New DENR Order: A ‘Recipe for Destruction’ Fishers group to stage nationwide fluvial protest vs order opening coastal areas to investors

Published on January 22, 2006

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.com

“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.com