STATEMENT
Kalikasan – People’s Network for the Environment
October 30, 2024
MANILA – We at Kalikasan, as environmentalists for the Filipino people first, warmly welcomes the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights – APHR‘s pronouncement to demand the Marcos administration to hold off all reclamation projects in our waters, as recent calamities have yet again proven how directly worsened effects are due to destructive constructions.
PAMALAKAYA-Pilipinas has even presented their research findings that as grave as 80% to 90% of fisherfolk families’ incomes have been lost due to these projects that do not benefit them at all, but only leave them dried out in the sun.
With the massive damages triggered by the passing of recent typhoons such as #CarinaPH, #EntengPH, and #KristinePH, it is only appropriate that the public is engaged at rooting out the causes of the region-wide floodings happening like never before. And while communities around the Sierra Madre mountains and the Mayon Volcano protest against prolifirating quarrying disturbances, Manila Bay locals point to their own common ghoul: reclamation projects in the Bay.
When the Duterte administration ordered all incoming reclamation applications be cancelled due to its environmental impacts, this was positively accepted by the general public, yet it was almost too good; all reclamations were stopped, except those affiliated with Philippine Reclamation Authority and San Miguel Corporation. Since 2023, 22 of these reclamations proceed to endanger the Bay and its locals.
Despite increasing disagreements especially with the greater public’s interests, especially after it has been linked to worsening floods of recent years in Manila Bay’s coastal lands, both PRA and SMC have greedily kept their destructive activities in the coastal areas, directly impairing the livelihoods of thousands of fisherfolk families in Bataan, Pampanga, Bulacan, Metro Manila, and Cavite.
PAMALAKAYA-Pilipinas has even presented their research findings that as grave as 80% to 90% of fisherfolk families’ incomes have been lost due to these projects that do not benefit them at all, but only leave them dried out in the sun. They presented this before the inquiry with APHR, attended by members of its IPI Committee — GABRIELA‘s Cong. Arlene Brosas; former Malaysian Member of Parliament Charles Santiago; Thai Member of Parliament Nitipon Piwmow; and Malaysian Member of Parliament Lee Chean Chung — as well as representatives from PAMALAKAYA, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, and AGHAM – Advocates of Science and Technology for the People.
Concluding the event was the common verdict: All of these destructive reclamations by PRA and SMC in Manila Bay have to go now!
The scientists, environmentalists, and directly impacted communities have all spoken now, Marcos, Jr. And we charge you guilty of crimes against the Manila Bay communities, endangering their livelihoods, safety, and rights with your complacency to these reclamation projects.
It is your move now to heed our call, and put to good use for once the mandated power you hold onto so desperately.
