way for land-grabbing by special economic and ecotourism zones of private corporations,” he said.

The no-build zone policy of the government prohibits the construction of permanent structures within 40 meters from the shoreline as stipulated under the Water Code.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje earlier announced the mapping and marking of the 40-meter danger zones covering approximately 100 kilometers of coastline in Samar and Leyte provinces, although not all the areas would be subject to them.

“There are areas where growing mangroves and beach forest is not applicable…. There are places, where infrastructure is more applicable, meaning dikes and breakwaters,” he said.

“If the applicable measure is infra (infrastructure), then we’ll apply infra. When a green measure is more applicable, then we’ll use beach forest and mangroves. There’s no hard and fast rule because there are places where mangroves don’t grow,” Paje said.

The policy was in response to the devastation suffered by coastal communities due to powerful storm surges spawned by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) in November.

But Kalikasan PNE said the policy fails “both to protect our coastal and marine ecosystems and ensure the safety of our coastal communities.”

“In spite of this policy, most of our public domain like mangrove areas and shorelines were converted to private ownership and were used for commercial purposes. This included the proliferation of fishpond production, private resorts, shopping malls, economic zones, and luxury subdivisions,” Bautista said.

The group further noted the plans of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) to develop the affected areas into IT parks and special economic zones for manufacturing.

“Exempting special economic zones and eco tourism projects from the [no build zone] defeats the purpose of removing populations and infrastructure from hazardous areas,” Kalikasan PNE said.