'Scrap El Nido seaport plan'

MANILA, Philippines - Environmentalists led by former environment and natural resources secretary Elisea Gozun are up in arms against a planned seaport in El Nido, Palawan and urged the government to immediately scrap the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) it issued for the project.

Gozun, who chairs the Earth Day Network Philippines (EDNP), said the planned seaport endangers the ecosystem of El Nido – which she described as one of the top ecotourism destinations in the world – as its ECC undermines El Nido’s status as a protected area under the law.

Gozun said El Nido was declared a protected area through Presidential Proclamation No. 32, pursuant to the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS), or Republic Act 7586.

Gozun said the proclamation set aside a total area of 89,134.76 hectares, including land and water, in El Nido town, comprising the El Nido Managed Resource Protected Area “to ensure long-term protection and maintenance of biological diversity while providing at the same time a sustainable flow of natural products and services to meet community needs.”  

“Our main concern is that this is a protected area. A ro-ro pier is not an activity that is complementary to a protected area, unlike ecotourism,” she told The STAR.  

Gozun said the planned seaport entails dredging to deepen the vicinity of the proposed port and facilitate the ro-ro (roll-on, roll-off) system for more economic activity in the area.

But Gozun argued that the port project in Barangay Buena Suerte threatens “the God-given biodiversity of El Nido, something that we should preserve.”

“Why are they insisting on (constructing such a project in) El Nido when there is a nearby pier, which is already deep,” she said.

“Let’s learn from our mistakes. We have very few pristine places left given how much we have degraded our environment. Let’s save El Nido, we owe this to our children,” she added.

Gozun noted that the provincial government and El Nido residents are also opposing the project.

“The EDNP is not against economic development. However, it should be an economic development that benefits the people in the long term by not degrading the environment. This is the essence of sustainable development. Having a ro-ro project in a protected area is like killing the goose that lays the golden egg,” she said.