‘Bulacan airport to displace fisherfolk’

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines — At least 700 fisherfolk and coastal families will be displaced with the construction of a P700-billion airport project in Bulakan, Bulacan, according to fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas.

Pamalakaya said the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to Silvertides Holdings, a contractor of San Miguel Corp., on Monday would involve the reclamation of 2,500 hectares of coastal waters.

The group said it would be the fourth reclamation project granted an ECC under the Duterte administration.  Also granted ECCs are the 419-hectare Horizon Manila project, 148-hectare Manila Solar City and 318-hectare Manila Waterfront project.

“How ironic that the agency that leads the task force to rehabilitate Manila Bay is the one giving the go-signal to reclamation projects that will destroy the environment,” Bobby Roldan, Pamalakaya vice chairman for Luzon, said.

Roldan said more than 600 mangrove trees had been cleared in Barangay Taliptip in Bulakan, where the airport would be built.

Pamalakaya cited a study on coastal resources management conducted by AGHAM, a group of scientists, that each hectare of mangrove destroyed to pave the way for reclamation projects would result in 670 kilos of lost fish catch.

“Twenty-five hectares of fishing reservation areas are at stake and this would mean loss of traditional fish species and depletion of fish catch by small fisherfolk in the entire province of Bulacan,” the group said.