Category: News

‘The choice of law and the venue for disputes is once again surrendered by the Philippines in favor of China,’ senatorial bet Neri Colmenares tells Rappler

Ralf Rivas
Published 2:26 PM, March 24, 2019
Updated 2:53 PM, March 24, 2019

MANILA, Philippines– The Kaliwa Dam project, which seeks to prevent another water crisis in Metro Manila, is a magnet of controversy.

Already hounded by environmental and social concerns for decades, another issue surrounding the dam is a loan contract with China, which senatorial bet Neri Colmenares said was contentious.

“It is as onerous [as the Chico River irrigation project],” Colmenares told Rappler on Sunday, March 24.

The public can now go over the deal, as well as 8 other big-ticket infrastructure projects, after the Department of Finance (DOF) recently made public all loan agreements.

The Kaliwa Dam’s loan contract had articles pertaining to “waiver of immunity,” similar to the controversial Chico River irrigation project.

Colmenares said these were telltale signs of Beijing’s debt-trap diplomacy.

What is the project about? Located in Quezon province, the Kaliwa Dam is expected to supply some 600 million liters of water per day to Metro Manila. (READ: Manila Water on the hunt for new water sources)

The dam will be constructed by Beijing-run China Energy Engineering Corporation.

Several news reports stated that construction is targeted to start during the 3rd quarter of the year, and is expected to be completed by 2023.

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24 MARCH 2019

On March 25, 2019, Monday, around four hundred (400) family members, children and supporters of the fifty three (53) locked out workers from Samahan ng mga Manggagawa sa Hanjin Shipyard (SAMAHAN), Workers for People’s Liberation (WPL) and Friends of Hanjin Workers (FHW) will gather at the Mehan Garden at 8:30AM and troop towards the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Intramuros Office by 9:00AM to demand the return to work of locked out employees.

“Kahit nagkakasakit, naaaksidente at may posibilidad na mamatay gaya ng mga katrabaho naming naaksidente sa yarda, nagtiyaga kami at nagtrabaho ng maayos alang-alang sa aming mga pamilya. Ngayong nasa ilalim ng voluntary rehabilitation ang kompanya, kalabisan ba ang kahilingan naming manatili sa trabaho bilang maintenance sa yarda at isama kami hanggang sa muling pagbubukas nito?” lamented Efren Vinluan, SAMAHAN President.

Early this month, 113 of the 312 workers for shipyard maintenance were locked out of the worksite because they refused to sign the Voluntary Retrenchment Package (VRP) offered by the Hanjin management. The VRP stipulates a back-to-zero employment record, ‘five-month contracts’, as well as a quit claim form. Workers brought their plight to the Labor Department Sec. Silvestre Bello III, who said that the VRP is illegal, but refused to help bring the workers back to the shipyard.

Say work of activists will only get harder following withdrawal from international court

UCANews | Joe Torres, Manila, Philippines
March 18, 2019

The Philippines’ withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) has raised fears among activist groups of a worsening human rights situation amid an anti-narcotics war they say has killed more than 20,000 people in three years.

The Commission on Human Rights, an independent government body, called the withdrawal a “reversal of the country’s commitment to international treaty obligations and a step back from the gains the Philippines has achieved in promoting justice and human rights.”

In March last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced he was tearing up the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC, after the Dutch-based tribunal announced it would initiate a preliminary crimes against humanity probe into Duterte’s “war on drugs.”

The ICC, however, announced that the Philippines’ withdrawal would not affect its preliminary examination, which covers incidents that took place since the start of the ant-narcotics campaign on July 1, 2016 and while the country remained a state party to the Rome Statute.

The Philippines ratified the statute on Aug. 30, 2011.

The Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC took effect on March 17, a year after the government transmitted a notice of withdrawal to the office of the U.N. secretary-general in New York.

It is the second country to leave the court after Burundi withdrew in 2017.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said the withdrawal poses a challenge to human rights activist to work harder in monitoring human rights abuses.

The prelate said he believes the court despite the withdrawal will still pursue the cases filed against Duterte.

The ICC is currently evaluating 52 cases that alleged the Philippine president committed crimes against humanity.”

Human rights group Karapatan warned the statute withdrawal “may signal another wave of intensified attacks against human rights defenders.”

The group’s deputy secretary-general, Roneo Clamor, said that even when being part of the ICC, activists and rights advocates who sought to expose state-perpetrated violations were increasingly being threatened and killed.

“With a vindictive government, all should be wary of Duterte’s acts of severe reprisals,” said Clamor.

On March 18, the presidential palace downplayed the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC, saying, “the sky has not fallen and the sun still rises in the east.”

Lawyer Salvador Panelo, the president’s spokesman, said the criticisms of the withdrawal raised by human rights groups and Duterte critics were “misleading and baseless.”

He challenged critics to instead file cases in court “to test the validity of their assertions.”

“There is no culture of impunity under this administration,” said Panelo, adding that the criminal justice system continues to be “operational and strictly compliant with the constitutional requirement of due process.”

He said reported “extrajudicial killings” linked to Duterte’s “war on drugs” were not state-sponsored.

In an earlier statement, the ICC said dumping the Rome Statute is a sovereign decision that has “no impact on ongoing proceedings or any matter that was already under consideration by the court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective.”

The ICC, established in 2002, is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands. It has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.

Former addict turned priest refuses to let intimidation prevent him helping drug users, victims of drug-related killings

UCANews | Marielle Lucenio
Manila, Philippines, March 15, 2019

In the Philippines, where admission to having a history of drug addiction can mean a bullet in the head rather than a stay in a rehabilitation center, drug dependents have chosen silence.

For Divine Word priest Flaviano Villanueva, however, his past has become a narrative that keeps him going in his mission to serve.

In 1995, before he entered the priesthood, he hit rock bottom after a “short period” of substance abuse. It became a new beginning, he said.

“The catalyst need not always be the bright side of things,” he said. For him, it was when he realized that his drug taking was getting the best of him as a person.

He said his relationships were then crumbling. “Nothing was going well for me. I felt that there was more to life than sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. 

The moment of discernment prompted the future missionary priest to look for the meaning of life far from what he was used to.

“I told myself that I would go cold turkey, but if it didn’t work then I would subject myself to professional help,” he said.

Eventually, however, it worked for him “with God’s grace.”

He decided to leave his home in the Philippine capital and went to the provinces where he worked as a lay missionary.

In the middle of the “realities of life” in the villages, Father Villanueva found himself at a crossroads where he opted to enter the convent.

In 2006, the former drug addict became a priest.

After ten years as a missionary priest he established a center in 2015 to help Manila’s street dwellers.

The St. Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center became his way of responding and providing “something more concrete and better” to alleviate the lives of the poor.

The center aims to recreate and empower lives by offering food and a clean shower to the homeless.

“The second phase is about reclaiming their self-respect,” said Father Villanueva, adding that the center’s “clients” are given the opportunity to study.

This phase, he said, is offering a livelihood and employment “to help restore their self-worth.”

“As one goes through this process, one is able to realize that there is life beyond the streets,” explained the priest.

Father Villanueva recalled a story, one of many that he has encountered in his work.

One Sunday, a person approached the priest after Mass and handed him a card. The priest politely refused, thinking that the man was trying to sell him something.

“Father, I’m not here to sell you anything,” said the man.

“I’m just giving you my calling card to let you know that I was here for six months, following, falling in line, eating and taking a bath, listening to you,” the man added.

“Now I’m an assistant supervisor. This is my card to prove that I am already employed, and I am here to thank you.”

Not all visits to the center, however, are as pleasant as that of the grateful man.

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 Friday, 15 March 2019

When will the killings stop? When can we get reprieve from fear? How can we not be alarmed when even those whom we turn and depend on to for help, are being threatened and killed? Not only human rights defenders, but even the bishops, priests, nuns, and lawyers who are fulfilling their mission to help the most poor and deprived.

Our heart bleeds as another pro-poor lawyer has fallen victim to a scheme of unabated killing and impunity. We, at Philipine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI) denounces this treacherous killing of Atty. Rex Jasper Lopoz. We mourn for losing another protector of people without voices.

Yesterday morning, March 14, Atty. Rex Jasper Lopoz was shot at the back while trying to board his vehicle parked at City Mall in Tagum, Davao. He was brought to the Bishop Reagan Hospital by his companion who thought he suffered from heart attack only to find out later on that a gunshot wound caused his death.

A People’s Lawyer

In 2009, in an article profiling Atty. Rex Jasper Lopoz, he was described as someone who came from the ranks of a common tao. Before becoming a lawyer, he did various odd jobs so he can support his family and finish his studies. From hawking cigarettes, becoming a kristo in a cockpit, helping in kitchenettes while doing his research work and thesis. He went through all these so his family can survive and he can become a lawyer.

Having lived the life of ordinary people, he devoted his time as a lawyer to finding justice for the poor and marginalized. He handled a flurry of cases that dealt with farmers woes,  workers demand for fair wages, illegal arrests and extra judicial killings.

His death adds to the increasing number of lawyers dying for a cause. Statistics show that there were already 35 members in the judiciary who have died under the Duterte regime, not to mention the more than 20,000 number of people killed due to drug war, 3 priests, 12 journalists, and 48 environmental defenders as per the Global Witness Report in 2017.

We Seek Justice

The families of victims seeks out reasons for the sudden and tragic death of their loved ones and for those who are behind their deaths. Closure and acceptance can only come when families finally get justice. Culprits should be held accountable and penalized, lest, discontent and dissent among the people will continue to grow.

Thus, we appeal to authorities to investigate the death of Atty. Lopoz, whose life spent among the ordinary people have made him a true People’s Lawyer. Let not his death become another additional number to thousands of unsolved cases of killings. Indeed, in a our situation where impunity and violence have become the norm, and has become the State’s policy, no one is safe in the Philippines. Not even those living in Davao whom the President boasts as the most peaceful place in the Philippines.

Vigilance at All Times

We encourage vigilance among us, citizens.  Let not the killings be the norm in our society. Let us not turn our backs from the core of our humanity, that which to uphold life. We can’t just kill people because we differ in beliefs. We can’t annihilate them because one has committed a sin, mistake or a crime. All should have a forum to explain and redeem one’s self. All should be given space to live, grow and perform his or her role to the fullest possible. Only in this environment that good can triumph. Not in an intolerant, misogynistic, egotistic system that those in power are spousing.

These are confusing and dreadful times, more vicious than the brutal realities perpetrated by the Dictator Marcos, but there should be no room for waning commitments. The movement to stop violence and deter evil must be carried forward with deep prayers, tough faith, and overflowing hope that good shall prevail if we work for it. With in mind, believe that we could move mountains.

‘By Showing His Glory, Jesus Assures Us that the Cross, the Trials, the Difficulties, in which We Find Ourselves, Have their Solution in Easter’

March 17, 2019 14:58 Virginia Forrester Angelus/Regina Caeli

Here is a translation of the address Pope Francis gave March 17, 2019, before and after praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Before the Angelus:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!

In this Second Sunday of Lent, the liturgy has us contemplate the event of the Transfiguration, in which Jesus grants the disciples Peter, James, and John to taste the glory of the Resurrection: a bit of Heaven on earth. The evangelist Luke (Cf. 9:28-36) shows us Jesus transfigured on the mountain, which is the place of light, fascinating symbol of the singular experience reserved to the three disciples. They go up the mountain with the Master, they see Him immerse Himself in prayer and, at a certain point, “the appearance of his countenance was altered” (v. 29). Used to seeing Him daily in the simple semblance of His humanity, in the face of this new splendor, which also envelops His whole person, they remain astonished. And Moses and Elijah appear next to Jesus, who speak with Him about His coming “exodus,” namely of His Paschal Death and Resurrection. It’s an anticipation of Easter. Then Peter exclaims: “Master, it is well that we are here” (v. 33). He wanted that moment of grace to be endless!

The Transfiguration happens at a very precise moment of Christ’s mission, namely, after He confided to the disciples that He would have “to suffer many things, [. . . ] be killed and on the third day be raised” (v. 21). Jesus knows that they don’t accept this reality — the reality of the cross, the reality of Jesus’ death –, and so He wants to prepare them to endure the scandal of <His> Passion and death on the cross, so that they know that this is the way through which the heavenly Father will have His Son attain to glory, resurrecting Him from the dead. And this will also be the way of the disciples: no one attains eternal life without following Jesus, without carrying one’s cross in earthly life. Each one of us has his/her own cross. The Lord makes us see the end of this course, which is Resurrection, beauty, after carrying one’s cross.

Therefore, Christ’s Transfiguration shows us the Christian perspective of suffering. Suffering isn’t sadomasochism: it’s a necessary but transitory passage. The point of arrival to which we are called is luminous as Christ’s transfigured countenance: in Him is salvation, beatitude, light and endless love of God. By showing His Glory in this way, Jesus assures us that the cross, the trials, the difficulties in which we find ourselves have their solution and their overcoming in Easter. Therefore, in this Lent, let us also go up the mountain with Jesus! But how? With prayer, we go up the mountain with prayer: silent prayer, heartfelt prayer, prayer that always seeks the Lord. We stay for a few moments in recollection, a bit every day, we fix our interior gaze on His face and we let His light pervade us and radiate in our life.

In fact, the evangelist Luke stresses that Jesus was transfigured “as He was praying” (v. 29). He was immersed in an intimate conversation with the Father, in which the Law and the Prophets also resounded — Moses and Elijah — and while He adhered with all His being to the Father’s Will of Salvation, including the cross, the glory of God invaded Him transpiring also outside. It’s so, brothers and sisters, the prayer in Christ and in the Holy Spirit transforms the person from inside and can illumine others and the surrounding world. How many times we have met persons that illumine, who emanate light from the eyes, who have that luminous look! They pray, and prayer does this: it makes us luminous with the light of the Holy Spirit.

We continue our Lenten itinerary with joy. We give space to prayer and to the Word of God, which the liturgy proposes abundantly to us in these days. May the Virgin Mary teach us to stay with Jesus even when we don’t understand Him and comprehend Him because only by remaining with Him we will see His glory.

BULATLAT
Marya Salamat  March 7, 2019 

3rd Part in a Series of 3 (DENR in mock Battle for Manila Bay rehab?)

“If anyone had rights over the Manila Bay, it is the Filipino people, and if it is to serve any purpose, it should be for the benefit of the general population, and not an elite few.” — Makabayan lawmakers

MANILA — Bucking threats from local government leaders and intermittent military “visibility” in their communities, members of the fisherfolk communities in Bulacan have protested the proposed reclamation affecting their homes and fishing grounds. “Buo sa isip ko, kaya namin lumaban (I’m entirely sure in my mind that we can oppose this),” fisherwoman and spokesperson of Network Opposed to Reclamation in Bulacan Monica Anastacio, 63, told Bulatlat in Filipino.

They have questioned since last year what they considered as initial steps to reclamation, the massive cutting of mangrove trees serving San Miguel Corporation’s proposal to do away with their communities and build an international airport on today’s river and villages. Despite the support to this project by their local government officials, they organized a Network Opposed to the Aerotropolis and Reclamation in Bulacan on October 2018.

With support of their fishermen, the women comprised the network’s unanimous choice as spokespersons to help convene the rest of the affected villagers for the defense of the bay, and to represent them as well in dialogues or forum in the mainland. They launched the campaign to #SaveTaliptip in early 2018.

Supported by the multisectoral Alyansa para sa Pagtatanggol ng Kabuhayan, Paninirahan at Kalikasan sa Manila Bay (AKAP KA-Manila Bay), the Bulacan fisherfolk launched a petition against reclamation since late 2018.  They sent delegations to various pickets and dialogues held at the national headquarters of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). They spoke at peoples’ conferences on climate change, on land use and food security.

“Malaking kawalan sa lahat pag pumayag tayo tabunan,” (It will be a huge loss for everyone if we agree to reclamation) a priest from the Bulacan Ecumenical Forum who grew up catching fish and seafood in Taliptip told a gathering of residents in Taliptip.

The communities in Taliptip are united not just in protecting the mangroves but also in opposing moves to displace the fisherfolk in favor of a private company’s reclamation, according to Monica Anastacio, a resident of Taliptip for over 50 years. To them it is not just a call for saving their homes or sources of livelihoods for themselves. They believe other Filipinos in the mainland also stand to lose when the mangroves and the relatively affordable sources of nutritious fish and seafood are buried under concrete.

She has worked with her family in Taliptip saltbeds since she was in grade school. When the salt farms stopped operation in 1990s, she and her husband turned to fishing. The women in these coastal communities are used to working with their husbands, from the saltfarms of decades ago to today’s fishing.

While fishing is traditionally a male occupation in the Philippines, it is not uncommon to see women at work, too, setting traps (for crabs), casting nets, rowing the family’s banca, or selling the fish catch. Some women also go down to the river or out on the bay to catch fish. Some wade into the muddy, shallow loam to catch crabs. These days they add to their responsibilities of taking care of their household and family various tasks toward network-building to turn the rehabilitation of river and the bay to the people’s favor.

Their background of being saltfarmers and fisherfolk speaks of how much food the areas where they live now have contributed and could further contribute to the country’s food needs.

The coastal communities in Bulakan were major contributors to the country’s salt sufficiency for decades. Until 1990s, Bulacan was producing more than a hundred metric tons of salt, equivalent to more than half the country’s needs. That is, until a combination of the impact of climate change and trade liberalization began eroding the industry to a pale shadow of itself at present. Nowadays, the fisherfolk group Pamalakaya says the government’s approval of reclamation projects also threatens the country’s food security, along with other policies that ultimately shrink the fishing grounds and mangroves and remove the fisherfolk from the coasts.

Facing the threat of displacement due to reclamation, the women of Bulakan are facilitating their organizing and network formation for an organized response. Now they are also finding time to ride their bancas and visit their neighboring fishing communities in hopes of strengthening their network opposing the reclamation of their coastal villages.

Asked why it is the women frequently being sent to represent the fisherfolk in outside forum and dialogues, they replied that the menfolk are working with them and supportive, but the tasks of representation can be squeezed along with their other duties such as taking care of the household, selling the fish catch and procuring supplies.

Threats Not only in Bulacan but along entire Manila Bay

What is threatening to happen in Bulakan and neighboring coastal towns is happening under similar projects around the Philippines, said Jam Pinpin, public information officer of Pamalakaya.

A total of 43 reclamation projects covering more than 32, 000 hectares are pending throughout the 194, 400-hectare Manila Bay, based on record obtained by Pamalakaya from the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).

In Bulacan the SMC has won over the local government executives. Even as it has yet to conclude a concession agreement with the government (for the proposed airport), its subcontractors are already at work readying the ground for reclamation.  It is now at the final stages in the process of securing an ECC (Environmental Compliance Certificate) that will pave the way to reclamation of over 2,500 hectares. It was suspected to have been behind the massive cutting of old-growth mangroves in April 2018. This month as we write, the residents of nearby villages of Obando posted in Save Taliptip’s social media account that strangers were knocking on their doors asking them the sizes of their house and telling them they will have to leave soon.

In Manila, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) announced last week it will start  dredging in the Baywalk area of the Roxas Boulevard in March, saying it is part of the ongoing rehabilitation drive of Manila Bay.

But national fisherfolk group Pamalakaya warned that the targeted area for dredging also happens to be the area where the 148-hectare Manila Solar City reclamation project that will occupy 3.5 kilometers of Manila Bay’s shoreline will be located.

It brings a bitter déjà vu to the fisherfolk leader. He recalled that shortly before the SM Mall of Asia and Entertainment City establishments in Roxas Boulevard began construction years before, there was also some dredging work that resulted to the displacement of more than 6,000 fishing and urban poor families.

In Cavite, a province south of Manila, the coastal villages of mainly fisherfolk are also in a constant battle to save their community and livelihood. At least four reclamation projects covering hundreds to thousands of hectares of Cavite coastlines are being processed by the Philippine Reclamation Authority.

Unlike in Bulacan where the Manila Bay is still bounded by an expanse of alternating shallow loam/islets, a network of rivers and patches of mangroves, in Cavite, only a thin stretch of the shore remains between the bank that has been cemented for road and real estate development and the Manila Bay. Living on what’s left of this narrow shore the fisherfolk communities organized under Pamalakaya have been protesting reclamation and their demolition. They have suffered at least four incidences of suspected arson.

In advancing their defense of the bay, they pointed to documents from the government’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) itself state that the reclamation projects will have ecological impacts in Manila Bay.

It says that throughout the construction of the various projects, contaminants from dredged sediments will be released, deplete dissolved oxygen, and destroy natural habitats of sardines and mangroves found in Manila Bay.  Once finished, the projects will interfere with the natural tide flow of water in the area and erode the shoreline of nearby beaches. The erosion could cause flooding in nearby low-lying areas especially during a typhoon.

Worse flooding has also been recorded in coastal towns of Bulacan since the reclamation of Manila Bay. The fisherfolk group Pamalakaya urged the government to take heed of its own environmental bureau’s assessment.

Based on the assessment of environmentalists and fisherfolk, the government’s ‘Battle for Manila Bay’ is turning out to be another mock battle for rehabilitation.

“With the recent actions of administration such as justifying reclamation projects and the abrupt issuance of Executive Order 74, or the taking over of the power to approve such projects and command of the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), “Manila Bay rehabilitation” is becoming synonymous to “Manila Bay reclamation,” said Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao.

Environment Secretary Frank Cimatu denied this just this week. But around the same time he was saying these to reporters, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada was defending and even extolling the reclamation projects.

Anakpawis’ Casilao said all these are a serving as a challenge for the people to advance a genuine rehabilitation of Manila Bay.

“If anyone had rights over the Manila Bay, it is the Filipino people, and if it is to serve any purpose, it should be for the benefit of the general population, and not an elite few,” read a part of the explanatory note when the Makabayan bloc of partylist lawmakers filed this February 7 the House Bill 9067 declaring Manila Bay as Reclamation-free Zone.

The proposed law criticized not only the duplicity in the Duterte administration’s conduct of “rehabilitating” Manila Bay – Anakpawis Partylist said it’s just a façade for facilitating reclamation and taking the bay away from the people. After years of previous reclamation, the ordinary people’s access now to the famed Manila Bay has been reduced to a few kilometers near Rajah Sulayman – and even there the poor are banned from swimming.

In Cavite, Pamalakaya’s Hicap rued said what used to be miles of cheap sources of clams and mussels are now concrete roads that could have been built elsewhere.

Makabayan lawmakers from Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, ACT and Kabataan Partylist traced how, through years of previous reclamation, “Development” along Manila Bay, has wiped out the mangrove ecosystem, from as broad as 54,000 hectares at the turn of the 20th century, to a measly 794 hectares in 1995.

“Companies destroy mangroves because they saw no profit in maintaining it,” the Makabayan lawmakers said. And after reclamation the ordinary citizens also lose access to what remains of the bay.

“It is as clear as the blue sky of Manila Bay’s horizon that reclamation has deprived the people of public access,” Makabayan said in seeking to declare Manila Bay as reclamation-free zone.

Last February 22, a broad alliance and watchdog for genuine rehabilitation and against reclamation projects was launched in Malate Church near the last remaining free baywalk in Manila Bay. The watchdog seeks to garner support to declaring Manila Bay as a “reclamation-free” zone.

They hope that with the proposed law in Congress and the people’s movement and campaigns, they can refute any ruse of any group or even by the government “that worships profit at the cost of undermining the people’s aspiration for a sincerely-rehabilitated, restored and preserved Manila Bay. 

For the Blasphemies Uttered Against the Most Holy Triune God, And Calumnies & Irreverences Against the Catholic Church

PRESENTING: A HOLY HOUR WITH THE LORD
IN THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 90TH BIRTHDAY OF
BISHOP-EMERITUS, JOSE C. SORRA, D.D., OF LEGAZPI, MARCH 9, 2019

Exposition of the Bl. Sacrament

Hymn: O Salutaris Hostia…
Prayerful Reflection-Colloquium with the EUCHARISITC LORD
PRAYER OF REPARATION
(Please kneel)

THE BISHOP LEADS THE REFLECTION-COLLOQUIUM HOLY HOUR:

Lord Jesus, we believe in Your Holy Eucharistic Presence in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and we humbly kneel before You to offer our communal Prayer of Adoration, Penance, and Reparation for the insults and blasphemies uttered against our Most Holy Triune God, and for the calumnies & slanders against Your Holy Catholic Church and the Lord’s anointed ones, consecrated and professed servant-leaders.

We would like to make amends for all the blasphemies uttered against You, Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and for all irreverences shown toward Your Immaculate Virgin Mother and all the Saints,

Lord Jesus, You said: “If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you,” we then pray and beseech You for all those who, out of ignorance of our Catholic faith, have the audacity to utter insults and blasphemies against the most adorable Holy Triune God.

Shield them from the temptation to fall away from the true faith deliberately or out of ignorance; save those who are even now standing on the brink of the abyss.

To all of them give light and knowledge of the truth, courage and strength for the conflict with evil, perseverance in faith and active charity!

 (Be seated)

Prayerful Reflection & Colloquium with the Lord

Bishop:

Lord Jesus, we, Your Anointed Ones, Men & Women Religious, and the Lay Faithful of Your Flock have come before Your Divine Presence to bring to You our anxious common concern about how to respond to the blasphemies uttered against our MOST BLESSED TIUNE GOD, the verbal attacks against Your ONE, HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH and Her SACRED TEACHINGS, and the grave threats to do violent bodily harm to Your Anointed Ones, and the Lay-Servant-Leaders & Members of Your Church.

Lord Jesus, we humbly implore Your compassionate assistance to enlighten and reassure us of Your Divine protective promise to your Disciples: Be not afraid, it is I. (Mt 14-27).

First Point of our reflection:

Lord Jesus, we wish to present and refer to Your Blessed Eucharistic Presence our Current Moral & Social Problems and Issues:

You once said through St. Paul, that our enemies in this world are “not fellow human beings,” not “flesh and blood” (Eph 6:12).

And that we do not fight our battles with guns and bullets…, because the battles that we fight are spiritual. In these times of darkness, when there is so much hatred and violence, when murder has become an almost daily occurrence, when people have gotten so used to exchanging insults and hurting words in social media, You admonish us to remain calm, steadfast in our common vocation and mission to actively work for peace.

On the other hand, You also forewarned us that, Not as the world gives peace do I give you peace (Jn 4:16-30). For as You said, Your peace is never the peace of compromise or capitulation to evil; it is also not about the absence of conflict and turmoil.

For were You not rejected by your own townsfolk in Nazareth? (Lk 4:16-30). Were You not called crazy by Your own relatives? (Mk 3:20-22). Were You not called a “prince of demons”? (Mk 3:22-30). And were you not called a drunkard and a lover of tax-collectors and sinners? (Mt 11:19).

Lord, You showed us how to deal with adversities when You slept in the boat, or when You walked on the water even in the midst of a storm (Mk 4:35; Mk 6:45-52). But like Your apostles, we are often so easily overcome by fear and panic. Even when we we’re already making baby steps on troubled waters, like Peter, we find ourselves sinking, because of our “little faith” (Mt 14:31).

Lord, there is nothing indeed that can calm us down in these turbulent times, except the quiet recognition of Your saving presence even as You did rebuke Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Lord, like Peter and your other disciples, help us grow in our lack of faith….
 (Pause for a brief reflection)
(All stand for a hymn to the Blessed Sacrament)
O Sacred Heart, O Love Divine…

2nd Point of our Reflection: The Cost of Witnessing to Christ

Dear Lord, as we look up to You in the most Blessed Sacrament on the altar–in disconcertedly bewildered silence, we could sense Your questioning us:

What is new about priests being murdered for witnessing to Christ? What is new about modern prophets being silenced by the treacherous bullets of assassins? What is new about servant leaders who are maligned because they have carried out their duties, as shepherds of my flock or as My lay-disciples reaching out to others sharing My Word? Have you forgotten the wise saying, that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians”? It’s this that has kept the Church alive after 2,000 years.

Yes, be not afraid! As I told My first disciples, Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul into Gehenna (Mt 10:28).

Have you not listened to what my apostle Paul said?: When we are insulted, we respond with a blessing; when we are persecuted, we bear it patiently; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become the world’s refuse, the scum of all; that is the present state of affairs (1 Cor 11:12-13).

To those who boast of their own wisdom, those who arrogantly regard themselves as wise and the Christian faith as nonsense, and to those who blaspheme our God as stupid – Paul has also this for his response: For the stupidity of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Cor 1:25). And to those who ridicule your faith, My Apostle Paul has this also to say: “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God (1 Cor 1:27-29).        

Division among Catholic Christians

But, Lord, how do we deal with the current divisions among ourselves who all belong to your One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church? How are we to deal with fellow “Christians” who see nothing wrong about EJK-killings, who just laugh when our God is blasphemed, and who take part, as trolls, in fake news? Lord, what do we do?

The Lord: Did I not warn my first disciples that part of the exigencies of working for peace is having to go through the crucible of conflicts? (Luke 12:51-53).

There will always be those among you who profess the faith in me, but are so easily seduced by empty promises of Satan. Do you remember him who once sold me for 30 pieces of silver, because he had allowed himself to be mastered by Satan? My Apostle Paul is right in saying, “… There have to be divisions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may become known” (Cor 11:19).

The Sufferings of the Poor

Lord, our sufferings as Church Leaders are nothing compared to the sufferings of the poor in our Country. Yet, we seem not to hear the cry of the poor slum dwellers being jailed for mere “loitering.”

We seem to have forgotten that the homeless urban poor live in very narrow alleys between their flimsy homes that also serve as kitchens, bathrooms, recreation spaces, and playgrounds for their children. And that they live in very tiny dwellings that are razed quickly to the ground when fire strikes, because their very narrow roads fire trucks can possibly get through.

We and our people do not seem to feel the sufferings of drug addicts who are labelled as “non-humans,” and are stigmatized as criminals when their names end up in the dreaded “drug watch lists”; yes, we are aware of the sufferings of those who have been victimized by substance abusers, but we seem not to see them as sick people who are struggling with a disease. Should we not rather look at them as victims who are crying out for help? 

Lord, we also seem not to realize that for every drug suspect killed, there is a widowed wife and there are orphaned children left behind – who could hardly even afford a decent burial for their loved ones.

We seem not to care about the misery of people charged of drug-related offenses and are packed like sardines in extremely congested unventilated jails. And how do we feel about communities that are forced to leave their homes for fear of being caught in the crossfire of conflicts between government troops and insurgents?

Not Against Fighting Illegal Drugs

Lord, there are people who are concerned and have warned us about being critical of the government’s fight against illegal drugs. Nothing can be farthest from the truth. We are not against the government’s effort to fight illegal drugs. We have long acknowledged that illegal drugs are a menace to society and their easier victims are the poor.

Like most Filipinos we had high hopes that the government would truly flex some political will to be able to use the full force of the law in working against this terrible menace.

It was only, however, when we started hearing of mostly poor people being brutally murdered on mere suspicion of being small-time drug users and peddlers, while the big-time smugglers and drug lords went scot-free, that we started wondering about the direction this “drug war” was taking.

Lord, as your shepherds, we have no intention of interfering in the conduct of state affairs. But neither do we intend to abdicate our sacred mandate, to whom you have entrusted your flock. We are aware of our solemn responsibility to defend Your flock, especially when they are attacked by wolves — we do not fight, though, with arms. We fight only with the truth.

Accordingly, as Your Anointed Shepherds, no amount of intimidation even threat to our lives will make us give up our prophetic role, especially that of giving voice to the voiceless. As Paul once said, “Woe to me if I don’t preach the gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).  

(Pause for reflection & hymn)
Heart of Jesus meek and mild…

3rd point of our reflection: God’s image and likeness in man

Our faith informs us that no human in this world deserves to be treated as a “non-human,” not even the mentally ill, or those born with disabilities. This is consistent with our defence of the right to life even the unborn, because we believe that all human beings are creatures of god’s image and likeness, imbued with an innate dignity.

We also must consider the right to life of people who are brutally murdered just because they are suspected of being opponents of government. Everyone in the civilized community of nations would agree that even those who may have committed criminal offenses should be treated in a humane way, even as justice demands that they be held accountable for their actions.

Save the children

There is no way we can call ourselves a civilized society if we hold children in conflict with the law criminally liable. Children who get involved in crimes, such as those who are used as runners by adult drug pushers, do not deserve to be treated as criminals; they are rather victims that need to be rescued. It is obvious that most children in conflict with the law comes from poor families and were born and raised in an environment of abuse. We beg our country’s legislators to give the bill they are drafting some serious rethinking and consider the greater harm that such a move can cause on the young people of our country.  

The perspective of mercy

Being civilized is not just about more advanced technology and infrastructure but about being more humane to the poor, the weak, the disadvantaged, the elderly, the children, those with special needs and all those who tend to be left out in society. We are not creatures endowed with intelligence and guided by the evolutionary instincts of “survival of the fittest.”

What makes us more superior as creatures is not our impulse to dominate each other but our innate sensitivity and capacity to love, to respect, to care for one another, to be both just and merciful, to be compassionate, to build community and to be genuinely concerned about the common good. The law of retaliation that demands “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (exodus 21:24) has long been repudiated in Christian tradition. As Christians, we have to larn the way of Jesus who says, “be merciful, just as your father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

(Pause for reflection)
Hymn: No mas amor que el tuyo…

(4th point of our reflection): Church of Sinner, Called to Holiness

Lord, we bishops and priests, as well as the men and women religious, have our own share of failures and shortcomings as well. We bow in shame when we hear of abuses committed by some of us — especially those ordained priests to “act in the person of Christ” and even also those who vowed themselves to Christ in consecrated life. We hold ourselves accountable for their actions, and accept our responsibility and duty to correct them.

We admit humbly that we are a church of sinners and called to conversion and holiness at the same time.          

We humbly admit that we have many weaknesses and shortcomings, human as we are. We may have failed in exercising our prophetic role in teaching, catechizing, and feeding the Lord’s faithful entrusted to our pastoral care; thus resulting in their gross ignorance of the faith, their non-compliance of their basic obligations as bona fide Catholic Christians, and even losing them when lured to join other religious sects.    

When people do not understand our essential doctrines, as Roman Catholic Christians, we have also only ourselves to blame. It could also mean we have failed, not only in our preaching, catechizing, but even more so in witnessing to the faith that we impart.

Call to Prayer, Penance and Amendment

Lord, let this our communal adoration, meditation, and prayer before your Eucharistic presence here today signal our humble and firm resolve to make reparations and amends for all our sins of commission and omission in living up to our religious vows and pastoral commitment.

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(2nd in a series of 3: DENR in mock Battle for Manila Bay rehab?)

BULATLAT
By Marya Salamat  March 1, 2019 

What is common in the stories of the residents in various coastal sitios of Bulacan is that the “news” about their impending displacement is coming to them in trickles of information packaged in a threat.

MANILA — Until April of last year, the fisherfolk communities in coastal Bulacan were hearing only unconfirmed talk about the San Miguel Corporation’s 2,500-hectare aerotropolis and new city project. The news about the proposed reclamation affecting the island-communities along Manila Bay in Bulacan formally broke out in April 2018, when the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board approved the San Miguel Corporation’s proposal. But the buying spree of former salt farms along the rivers and mangroves has been happening for years already, the residents said. Some said they have been told they have to leave the area soon.

“Hindi kami hinaharap ni Mayor. ‘Hindi namin alam yan.’” (The town mayor of Bulakan, Bulacan) won’t talk to us. If asked about the SMC project, he’d reply, ‘We don’t know about that.’) For one and a half years this is how the Bulacan fisherfolk say they have been treated, until they mounted protest actions, said a UP professor who conducted a series of research among the Bulakan fisherfolk since last year.

In the village of Capol, the residents have been seeing land surveyors taking measurements of the shallow pool. Asked who sent them, some surveyors replied their company is just a contractor in charge of titling the land, among others.

In another sitio called Camansi, Flor Salvador, 77, said she first heard about some developers’ plans for Taliptip three years ago. They have been told also they will have to go.

She said that in her heart she refuses to believe that someday, as they were being told informally, they will be forced to leave the place to give way to these “developments.” When Bulatlat interviewed her, she was still tending to her small yard. Her house faces hectares of former saltbeds turned into fishponds.   At the time the fish had just been harvested and the water drained out to the Manila Bay.

She arrived here in 1969, Salvador said. Like many here, she worked at the salt farms before her family turned to full-time fishing. In her old age, she has found work watching over someone else’s fishponds and planting stringbeans on the soil embankment.

But she hasn’t heard yet of relocation for “fishpond caretakers.”

What sounded common in the stories of the residents in various sitios is that the “news” about their impending displacement is coming to them in trickles of information packaged in a threat. Other residents told Bulatlat, on condition of anonymity, that they were being castigated by the mayor, some by the village captain, if they were seen joining meetings with supporters from “outside.”

Though they have lived and worked as tenants in Bulakan salt farms for decades until most of it stopped operating and were sold off to developers, they remained deprived of land tenure for lack of land reform or other tenurial support from the government. Now, the resulting poverty and landlessness is being used against them to speed up their forcible displacement.

Even the BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) told the fisherfolk representatives in a dialogue late last year there were only two registered leaseholders in Taliptip.

Without tenurial rights over the land or the fishing grounds, the communities of fisherfolk have been automatically denied a say in land use and planning concerning their river-and-bay-based livelihood.

It took the residents various pickets, requests for dialogue with the local government and agencies, with representatives of San Miguel Corporation, with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, among others, before they were told bits and pieces about the reclamation project. And before some vague “relocation” was floated. Even when the local government executives in Bulacan had already welcomed the plan of SMC, confirming what they had long avoided saying to their enquiring constituents, the residents were still kept blind as to who and where the project will directly hit.

Some residents interviewed by Bulatlat said they were getting warnings against joining protest actions or meetings. They were told they will receive no aid or no chance at this unnamed relocation.

When two representatives of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) met with church people and women leaders of Bulacan fisherfolk in Malolos City November last year, they avoided mentioning “reclamation”. They refused to answer questions regarding where or how their proposed aerotropolis will be built, considering there are fishing communities in the (then) rumored proposed site.

“You are not likely to build a hanging airport over rivers and mangroves, right?” a woman from Taliptip asked.

On February 4, the fisherfolk finally heard the first concrete plans through an SMC contractor. In a “public hearing” held at an evacuation center in Bulakan, Bulacan, representatives of SMC contractor, Silvertides Holdings Corporation, confirmed the company had acquired a total of 2,375 hectares of titled “fishponds” in the coastal villages of Bambang and Taliptip in Bulakan, Bulacan. This contractor’s job is to perform the reclamation.

The Feb 4 hearing is second to the last requirement for the SMC contractor to get an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) that would pave the way to reclamation.

The report Silvertides presented to the fisherfolk bears also the mark of the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) in Region 3.

Silvertides confirmed that the fisherfolk in Taliptip and Bambang are at the “direct hit areas” while the villages two to three kilometers surrounding it are the “indirect hit” of the reclamation project.

The SMC contractor said they will “backfill” the 2,375 hectares of fishponds by at least 3 meters. This is estimated to require 205 million cubic meters of fill materials that they may source from Pampanga.

“Why did the government just approve such a proposal without even thinking of us?” asked Taliptip fisherwoman Monica Anastacio, 63, one of the spokespersons of the Network Opposed to Reclamation and Aerotropolis in Bulacan.

The “public hearing” last February 4 centered on the contractor stressing the mechanics of the reclamation and mitigating measures for those who would be adversely affected. It was not about the communities having a say in whether the reclamation will push through or not. Rather, it was about notifying those who will be affected and informing them there are other livelihood opportunities. It mentioned there will likely be aid for those qualified to receive it.

To compile the report they presented to the “public hearing,” Silvertides said they held scoping and fieldwork from October to November last year. That’s the same period some fisherfolk in the villages of Bulakan and Obando convened the Network Opposed to Reclamation and Aerotropolis in Bulacan.

The SMC contractor submitted their draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to EMB Region 3 in December last year. They held the “public hearing” as part of a “review process” from which they will submit an assessment report to the EMB Region 3. The EMB Region 3 will then decide on their application for ECC.

An estimated 5,000 fisherfolk stand to lose livelihood and homes in SMC’s $14-million plus airport project. Others more stand to lose their fishing grounds given the volume of backfilling that will be carried by barges and heavy machineries to the coastline.

To questions whether the fisherfolk could maintain their livelihood, the SMC representatives, in a dialogue facilitated by the Bulacan Ecumenical Forum in Malolos, replied the fisherfolk can avail of retraining, livelihood opportunities and priority employment instead. In a different forum, Silvertide’s presentation mentions relocation for “fishpond caretakers”.

But in the same way that not everyone in the “direct hit areas” are considered “fishpond caretakers” and thus qualified for relocation, not all of the mangroves in the direct hit areas seem safe.

Silvertide’s presentation pointed to just two “patches of mangroves” closest to the Manila Bay that they will “incorporate in the design.”  They leave out the patches of mangroves along the river of Taliptip and Bambang.

Planned reclamation contrary to calls for rehabilitation

As early as January this year the group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment has warned against the dangerous haste of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in ordering the removal of informal settlers as if doing so is the main answer to Manila Bay pollution. In reality, the government has much to answer for, not the poor.  Kalikasan and Pamalakaya have both cited as bigger culprit the government failure in providing sufficient waste management facilities, including its support to problematic positioning of waste diversion facilities themselves.

Kalikasan cited the data from National Solid Waste Management Commission that says only 32 percent of villages across the country are serviced by a Materials Recovery Facility, and only 24 percent of local government units have access to Sanitary Landfills as of September 2018.

PAMALAKAYA cited as example the Obando sanitary landfill located in Obando, Bulacan owned by Ecoshield Development Corp. (EDC) and supported by the government. It has polluted not only the waters of Obando but brought its stench to residents of nearby Navotas City and Malabon City in Manila. Other waste disposal facilities operated in Manila Bay, Pamalakaya said. This includes the landfill in Pier 18 in Tondo, Manila that had been reported before for dumping toxic wastes in Manila Bay.

The destruction of mangrove, seagrass, and other coastal and marine ecosystems that serve as the natural pollution filters of Manila Bay is also a major culprit in its worsening pollution, Kalikasan said in a statement. Not only this, the environmentalists and urban poor in Manila Bay have long noted the disastrous effects of reclamation not just on fish catch but also in helping to break the fury of storms.

Various independent and scientific studies on reclamation in Panglao, Bohol, Cordova (of Cebu) and in the Manila Bay have extensively demonstrated how it resulted in reduced productivity and biodiversity, disrupted vital ecosystem functions, increased vulnerability to floods, and displaced and dislocated thousands of families dependent on the affected environments for their livelihood.

At least 28,647 hectares of currently approved reclamation projects are clearly overlapped on the remaining mangrove expanses and seagrass beds along the whole stretch of Manila. A part of it is in Bulacan, 2,500- hectares as announced by the San Miguel Corporation, but the contractor set to conduct the reclamation says the areas two to three kilometers surrounding the 2,500 hectares will also be affected.

The fisherfolk interviewed by Bulatlat cannot imagine life away from their banca and fishing. “Every move we make is on the river,” a fisherman who grew up in Taliptip said. His sentiment is echoed by his neighbors.

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(1st in a series of 3: DENR in Mock Battle for Manila Bay rehab?)

Bulatlat.com
Marya Salamat  February 27, 2019 

By MARYA SALAMAT

This is one of the reports in a series produced by Bulatlat.com with the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) Media Fellowship. The series aims to report on linkages between gender, ecological conflicts and climate change.

MANILA – If there are groups of Filipinos whose daily life confronts the most immediate impact of climate change, the fisherfolk are among those at the forefront. Their families live by the sea, on the banks of rivers and on islets that shrink or expand with the tide.

They are the first to face the consequences of sea levels rising more than usual, when the typhoons that brew from the seas are more disastrous, or when currents are hitting the land more brutally after some natural guards or breaks had been defaced. For example, after 600-plus old-growth mangroves were cut in April last year, there were changes in the water and they felt it immediately in their reduced catch.

How the poor fisherfolk cope with changing climate

In the coastal communities fronting Manila Bay in Bulacan, “climate change” is not a household word but they grapple with coping solutions in their daily life. One ready example, they have to more frequently repair and raise their embankment or their “waterwalk”.

Project Walkway

Living on narrow strips of land above water, dry space is scarce and to extend the living areas they build houses on stilts, connected by walkways fashioned from strung-together poles of bamboos. Less than a meter in width, the walkway loops around their island-homes, their collectively-built adjustment to the fact that the island is not wide enough.

From another sitio or sub-village, in a separate interview, an elderly woman recalled how, years earlier, they had more earthen embankments. The sitios were connected by more levees unlike today. “We could walk from one sitio to another in those days,” said Flor P. Salvador, 77, a resident of Taliptip since 1969. Now they have to ride a banca just to visit neighboring sitios.

In the bigger island-village of Binuangan, Obando, the walkway is more easily worn out not just by the trudging feet but by the higher water levels and stronger currents. Similar to what they have to do with their houses, they have to raise it by piling more wood or bamboo on top of the old parts.

Some families rebuilt their home using concrete and cement. It protects them better during storms. “Our houses don’t just get swept away or destroyed,” an old fisherman told Bulatlat.

But such a house on islands barely above water can also sink faster if the ground underneath it is liquefying faster than its neighbors.’

In the coasts of Bulakan, Bulacan, the communities are scattered over rivers and shallow loam soil narrower than Salambao or Binuangan of Obando.

Despite all these, the people here have adjusted to living with the river and the bay. They are proud to say they are feeding themselves and their families, sending their children to school without asking much from the government. They contribute to the country’s need for relatively affordable fresh fish, shells and crabs.

They are in position to raise the alarm when the precarious balance of this ecosystem of rivers, islets and the bay was tinkered with, like when about a hectare of mangroves was felled in April last year. In the following visits of typhoons, they reported its worrisome results. Various sitios of Bulakan, Bulacan suffered unprecedented flooding and soil erosion.

Compounding problems

Years before, these fisherfolk had fought to stop the privately owned but government-backed “sanitary landfill” from operating by the coasts of Manila Bay in Obando. It was a fierce struggle that older residents now say only the reign of terror of former army major Jovito Palparan under the former Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration enabled its forced operation. Some fisherfolk leaders and organizers in the area had been reportedly abducted, tortured and killed. The residents petitioned against it in court but in 2014 the Court of Appeals junked their petition and allowed the dumpsite to continue.

Kimberley Lazaro, 31, a resident of coastal Obando since birth, said that since the dumpsite was allowed, their fish catch has dwindled. They lost the mussels and crabs that used to abound at the muddy banks of the river. For a fisherwoman like her, it means spending more to go farther out on the river or the bay itself to catch fish.

 “If you didn’t start out living around here, you could not endure the stench and the flies. You will eat under a mosquito netting,” she told her fellow fisherfolk as they convened the network opposed to the planned reclamation in Bulakan.

A lesson they have learned through years of forced landfills and reclamation along Manila Bay: this exacts a price and some are not as predictable as worsening pollution and dwindling fish catch. Their part of the coast in Obando now stinks, the river is more polluted, their communities are more vulnerable to flooding, erosion, and subsidence. Worse, these same poor fisherfolk are frequently the government’s scapegoat whenever they seek to push their brand of development of the bay.

Now the coastal communities’ initial efforts to cope, by themselves, with direct impact of climate change and worsening pollution while they shore up their communities and sources of livelihood are coming into conflict with government thrusts concerning the bay.

Ironically, while the government is riding on the popular call for cleanup of Manila Bay and harnessing free labor of volunteers for fishing out thrash that washed up in Manila Bay, it is, on the other hand, disproportionately blaming the poor and seeking their demolition in favor of reclamation plans and other real estate development.

Environmentalists Kalikasan PNE and national fisherfolk group Pamalakaya cited the study of Ocean Conservancy in 2015 that 74 percent of plastics that ended up in the sea came from previously collected garbage. Another cause of pollution in Manila Bay, they said, is the failure of government itself to provide a significant water and solid waste treatment and management.

Environmentalists and fisherfolk decry the seeming duplicity of dubbing the battle for Manila Bay as for rehabilitation when the government is pushing for projects such as massive reclamation and commercial developments of the Manila Bay. Toward this, the government seems to be facilitating the rapid, forced displacement of the fisherfolk settlers in the Manila Bay.

In the coastal areas and rivers in Bulacan, there are 23,051 “informal settler families (ISF),” said the Manila Bay Coordinating Office (MBCO) of DENR in Central Luzon during a scheduled Manila Bay cleanup held in Obando.

But the DENR has been silent about the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA)-approved proposal of diversifying giant, San Miguel Corporation, to build an international airport on rivers, fishponds and mangroves in Bulacan along Manila Bay. This is more massive than the trash or the presence of ISF. It means burying the coast under million cubic meters of engineered soil and rock-cement. It means bringing in machinery for mega-construction and reclamation after the fisherfolk communities have been driven away.

It is not clear if the fisherfolk targeted for displacement by SMC’s reclamation project are also among the ISF complained by the MBCO in Region 3. What is clear is that since the locals began hearing about the San Miguel Corporation projects, the government and SMC have all but ignored their demands for information and a say in the future of the fishing grounds and the bay.

The locals say they would hear warnings that the SMC has a deep pocket and that they couldn’t win their demand to retain the fishing grounds as such. From October to November last year, a contractor company of SMC called Silvertides conducted surveys and interviews in coastal villages of Taliptip and Bambang. Around the same period, the locals were being told by this or that local government executive that they shouldn’t join groups criticizing the project.

The locals would only learn this February that the surveys and interviews of 30 “fishpond caretakers” Silvertides said they conducted were requirements for the SMC contractor to get the DENR nod for reclamation.

Despite the fact that the fisherfolk were receiving news affecting their future only in trickles, in October some of them braved it out to establish the Network Opposed to Reclamation/Aerotropolis.

In November, fisherfolk, church workers, and environmental activists from Bulacan to Cavite gathered at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to file a Manila Bay-wide complaint calling on the Duterte government. They asked the DENR to deny erring land reclamation projects their environmental compliance certificates (ECC) and area clearance permits.

In a statement, Leon Dulce, national coordinator of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), said, “not one of these reclamation projects have passed key international human rights guidelines such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines.”

These guidelines for businesses include compliance to civil, political, and socio-economic rights policies in the Philippines, adopting internal human rights policies and contributing to the implementation and development of State policies, conducting due diligence in assessing and addressing rights concerns, and cooperating with legal remedy mechanisms.

Gauging from reports of affected locals from Cavite to Manila to Bulacan, the reclamation projects, said Dulce, have apparently grossly bastardized the public participation mechanisms and environmental regulations of the Environmental Impact Assessment process. The group also blasted the reports that critics of reclamation were being harassed.

Asking the DENR to side with the fisherfolk against reclamation, they reiterated that “There is no reason not to respect democratic procedures, even for the aerotropolis that is an unsolicited proposal not yet governed by the formal regulatory process of the State.”