Posted on June 01, 2011 10:54:04 PM
A GROUP of businesses in the tourist island of Boracay in Aklan province yesterday filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to stop the provincial government’s reclamation project at the Caticlan and Boracay Jetty Port and Passenger Terminal.
A GROUP of businesses in the tourist island of Boracay in Aklan province yesterday filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to stop the provincial government’s reclamation project at the Caticlan and Boracay Jetty Port and Passenger Terminal.
In a 35-page petition, the Boracay Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization of more than 100 businesses, sought a Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO), a right under the Writ of Kalikasan (nature) on the reclamation project as the provincial government failed to follow procedure before implementing the project.
Named as respondents were Aklan Governor Carlito S. Marquez as representative of the provincial government, the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) and the Region 6 Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB).
Officials from the provincial government were not immediately available for comment.
The project, which would involve the reclamation of 36.82 hectares at the Caticlan side and 3.18 hectares at the Boracay side and cost about P1 billion, was classified as a mere rehabilitation of the jetty port, which enabled the provincial government to skirt a full-blown environmental impact assessment.
The project, which would involve the reclamation of 36.82 hectares at the Caticlan side and 3.18 hectares at the Boracay side and cost about P1 billion, was classified as a mere rehabilitation of the jetty port, which enabled the provincial government to skirt a full-blown environmental impact assessment.
Petitioners also claimed that the provincial government did not properly declare the project as it only applied for an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for a certain area at the jetty port, and did not take into account the portion of the project in Boracay.
“Respondent province fraudulently, maliciously and criminally avoided the requirement of performing a full environmental impact assessment by unlawfully and improperly diminishing the impact of the reclamation project in an environmentally critical area,” the petition read.
Petitioners also claimed that the DENR-EMB, in granting the ECC for the project, did not take into account the effects of reclaiming the Caticlan coastline, noting that the project could result in the erosion of the Boracay coastline.
“The current passing through the narrow body of water separating Caticlan and Boracay is described as relatively strong contributing to the scouring of the beaches. Even based on such description, consequently, changes in the structure of the coastline will necessarily contribute to changes in the characteristics of the sand in the beaches of both Caticlan and Boracay,” the petition read.
Aside from contributing to coastal erosion, the petitioners said the project will damage coral reefs, as documented in a study done by the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute.
Aside from failing to conduct an environmental study, the petitioners said that the provincial government proceeded with the project despite not having the endorsement of Barangay Caticlan and the Municipality of Malay, which has jurisdiction over the area. The province also failed to conduct public consultations before implementing the project, it added.
Mr. Marquez first floated the idea of reclaiming the areas around the Caticlan jetty in 2008.
The PRA approved the project in April 2010, with the DENR-EMB issuing an ECC for the project in the same month. The municipal government, in an August 2010 resolution, refused to grant a notice to proceed with the the project but the provincial government proceeded just the same in December last year. – NRM/TE
No comments:
Post a Comment