ENVIRONMENTAL group Green Alert Network assailed the proposed resettlement site for Hinobaan residents who will be displaced by the proposed industrial zone.
The Provincial Government of Negros Occidental has allocated P20 million for the purchase of the 14-hectare resettlement area for the affected residents of the Southern Negros Industrial Estate in Barangay Bacuyangan, which was approved by the members of the Provincial Board on Wednesday, July 12.
The P20 million will be sourced from this year’s 20 percent Provincial Development Fund-Grants and Donations.
In a statement on Thursday, Green Alert said they are planning to take legal action as the move of the Capitol violated the rights of the people.
They will also call the attention of the Office of the Ombudsman and they will also bring up the issue before Agrarian Secretary Rafael Mariano and Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.
Green Alert pointed out that the approval of the Provincial Board of the community livelihood of the residents “violated the rights of the people because there was no transparency, and no proper public hearing was conducted.”
The group said the act “grossly violated rights to due process guaranteed by the Constitution to every individual.”
“It is clearly illegal and violates the right of the people which is evidently bad faith and promotion of personal interest of its proponents over the interest and welfare of the whole community,” Green Alert added.
“The blue prints, maps and other documents officially requested by the group from the Office of the Governor and the Municipality of Hinobaan were never given,” they further said.
Green Alert said the proposed development area in Barangay Bacuyangan is an agricultural land that will be reclassified into industrial zone.
“The areas are agricultural lands already covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program which could never be relegated as industrial,” the group said, adding that an order of Department of Agrarian Reform disallowed the conversion of lands devoted to or suitable for agriculture.
The group said the proposed project should secure an approval from the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources through an Environmental Impact Assessment due to the fragile state of many hectares of mangroves and coral reefs, which are the breeding grounds of many species of fish and other marine life.
Green Alert said the area is a productive agricultural land, which means the “food security of the whole community is being threatened.”
Earlier, Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said the municipal government is looking to give 200 square meters to each family, adding the initial count of families affected were 187, but “there could be more.”
He added that the 14-hectare resettlement area could accommodate about 500 families.
Late last year, Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. and the executives of Tsuneishi signed a memorandum of understanding in Japan for the construction of the shipbuilding facility in Barangay Bacuyangan. The signing was witnessed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Marañon had said the $300-million facility is expected to start its construction this year.
Meanwhile, the Provincial Board has yet to take up the ordinance creating the industrial zone.