SC set to rule on legality of Aurora ecozone

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) is set to rule on the legality of laws creating the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport (Apeco), as it is finally acting on a petition filed by militant groups in 2011.

In a two-page notice received by parties earlier this week, the SC moved to “give due course to the petition” after “considering the allegations, issues and arguments adduced in the petition, as well as in the comments thereon, and in the consolidated reply.”

It directed both petitioners and respondents to submit their respective memoranda within 30 days from receipt of notice.

Specifically, the parties were ordered to summarize their statements of the case, facts and issues as well as arguments and the relief sought.

“No new issues may be raised by a party in its memorandum, and the issues raised in its pleadings but not included in the memorandum shall be deemed waived or abandoned,” the SC said.

The petitioners, Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), Anakpawis party-list, and Panlalawigang Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Aurora (Pamana), welcomed the SC’s action on the case.

“Finally, after 15 months of waiting, the SC had decided to take up this issue which is a matter of life and death to thousands of farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples. We are ready for a major legal and political faceoff with the ruling Angara dynasty and their benefactors in the Aquino administration,” said Salvador France of Pamalakaya and Fernando Hicap of Anakpawis party-list in a joint statement.

“We hope the high tribunal will start the ball rolling on the Apeco case and resolve this case with finality in accordance with the national interest and collective sentiment of the people of Aurora and the general taxpaying public. Apeco is unconstitutional, immoral and a triple platinum betrayal of public interest,” they added.

The petitioners are represented by lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center.

In their petition filed in October 2011, they asked the SC to declare unconstitutional Republic Act 9490 or the Aurora Special Economic Zone Authority (Aseza) Act of 2007 and its amendatory law, RA 10083 or the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Act of 2010.

They argued that the two laws violated constitutional provisions on agrarian reform and social justice, as they patently disregarded the agrarian reform beneficiaries of the agricultural lands awarded to them by the national government, especially when Apeco started covering lands already covered and awarded through government land reform programs.

The groups argued that the laws also violate Section 7, Article 13 of the Constitution, which provides that the state “shall protect the rights of subsistence fishermen, especially of local communities, to the preferential use of local marine and fishing resources, both inland and offshore.”

They specifically questioned Section 3 of both laws, which converted fishing grounds in the barangays of Esteves, San Ildefonso, Cozo and Dibet into a freeport zone.

They also alleged that the laws have taken away the ancestral domain of Agtas and Dumagats in the barangays of San Ildefonso, Culat and Cozo in Casiguran town.

Among the respondents in the petition were Apeco officials led by president and CEO Roberto Mathay, Aurora Gov. Bella Angara-Castillo, Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, Dilasag Mayor Victorio Briones, and Harley Rose Alcantara Daquioag, who represents workers in the Apeco board.