Cavite reclamation plan will "kill" over 20K fishermen

MANILA, Philippines - The plan of national government to reclaim about 2,700 hectares of coastal areas in Cavite City to pave the way for the construction of an international airport to replace the Ninoy Aquino International Airport will destroy a major spawning area of fish in Manila Bay.

Various fisherfolk groups, led by Pamalakaya, said on Wednesday that the national government and the Department of Transportation and Communications should not pursue the project because of the devastating impact on fishery environment and livelihood of more than 20,000 subsistence fishermen across Cavite's coastal areas.

"The 2,700 hectare Sangley Point reclamation project which will give way to the construction of new international airport will destroy portions of Manila Bay in the province which is considered as a major spawning ground of fish and other salt water species," Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France said. 

The DOTC had announced that it is looking at Sangley Point in Cavite and Laguna de Bay as the possible site of a new international gateway that would replace the congested NAIA in Pasay City.

DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the Japan International Cooperation Agency  is initially looking at the former US naval base in Cavite as well as the country’s largest lake as the possible site of the new airport.

Abaya admitted that both locations entail massive reclamation as the new international airport requires at least 2,000 hectares.

Pamalakaya said some 26,000 fishing families from Bacoor to Cavite City will be displaced from their main source of livelihood once Malacanang agrees with foreign investors and financiers of the Sangley Pt. Reclamation Project in the Cavite Peninsula.

"Twenty six thousand fishing families or roughly 156,000 people will be immediately dislodged from their livelihood and communities and what the government will offer for survival of a lifetime is P 15,000 for each of the displaced family," the group said.