Navotas fishermen, a militant fisherfolk group, environmentalists, and activists are pressing President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to issue immediately an executive order or back legislation that stops and forbids all reclamation projects in Manila Bay.
Manila Bay, a center of biodiversity that spans 199,400 hectares with a coastline that runs through the provinces of Cavite, Bulacan, and Bataan and the Metro Manila cities of Pasay, Manila, Malabon, and Navotas, remains in constant threat of ecological ruin following the suspension of reclamation projects, according to environmental groups and advocates.
Earlier this month, Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga announced that all 22 reclamation projects in Manila Bay are suspended. This came after Marcos Jr.’s pronouncement that all but one reclamation project was suspended—a decision that various groups and civil society organizations welcomed.
However, the fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) stressed that in a recent budget hearing, the environment department admitted that the government had not issued an official suspension order on the reclamation projects.
“Fishers won’t find solace as long as reclamation vessels that are causing immense harm to our livelihood remain on our shores,” said Pamalakaya vice chair Ronnel Arambulo.
“What we need is an assurance that these destructive projects will permanently come to a stop,” he said.
Pamalakaya previously stated that the Navotas Coastal Bay Reclamation Project threatens the livelihoods of more than 1,000 fishermen, fish workers, and operators of fishing structures.
“In the country’s fishing capital, thousands of small fisherfolk and fish workers are at the risk of losing their livelihood courtesy of the ongoing dismantling of fishing structures and mussel farms for reclamation,” Arambulo said.
“One can only imagine the extent of the damage to local fisheries production if these productive fishing structures would entirely vanish,” he added.
In September last year, the group appealed to the DENR for an “immediate on-site investigation” into dismantling mussel farms and stationary fish traps for the project.