ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP SLAMS AQUINO FOR JUNKING LAKE REHAB PROJECT
PHOTO AT LEFT - LAGUNA LAKE BEFORE; RIGHT - LAGUNA LAKE THAT OVERFLOWN DURING TYPHOON 'ONDOY' ]
MANILA, NOVEMBER 26, 2010 (STAR) By Dennis Carcamo – An environmental group has scored President Aquino for precipitately scrapping the P18.7-billion Laguna Lake Rehabilitation Project (LLRP), saying it guarantees that flooding would continue in 15 towns and cities of Laguna and in the National Capital Region (NCR) when monsoon rains hit the region.
"The President has turned his back on his solemn pledge to promote and defend the interest of the people of Laguna and Rizal. He has just condemned them to suffer low fish catch, recurrent fishkills and guaranteed the country's biggest lake to become the biggest septic tank in the Philippines," said Gil Navarro, spokesman of the Kilusang Lawa Kalikasan (KLK).
Navarro said he worked for the Aquino campaign as an area coordinator and argued that "if the President believes that he can treat the people of Laguna and Rizal shabbily, then he is terribly wrong. We reserve the right to protest and show to the entire world that corporate greed and barkada interest are the factors that affect this presidency."
Last September, KLK signed separate petitions to Mr. Aquino and King Albert II of Belgium on behalf of several members-organizations in the lake region and pleaded that the project should continue.
Earlier, Mr. Aquino's critics protested that "scrapped the project through a press release, leaving the contractor stupefied, and told the world he is not interested in the project designed to deepen the 94,900-hectare lake, establish a navigation channel and ensure that Laguna de Bay would hold more water."
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda junked the project a day after the Mr. Aquino assured European investors and those from other regions that he would protect their investments, guaranteed them compensation for the toll and other fees frozen by regulatory agencies, the courts and even Congress, to the amazement of lawyers and legislators.
KLK's statement came in the wake of reports that the President had already told the Belgian government about his decision to scrap the project.
November 20, 2010 press release by the Laguna Lake Development Authority
Taytay, Rizal – Laguna Lake Development Authority General Manager Rod Cabrera said that President Aquino was right when he said that the proposed Belgian-funded Laguna Lake Rehabilitation Project "in its present form" does not completely address the problems of the country's biggest freshwater resource.
In a Laguna fisherfolks' forum in Sta. Cruz, Laguna yesterday, Cabrera said that improving the welfare of the lake's marginalized fishermen is a priority of the Aquino administration and that he had ordered a thorough survey of the existing fishpen structures in the lake to ensure that they don't go beyond the maximum 10 percent of its total area allowed under LLDA's ZOMAP. The lake has a total area of 90,000 hectares. He said that once this is determined, LLDA will start demolishing excess fishpens to allow more fishing activities for small fishermen in the open areas. Right now, he said that LLDA has started cleaning the lake up of abandoned aqua structures. Lake fish production contributes some 40 percent of total fish supply for Metro Manila.
While dredging the lake now is absolutely desirable given its shallow depth at an average of 2.5 meters from as deep as nine meters decades ago to increase its water-holding capacity and eventually improve lake water quality, Cabrera said that the LLRP leaves much to be desired for it to be acceptable. In truth and in fact, he said that most of the dredging will just be done in the Napindan Channel, a flood control structure built in 1983 to mitigate flooding in Metro Manila. While admitting that dredging this channel is likewise critical, it is more important to focus the resources first for Laguna Lake.
Cabrera clarified a report posted by Inquirer Southern Luzon in its website last night that alleged, quoting the LLDA GM, that the President "just wants to make some revisions in some more components (of the LLRP)". Cabrera said that he was misquoted as the President was quite clear in his instructions to the Cabinet last October 1 where he called for a thorough review of the deal that was forged towards the end of the previous administration. He clarified that the proposed inclusion of additional components like watershed rehabilitation, relocation of illegal settlements along the lakeshore and mapping the lake, among others, was just a part of the discussions on what the lake really badly needs at present.
The LLDA official emphasized that the President reiterated his concern for transparency on the Belgian contract in his first 100 days report to the nation "to ensure that the funds for the project will not be wasted." He added that given its huge project cost, concerned agencies must be afforded an opportunity to make sure that the project will really be more responsive to the requirements of curing the ills that beset the country's biggest lake. He said that this is quite critical in allowing the lake to realize its multi-faceted potentials in fisheries production, potable water supply, hydropower generation, irrigation, industrial cooling, eco-tourism, water transport and flood control.
In the said Sta. Cruz forum, Cabrera assured the small fishermen that LLDA will soon launch programs to improve their livelihood, citing a successful program in Cambodia for lake fishermen that he said may be replicated in the lake region.
llda.gov.ph
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