Manila, Philippines – The bidding ceremony for the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project drew sharp opposition as hundreds of fisherfolk under the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya-Pilipinas), together with members of the alliance Save Laguna Lake Movement (SLLM), marked the bidding with a roving picket at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) last Monday, March 14.
The said expressway dike project is one of President Aquino’s biggest projects under Public-Private Partnership (PPP). LLEDP has two components: a 47-kilometer expressway dike from Muntinlupa, Taguig to Los Banos, Laguna; and a 700-hectare reclamation for commercial and mixed use. Both have a price tag of P122.8B.
The protesting fisherfolk dumped bunches of waterlilies at the gate of the DPWH, their way, they said, of showing a preview of what a huge menace the LLEDP is to fishers and poor residents living around the lake.
Pamalakaya estimated that around 3.9 million fisherfolk and urban poor families will be displaced and deprived of their livelihoods as a result of this dike project project. Salvador France, Pamalakaya Vice-chairperson, accused the Aquino administration of seeking funding and political support from big businesses, saying that is why they are continuing to push through with the project despite the election ban for public infrastructure.
Three qualified business consortiums have submitted bids for the dike project. These are the Team Trident comprising Ayala Land Inc., SM Prime Holdings Inc., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and Megaworld Corp.; the San Miguel Corp.; and Alloy Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium.
Ronnie Molera, SLLM Spokesperson, likens the LLEDP to the “final nail in their coffin.” The dike project will wipe them out from their communities, after years of steadily dwindling catch which they also blame on past and present “epic-fail” government projects.
“Fishers can barely make a decent living off the lake now polluted by several destructive projects of current and past administrations. Notable is the epic fail-flood control system which barred the entry of salt water onto the lake, and caused the rapid deterioration of lake’s biodiversity,” said Molera.
“Aquino and his heir apparent, Mar Roxas, want to reorient the Laguna de Bay from a rich and abundant fishing lake to a world-class commercial hub for money-making ventures of the rich, all at the cost of fishers’ lives,” Pamalakaya and SLLM said in a joint statement.
Contrary to what Aquino and Roxas want for the lake, the fisherfolk group is pushing for what it calls as a genuine and pro-people rehabilitation of the dying lake, “to bring back its natural abundance for the benefit of the fishers and the people,” Molera said.
On the occasion of the bidding ceremony for the dike project, fishers and local residents around Laguna de Bay carried placards declaring the place as a “No Dike Zone”.
[Text by M. Salamat / Contributed Photos]
