The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to start the demolition of fish pens and fish cages in Manila Bay as part of the continuing effort to rehabilitate the historic water body, starting in the Cavite area on September 7, Tuesday.
DENR Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and Local Government Units Concerns Benny Antiporda said the fish pens and fish cages, which have no permits from the DENR, would be removed.
“It is part of the effort to rehabilitate Manila Bay,” said Antiporda, adding that the Supreme Court’s continuing mandamus to rehabilitate Manila Bay compels the agency to remove the illegal structures, including Bacoor’s mussels and oyster farms that have been operating for a long time.
While the Supreme Court mandamus states the growing of mussels and oysters is allowed in Manila Bay, Antiporda said, it is about time that the government regulates the use and prohibit the methods that cause massive pollution and environment degradation in the region.
“For the mussel industry, they can still operate using long line or other methods that will not pollute the Manila Bay, but we will not allow the use of bamboo poles and styrofoam anymore. Last time, if you will see, we hauled off garbage from Manila Bay that includes styrofoam and bamboo poles,” Antiporda recalled.
“They really need to evolve,” he added.
He said every now and then, the government encounters trouble removing debris from fish cages and fish pens that are easily wiped out by strong typhoons.
The only way this can be avoided, he said, is by disallowing the construction of such illegal structures in Manila Bay once and for all.
On Monday, small fisherfolk, mussels and oyster growers in Cavite belonging to the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ang Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) stormed the DENR Central Office in Quezon City ahead of its schedule to dismantle fishing structures in Manila Bay covering four coastal towns in Cavite.
During the protest action, members of the group lambasted DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu for his directive, which the fishers’ group earlier called as “unjust and anti-fisherfolk”.
They said the move would directly affect at least 15,000 fishermen and coastal residents who are engaged in mussel or tahong and oyster or talaba aquaculture.
A few weeks ago, DENR installed signages in the municipalities of Noveleta, Kawit, and cities of Cavite and Bacoor notifying the public regarding the demolition of “illegal” fishing structures in Manila Bay.
The fishers’ group said that the “DENR is using the rehabilitation program against the livelihood of fisherfolk residing along Manila Bay.”
“Rehabilitating Manila Bay should be to restore its marine resources for the benefit of small fisherfolk. But the DENR’s thrust says otherwise. The government’s rehabilitation program has brought fear among the fishing and coastal population, because it’s aim, is to actually destroy our livelihood and displace us from communities,” Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chairman, said.
Hicap, a resident fisherman in Manila Bay, argued that fishing structures in Manila Bay “do not pose any pollution or harm to marine biodiversity compared to industrial and commercial establishments rampantly discharging solid and liquid wastes into the water.”
The dismantling of fishing structures is a precursor to a massive reclamation plan in Cavite, especially in Bacoor City which has 420-hectare proposed reclamation project,” according to Hicap.
The reclamation project in Bacoor City has already acquired an environmental compliance certificate from the DENR last year.
“Startling and completely alarming. The DENR would surely deny to high heavens that the real score behind the dismantling of fishing structures in Cavite is to pave way for reclamation projects that pose irreversible destruction not only to the livelihood of tens of thousands of fishing and coastal residents but also to the bay’s marine biodiversity and ecosystem. Truth be told, the government’s Manila Bay rehabilitation program is a sham and a sellout in disguise,” Hicap said.