August 16 Balamban Public Scoping

To all concerned Cebuanos, you may want to know about this August 16 public scoping announcement related to the proposed Cebu Provincial Government Center in Balamban Town, Cebu.

This 1 p.m. event will be held at the covered court of Barangay Pondol, Balamban.

The Environment Management Bureau (EMB-7) issued this notice: “All persons having an interest in these matters are invited to attend and make their views known.

“For full details of this project, please click this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WGrc6XYsnWPAaMgEWNJV9cfCLgw4hdSn/view?usp=drive_link

“This public scoping under the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) System is a formal process that is initiated, planned, and conducted to promote dialogue or communication among different stakeholders for the purpose of exchanging information and views on the environmental impacts assessment, management and monitoring for proposed projects as part of the review of their ECC Application.”

Many among our readers may be surprised to know and ask why this public scoping, a requirement for the review of the proponent’s Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) Application, will be conducted just now?

Remember the public debate/protest that accompanied a March 2023 viral post that showed a portion of a bulldozed/deforested mountain in Balamban that had been cleared reportedly for the construction of a new Cebu Provincial Government Center?

Possible adverse environmental concerns, including increased flooding in the downhill areas, were among those raised about this planned new Capitol site in Balamban.

The new location also poses accessibility challenges for many Cebuanos, especially the poor who cannot afford to travel all the way to the mountain village of Barangay Cambuhawe in Balamban.

A critic asked who will benefit from the construction of this new Capitol site in Balamban? Whose interests are best served by this project? Cebu’s poor?

Recall that a January, 2024 news report bannered Philippine Statistics Authority data that Cebu, the country’s richest province, had the most number of poor in the Philippines!

Cebu’s poverty incidence worsened/hiked to 32.5% in the first half of 2023. In 2018, Cebu’s poverty incidence was lower, at 21.6%.

Cebu Province showed the biggest jump in the number of poor people which “nearly doubled to 1.45 million in the first half of 2023, from 831,450 in the same period in 2018.”

Next, these follow-up questions for EMB-7 which announced that this August 16 public scoping will “review the ECC application.”

Is EMB-7 clearly stating that the 2023 March/or earlier bulldozing of the Balamban mountain was done without any reviewed/approved ECC application?

Can the EMB-7 clearly clarify publicly, during or before the August 16 Public Scoping, if this Capitol project “possessed an ECC and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) last March or earlier?”

If no ECC/EIA, then why was the bulldozing allowed? Who authorized the start of this project?

Why did EMB-7 not know about and stop this project before/or during the bulldozing/deforestation in the area?

What actions have been done by EMB-7 to go after those who proceeded with the project without proper permits/documents?

Shouldn’t national/regional DENR also review if lapses were allowed or not by EMB-7 related to the bulldozing/deforestation of the said Balamban location?

Last March, the Save Cebu Movement (SCM) called out the provincial government and several national government agencies for allowing “the continued assault” --bulldozing and deforestation-- of portions of a mountain village in Barangay Cambuhawe.

Since March, have the Ombudsman, the state’s anti-graft investigating body, and the Department of Interior and Local Government probed this matter, as requested by the SCM?

According to the Capitol Project link, safeguards will be ensured so that the people and environment, the nearby Central Cebu Protected Landscape included, will be responsibly protected.

Will concrete data and proposals be presented about how the environment and the people of Balamban and the rest of Cebu will be protected and benefitted by this project?