Civil unrest to rock Laguna Lake dev’t projects - group

MANILA, Philippines - Some 200 leaders of various sectoral organizations in the Rizal and Laguna provinces and some cities in Metro Manila warned Thursday of a looming “lake-wide uprising" if the government would push through its development projects in the Laguna Lake area. Fisher folk groups, urban poor organizations, environmental groups, church based associations and academic experts from the Rizal and Laguna provinces and from the cities of Pasig, Cainta, Taytay and Muntinlupa are opposing planned projects under the so-called Laguna Lake 2000 development plan. “President Gloria Arroyo could expect a lake-wide uprising in the very near future, unless she recalls all her destructive projects under the ambitious Laguna Lake 2000," said Fernando Hicap, chair of the activist fisher folk alliance Pamalakaya and convenor of the newly established Save Laguna Lake Movement (SLLM). At the launching of the SLLM held in Calamba City in Laguna, Hicap said the first phase of Laguna Lake 2000, entails reclamation and road-dikes construction activities that would initially displace 32,000 fisher folk and urban poor families in Pasig, Cainta, Taytay and Muntinlupa. In a statement, Pamalakaya and SLLM said that the North Laguna Lake shore Flood and Drainage System project involves construction of kilometers of roads and dikes that would cut through poor residential areas. Roads and dikes from Taguig to Taytay span 9.8 kilometers; Bicutan to Taguig section, 9.5 km; Sta. Rosa to Calamba City, 28 km; Bay to Sta.Cruz in Laguna, 32 km; Siniloan to Kalayaan, 28 km and the Tanay section, 10 km. The SLLM said that aside from road and dike construction, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) will proceed with the reclamation of lake shore areas in Taguig (3,000 hectares), Muntinlupa (5,000 hectares) and Los Baños in Laguna (500 hectares). It also said the government plans to reclaim thousands of hectares of lakeshore area from Taytay to Binangonan. “The LLDA said it wants to save the lake from biological destruction. But the government projects facilitated by the lake authority have further exposed the falsity of President Arroyo’s long-running claims that it is really after protection of Laguna Lake and the welfare of the people," the statement said. Earlier, LLDA general manager Edgar Manda said the demolition of 32,000 fisher folk and urban poor homes around Laguna Lake would save Asia’s second largest lake from becoming biologically dead. The LLDA head said the increase in population around the Laguna Lake area has contributed is the main cause of pollution and degradation of lake waters. “Laguna Lake is on the brink of biological death because of the government and the LLDA’s policy of offering the lake resources at bargain prices to foreign and domestic business clients at the expense of the people and the environment," the group said. - GMANews.TV