Shipyard workers ask Duterte to stop Consolacion recla project

AROUND 2,000 shipyard workers in Barangay Tayud, Consolacion are asking President Rodrigo Duterte to stop the implementation of a 234.80-hectare Seafront City reclamation project in the town.

In their letter to Duterte, the shipyard workers said should the shorelines of the barangay be reclaimed, they will be left without a source of income.

“What will happen to us and our families then? Where do we go from here since shipbuilding and ship repair are all that we know?” the shipworkers said, in a petition that they signed in September 2021.

Copies of the petition were also sent to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), and Municipality of Consolacion.

The municipal government of Consolacion plans to undertake the Seafront City Project, a 234.80-hectare mixed-use project that is envisioned to become an international economic hub.

Local officials led by Vice Mayor Teresa Alegado are now in the process of securing the needed permits to push with the project’s implementation.

But employees coming from six of the eight shipyards in Barangay Tayud said the project should not be allowed to proceed.

Employees from the two others shipyards are yet to sign the petition because they remain unorganized.

“Our shipyards have thousands of employees and we contribute millions to the municipal government’s coffers and the local economy each year. This comes in the form of taxes, salaries paid to our workers, and the supplies that we buy,” it added.

As Tayud’s shipyards are a major contributor to the local economy, the workers said they also deserve to be heard.

Workers said that the shipyards in Barangay Tayud have been in the area for five decades now and these have become their only source of livelihood. (JKV with PR)

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