Hagedorn bats for wildlife sanctuary

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY — Mayor Edward Hagedorn said yesterday the city’s wildlife sanctuary project is legal, meritorious and beneficial to his constituents over the short and long term.

Hagedorn said the 1,000-hectare wildlife sanctuary in Sitio Manaburi, Bahile is in accordance with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) which the city council approved years ago.

"It is ironic because the affected squatter families who are resisting eviction from the area are not native Palaweños but migrant fishermen from different parts of the country who had been lured by the city’s rich marine resources," he said.

Hagedorn said there were only 20 squatter families in the area in 1994. City Hall had issued several notices to these illegal settlers to vacate the area which they ignored. Since then, the squatter population has grown to about 100 families, he said.

Despite the project’s delay, the city government has been taking every move to provide a humanitarian and holistic solution to resolve the squatter problem by holding consultations and offering an appropriate relocation site, housing and other community facilities and amenities to these squatter families, Hagedorn said.

"But they have to go. There is no compromise," he said.