Thursday, December 13, 2007 Speak out: Oil exploration By Arvin Donan Farm-c, Pinamungajan, Cebu
BEING the Fishery and Aquatic Resource Management chairman (Farm-c) of Pinamungajan Cebu, I am airing these concerns on the oil exploration in behalf of the concerned people of our town.
The Tañon Strait is a traditional fishing ground and was declared as a protected seascape by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 1234.
Art. XII. Sec. 2 of our Constitution provides that the State shall protect the nation’s marine wealth and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens.
Pinamungajan has six coastal barangays with around 1,300 fishermen depending on the bounty of the marine resource.
Before the oil exploration started, no public consultations, no public hearing and no data presentations on coastal resource assessment /evaluation were held.
Last Nov. 15, 2007, those behind the oil exploration distributed one sack of rice to each registered fisherman but leaving out those who are really in need.
With 3-4 cargo vessels a day plying the area and a 1.5-kilometer sea radius declared as danger zone, these less fortunate have nowhere to go.
Because of this, the Farm-c, with the fishermen association of Pinamungajan, join hands and with one common voice say: no baseline information, no just compensation, no to oil exploration.
