Fisherfolk reiterate stand vs. oil drilling in Tañon

The Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center together with several fisherfolk representatives from Pinamungajan and Aloguinsan towns reiterated their demand to halt the oil drilling now conducted at the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape by the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd. and the Department of Energy during a “Solidarity Lunch” yesterday at the UP Cebu College grounds.

Together with FIDEC were some representatives from the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  FIDEC opposed the drilling claiming it causes destruction to the marine resources of the Visayas, which is considered as the center of marine biodiversity in the country.

In a manifesto, the group said that they are condemning the process by which the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape Management Board suddenly authorized the project allegedly without studying the actual state of the strait and the scientific evidence gathered by authorities on biodiversity.

“The entire process was undertaken bereft of transparency and cloaked with secrecy, lacked public participation and deprived the key stakeholders  - such as the marginal fisherfolk, the people’s organizations and non-government organizations and even the scientists and the experts - of their constitutionally guaranteed right to be involved in all levels of decision-making process, especially in an  environmentally critical area like Tañon Strait,” the manifesto read.

“This Japex Project is a blatant disregard of the provisions of the Constitution and its implementing laws such as the Fisheries Code which reiterates the state policy that fisherfolk have the preferential use of municipal waters.  It  mocks the integrity of the National Integrated Protected Areas System and reveals our political leaders’ lack of commitment and sense of responsibility before the international community as a Contracting State in international conventions such as the Conventions on Climate Change, Biological Diversity, Agenda 21, Millennium Development Summit, and respect for international law principles,” the group said.

The group said that they are supporting the stand of the 170 marine scientists in the country who called for the cancellation of the project saying it destroys the marine ecosystem, deprives the marginal fisherfolk of their livelihood and threatens the food security of one of the richest fishing grounds in the country. — Phoebe Jen Indino/BRP