Aquino urged to halt SM reclamation project

President Benigno Aquino III. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines –Various groups are calling on President Benigno Aquino III to halt SM Land Inc.’s P54.5 billion reclamation project along Manila Bay, saying it would affect the environment and  local livelihood.

“If the Aquino administration is sincere in saving and rehabilitating Manila Bay, it should stop corporate reclamation,” advocacy groups said in a statement Tuesday, a day after the Pasay City Council voted to proceed with the controversial project, a joint venture between Henry Sy’s SM Land Inc. and the local government of Mayor Antonino Calixto.

The groups are led by the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), Koalisyon Kontra Kumbersyon ng Manila Bay (KKK-Manila Bay), Sagip Manila Bay Movement (SMBM), Save Freedom Island Movement (SFIM) and Anakpawis partylist.

The 300-hectare project, which is to be completed within seven years, involves the reclamation and development of foreshore and offshore areas on Manila Bay.

“This reclamation must be [discontinued] to stop the wholesale killing of people’s livelihood and the environment, prevent disasters and other man-made and natural calamities in the near future,” groups opposing the reclamation said.

The reclamation, they said, will destroy Manila Bay, affecting the fishermen in the area, and will make the area vulnerable to flooding and storm surges.

Pamalakaya echoed environment groups, saying, “the country’s annual fish catch is on a steady decline largely attributable to severe degradation of coastal and marine habitats with up to 98 percent of our coral reefs currently at risk, 75.6 percent of mangroves lost in the past 82 years, and 50 percent of sea grass beds lost in the past 50 years.”