New DENR Order: A 'Recipe for
Destruction'
Fishers group to stage nationwide fluvial
protest vs order opening coastal areas to investors
Leaders of the
fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas
(Pamalakaya) vowed to launch a nationally-coordinated fluvial protest on
Feb. 24 against a new order from the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) allowing the 25-year lease of idle coastal areas all over
the country to big investors.
By Gerry Albert Corpuz
Bulatlat
Leaders of the
fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas
(Pamalakaya) vowed to launch a nationally-coordinated fluvial protest on
Feb. 24 against a new order from the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) allowing the 25-year lease of idle coastal areas all over
the country to big investors.
"This is an open
declaration of war," Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a
press statement sent to Bulatlat. "If Sec. (Michael) Defensor and
his big boss in Malacañang want war, then we have no other choice but to
declare war too."
In a directive issued
on Jan. 9 to its 43 provincial chapters nationwide, Pamalakaya called on
all its members to launch fluvial protests against DENR Administrative
Order No.24 (DAO 24) opening up the country's coastal areas while reviving
the country's depleted mangrove forests.
"Secretary Defensor
wants this incorrigible and idiotic order to appear as a business-oriented
but environment-friendly undertaking. He is insulting the collective
intelligence and national sentiment of our small fisherfolk by pursuing
this repackaged and deodorized plunder of national patrimony," Hicap
added.
The DENR order was
approved on Nov.17 last year to encourage trade and investment in
biodiversity and optimize the special use of degrading coastal areas for
sustainable development.
A
recipe for destruction
But Pamalakaya said
the order was a recipe for environmental destruction citing the case of
543 hectares of shallow waters in Manila
Bay off Roxas Boulevard in Pasay
City, which the national government
and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) intends to reclaim
and develop for new first-class casinos along the bay.
"Imagine casinos and
gambling stations sprouting like mushrooms along coastal areas? Give us
break," the group said.
Pamalakaya's Hicap
said the Feb. 24 fluvial protest actions, coinciding with the 8th year
anniversary of Fisheries Code of 1998 will take place in Sarangani, Davao
del Sur in Mindanao, Cebu and Bohol in Central Visayas, Aklan, Iloilo,
Negros, Eastern Visayas, Masbate, Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur and
Camarines Norte in Bicol Region.
Pamalakaya's chapters
in La Union, Batangas, Taal
Lake, Laguna
Lake and Manila
Bay areas comprising fishing
communities in the National Capital Region, Cavite and Bulacan will also
conduct their own fluvial protests simultaneously with their chapters in
Mindanao, Visayas and Bicol Region.
The militant group said around 500 small-scale fishing boats will
participate in the nationally-coordinated fluvial rally.
"Secretary Defensor
and President Arroyo are the Helens of Troy of the millennium. Literally
and politically speaking they could launch a thousand ships by imposing
this blasphemous order sending our fish boats in protest mode," the group
said.
Pamalakaya said the
controversial DENR order will be used as a basis for the filing of
criminal and anti-graft charges against President Arroyo and Defensor on
the second week of February prior to the fluvial parade.
The group said aside
from DAO 24, it would also cite the issue of oil drilling and gas
exploration in Tañon
Strait, the Lafayette mine spills last year, the failure of the DENR to
address the Navotas Dumpsite and the issuance of 4,968 environmental
clearance certificates (ECCs) last year without any public consultation.
ECCs like free
fast food coupons
While the outgoing
DENR secretary was praising the achievement of his office spreading the
department's contribution to the entry of more the P518 billion in fresh
investments in 2005, his critics were not impressed. Pamalakaya secretary
general Romeo Antazo said the DENR was able to register a record high of
nearly 400 percent increase in total investments last year because
Defensor was giving away environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) like
free fast food coupons to foreign investors.
"The ECCs are awarded
to foreign investors like free food coupons. They can easily get the ECCs
at the counter with no sweat and in red carpet fashion," said Antazo, a
leader of Pamalakaya for over 20 years.
Antazo said his group
will ask Defensor to explain how the DENR managed to approve 4,968 ECCs,
which the department issued last year. Based on Pamalakaya's computation
the DENR was processing and approving an average of 14 ECC applications
per day.
"14 ECCs a day? It
seems to us the DENR has become a factory mill of giveaway ECCs last year
that is why it was able to register a 400 percent increase in total
investments last year," he said.
Pamalakaya also said
it would ask the committees on environment of the House of Representatives
and the Senate to conduct separate or joint congressional inquiries on the
issue, particularly whether these ECCs were processed in consultation with
the affected sectors and communities.
"The ECCs are sold
for dime-a-dozen package to please the corporate clients of Malacañang and
facilitate their walk-in-the park plunder of the country's national
patrimony and environment," the group said. Likewise, Pamalakaya said the
influx of investments in power; mining and infrastructure failed to
generate jobs for millions of jobless Filipinos and did not make any
impact in improving the lives of the downtrodden sectors in the country.
Bulatlat
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