By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
Burgos, Ilocos Norte—Fallen trees, natural heritage
exploitation and now, destruction of fish habitat looms in this northern
coastal municipality should a private contractor of a windmill company in this
province succeed in putting up a jetty to download gigantic wind turbines to
fill in Ilocos Norte’s verdant hilly landscapes, serving as natural wind barriers during
heavy typhoons.
“We can’t accept a lot of
money as revenue for the LGU in the extent of destruction of our environment
especially to our coastal resources, which will cause failure to our fishery as
one of our major sources of livelihood and our tourism sector which will
contribute a negative impact to the aesthetic scenery of the area,” said Burgos
Mayor Cresente Garcia as he raised the alarm over erring contractors that seem
to neglect local laws and ordinances prior to the construction of any project
within their area of jurisdiction.
Mr. Garcia is referring to an
attempt of a private contractor, Scan Global Philippines Inc. to construct a
jetty or causeway in front of the Anara-ar beach along the national highway in
the coastal barangay of Bayog, Burgos without any permit from the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources.
The proposed site, according
to Provincial Fishery Regulatory officer Arthur Valente of the Office of the
Provincial Agriculture Office is located within the buffer zone or about 250
meters of a 35-hectare fish sanctuary, local officials and fisher folks
declared in 2002 as a breeding ground of marine species to enhance and preserve
aquatic biodiversity.
The Burgos government in
cooperation with the provincial fisheries division of Ilocos Norte was the first
to declare a fish sanctuary in Ilocos Norte. Its success was followed two years
later when other local government units through their local sanggunian declared
10 more fish sanctuaries located in this province’s coastal municipalities.
Local fishermen here could
attest that the establishment of more fish sanctuaries in the province’s
strategic coastal waters had significantly increased fish production by 60
percent over the past 10 years.
According to Mr. Valente, the
establishment of fish sanctuaries backed by an intensified information and
education drive to protect Ilocos Norte’s coastal resources and management came
following an observation of depleting fish production about 10 years ago due to
unabated illegal fishing.
Even researchers at the
Mariano Marcos State University’s Science department said the proposed
construction of a jetty in the area is “not feasible” because of the presence
of coral reefs which is now becoming scarce.
Though the Scan Global Phils.
Inc. insisted that “they have enough documents to justify their activities,” Mr.
Garcia said their “non-compliance to the standards or established protocol in
government” is “unconstitutional and unreasonable.”
Earlier, barangay officials
and residents of Bayog complained about the hasty delivery of construction
materials and presence of heavy equipment and machineries at the proposed
construction site of a jetty without any consultation with local officials in
the area.
“We believe a project
proposal should have been submitted and evaluated by the LGU before hasting
their effort in the construction of said project,” Mr. Garcia said.
In view of this, members of
the Ilocos Norte board formed a special fact finding committee to further
investigate the compliance of contractors to local laws and ordinances
particularly with regards to the construction of wind farms in the northern
municipalities here. The special committee is composed of the board’s committee
on environment, tourism and agriculture.
“We have received a lot of
documents about these windmill projects but it appears like these companies are
not following or complying with required documents or conditions to move on
with their projects. The way I see it, it seems like they tend to disregard
their duties to the local government because they already got the approval of
the national government. They are acting like they own the province already.
So, it’s now proper that we look into this,” lawyer board member Da Vinci
Crisostomo said in his capacity as chairperson of the committee on laws.
The
Ilocos Times tried to get the reaction of
SGPI but they cannot be reached as of press time.
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