MANILA, Philippines — A coalition of groups advocating for the protection of Verde Island Passage renewed its appeal to the Department of Environment and Natural resources to probe the environmental impacts of liquefied natural gas projects in Batangas, one of the provinces surrounding the marine corridor.
Verde Island Passage, regarded as the center of marine shore fish diversity in the world, is the site of five existing LNG plants. Since 2021, Protect VIP has been sounding the alarm on the LNG expansion in the marine corridor, which they warned will harm the area’s rich marine life and affect coastal communities.
“After five operational gas projects, numerous complaints filed to DENR, and one devastating oil spill, we are yet to be granted a dialogue with her. We wonder what it takes for Sec. Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga to look in our direction,” said Fr. Edwin Gariguez, lead convenor of Protect VIP.
The appeal of Protect VIP comes after the government suspended reclamation projects in Manila Bay pending a review of their environmental and socio-economic impacts. It said that the DENR should afford the same scrutiny to the fossil gas boom along the Verde Island Passage.
“Manila Bay and the Verde Island Passage are globally significant and locally nourish the livelihoods of millions of Filipinos. The protection of both means the protection of all,” Gariguez said.
The Verde Island Passage encompassses the coastlines of Batangas, Romblon, Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, and Oriental Mindoro.
Action needed
In 2022, Protect VIP filed a complaint against San Miguel Corporation subsidiary Excellent Energy Resources, Inc. (SMC-EERI) and Linseed Field Corporation with Atlantic Gulf and Pacific Company (AG&P-Linseed) before the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau.
The group also filed a complaint before the Department of Agrarian Reform over the illegal or premature conversion of landholdings of SMC-EERI and AG&P-Linseed. The agency issued a cease-and-desist order, but the projects continued.
Gerry Arances, co-convenor of Protect VIP, called on the environment department to cancel the environmental compliance certificates issued to gas projects.
“With eight more gas plants in the pipeline, we urge Sec. Yulo to take action before Batangas becomes an unrecognizable terrain of tractors like how Manila Bay is right now,” said Arances, who is also executive director of the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development.
The Philippines is scaling up the development of infrastructure that will allow the country to import and utilize LNG and complement the available gas from the Malampaya reservoir. The energy department said that LNG increases diversity and security of the country’s energy needs.
Groups such as CEED, however, warned that the extraction, transportation, liquefaction and regasification of gas produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Methane’s capacity to trap heat is 80 times more than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.