MILITANT fishermen’s group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) has criticized the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for issuing an environmental permit to reclamation projects in Manila Bay covering 420 hectares of its fishing waters. In a statement on Tuesday, Pamalakya Chairman Fernando Hicap said the department would “regret this,” and that it should expect its office to be “flooded and stormed by the furious [fishermen] and coastal residents on a regular basis for consenting to anti-environment and anti-people projects.” He lamented that the DENR had “completely separated from its mandate in protecting the environment’ by providing an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) to twin reclamation projects in Bacoor City, Cavite, being pushed as main proponent by its City Mayor Lani Mercado-Revilla.”
