DENR should cancel, not just suspend, ECC for Taal resort spa — group

MANILA — DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes should go beyond merely suspending the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) by cancelling it for good and investigating Jung Ang Interventure Corporation’s development of a report spa in the crator of Taal Volcano in Batangas, a leader of environmental activist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said today.

Clemente Bautista, Kalikasan PNE National Coordinator, said that the planned resort would pose added threats to life and the ecological system in the volcano’s critical zone.

Bautista said that the community’s vocal opposition to the spa resort is reason enough to consider the cancellation of the ECC.

“The ECC and the Memorandum of Agreement between Jung Ang and local government officials in Talisay were penned despite the obvous absence of free and prior informed consent from the local community, which is a prerequisite for any development project. In fact, the locals were very vocal in their opposition to the spa. The fact that neither the local government nor the project proponents bothered to seek this consent shows a wanton disregard for public welfare which the DENR should not tolerate,” Bautista said.

The spa will also result in in the displacement of some 6,000 of the island community’s peasant population, many of whom have lived in the area even before World War II, Bautista said.

“Government officials have ignored generations of these farmers and peasants who have been calling for genuine land reform in Taal for decades. But they quickly conceded to the profit-driven schemes of Taal’s land-owning families and this Korean foreign firm. Aren’t these public officials perpetuating a form of social injustice by these actions?” Bautista said.

Kalikasan supports the residents in calling for an investigation into the project, Bautista added.

“Clearly, strings were being pulled and proper processes for consultation bypassed in the project. We challenge DENR Sec. Angelo Reyes to investigate this grave transgression first instead of enumerating the ‘more stringent requirements’ that the Taal spa needs in order to lift the ECC suspension. If the DENR is really serious about protecting the environment and the people, it should not allow this project to pass,” Bautista said.

Bautista lauded the efforts of local organizations such as SAMATAAL to expose the project.

“The militant and sustained opposition from the local community, peasant organizations Church, and patriotic public officials proves that anomalous, anti-environment, and anti-people projects such as the Taal resort spa can be exposed and stopped in its tracks. This sets a welcome precedent for other communities nationwide whose lands are being eyed by foreign mining giants,” Bautista said. ###

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