Group prods SC to rule on Apeco case

MANILA, Philippines—Militant groups on Monday urged the Supreme Court to rule decisively on the petitions filed a year ago questioning the creation of the controversial Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Free Port (Apeco).

The project, its critics pointed out to the high court, is bleeding the national coffers dry and costs taxpayers P2 billion with a national annual budget allotment of P353 million but is proving to be unattractive to locators.

Over 200 petitioners led by Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), Anakpawis partylist and Panlalawigang Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Aurora (Pamana)  said in a statement Monday that they were puzzled that up now the Supreme Court is yet to rule on their petition.

“Filipino taxpayers will shell out P 4.4 million in hard-earned taxes for every room the government will construct inside the compound of the controversial Aurora Pacific Economic and Free Port (Apeco) zone,” the groups explained.

At the same time, the petitioners called the high court’s attention over the government’s plan to spend P220 million for the construction of the 3-storey hotel composed of 50 world class rooms for local and foreign tourists.

“All it takes is P 50,000 to build decent homes for homeless and landless people in Aurora but this necessity never came to the minds of Malacañang and the Angara clan controlled Apeco. All they want to do is the sell-out of Casiguran and profit from its wholesale privatization and conversion,” Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France and convener of Resist Apeco, Defend Aurora Movement said.

Last Jan. 8, 2013, the high court told parties to submit their memoranda.

“The legal battle against Apeco will continue and will proceed on a prolonged basis. The SC is quite slow and dilly dallying in resolving this issue which is a matter of life and death to thousands of farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples,” they said.

“We hope the high tribunal will come to its senses, start the ball rolling on the Apeco case and resolve this case with finality in accordance with the national interest and collective sentiment of the people of Aurora and the general taxpaying public. Apeco is unconstitutional, immoral and a triple platinum betrayal of public interest,” said Pamalakaya and Anakpawis partylist.

Pamalakaya, Anakpawis partylist and Pamana are represented by their legal counsels —lawyers Rachel Pastores, Amylyn Sato and Sandra Jill Santos all from Public Interest Law Center (PILC).

In 2011, Aurora-based rural groups and the national farmers and fisherfolk organizations urged the high court to nullify Republic Act 9490 or the Aseza (Aurora Special Economic Zone Authority) Act of 2007 and its amendatory law—Republic Act 10083 or the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Free Port Act of 2010 for violating provisions on agrarian reform and social justice.

They said the law “patently disregarded the agrarian reform beneficiaries of the agricultural lands awarded to them by the national government when Apeco started covering lands already covered and awarded through government land reform programs.”

They added that the same law made no explicit mention of fishermen but the areas these laws subject to the establishment of ecozone cover the residences of subsistence fishermen and their fishing grounds.

The petitioners also said another sector of poor people to be affected by Aseza and Apeco is the indigenous people whose rights are also blatantly violated by the ecozone project. They said RA 10083 covers the areas being claimed by the Agtas and Dumagats in barangays (village) San Ildefonso, Culat and Cozo as part of their ancestral domain.  They said Apeco will cover around 11,900 hectares of the indigenous people’s claim for ancestral domain in Casiguran.