HUNDREDS of activists, farmers and fishermen will start Monday a six-day “Climate Walk” to protest the three coal plant projects along Panguil Bay.
The protesters will walk 92 kilometers from Maranding, Lanao del Norte, to Iligan City.
Roldan Gonzales, executive director of Gitib, said a coalition of nongovernment organizations led by the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice believes the plants are a threat to the bay.
The biggest project is the P1 billion, 540-megawatt plant being built by the Ayala Corporation in barangays Tacub and Libertad in Kauswagan. The other two are the 300-Mw plant of the Ozamiz Power Corporation in Barangay Pulot, Ozamiz City, and the 30-Mw plant being in Kiwalan, Iligan City.
Gonzales said toxic waste from the coal plants could kill off marine life in Panguil Bay and endanger the health and livelihood of the residents along its coast.
“The people around Panguil Bay were not even democratically and substantially consulted,” he said.
In a statement, the coalition said a study made by Gitib Inc., an NGO working for sustainable development, showed that the plants could affect more than 300,000 people in the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental.
Panguil Bay covers an area of 18,000 hectares and has a 116-kilometer coastline that stretches from Clarin town in Misamis Occidental to Maigo town in Lanao del Norte.
More than 9,323 fishers around the bay own more than 5,000 boats.
Gonzales said the marchers will hold a rally at the construction site of GNPower in Kauswagan on Wednesday and the office of La Farge Cement Corporation on Saturday.