A mass gathering was held to oppose the Minglanilla Reclamation Project on October 4, 2022.
It was organized by different civil society organizations including the WRCV. The activity started with a fluvial procession of 21 small boats in the seashore of Tulay going to Sitio Tabay in Calajoan at 8 a.m., with fishermen in the boats holding placards opposing the reclamation project. The procession stopped in the seashore of Sitio Tabay where a mass was celebrated and attended by 250 participants who were mostly residents of Minglanilla affected by the reclamation project.
The mass was followed by a gathering at the covered court of Calajoan. During the gathering, women leaders aired out their fears of losing their livelihood and having their houses demolished once the reclamation pushes through. Dacel Ordaneza, President of the Seawall Homeowners’ Association in Sitio Tabuan, Calajoan, said that there were people from the Assessors’ Office who went to their sitio and neighboring sitios last July 2022 to identify houses that live in the coastlines directly facing the proposed reclamation, particularly those living within 12 meters from the shoreline. In Calajoan, they include Sitio Tabay, Sitio Tabuan, Sitio Noah and Sitio San Pedro. There are more than 200 households in these four sitios whom the Assessor’s Office personnel said will have to have their houses demolished due to the reclamation. There are more than 500 households living in these four sitios in Calajoan.
Ordaneza added that during the visit of the Assessor’s Office personnel to these sitios, the residents had many questions to the personnel, such as how the demolition will take place, will they be paid, will there be a relocation site and where is it, and how will the relocation process be. But the answers of the personnel were vague and were not satisfactory to the residents.
Another woman leader, Helen Sederena, President of the Sitio Lower Luknay Women’s Organization in South Poblacion, San Fernando, expressed her organization’s support for the anti-reclamation project.
Two speakers from the Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC), a non-government organization, discussed about the adverse impact on the environment that the reclamation will cause. They were Atty. Kristine Joy Argallon and Atty. Nikka Andrea Oquias.
The activity ended with an en masse signing of the participants of a Commitment for Life and Environment with their signatures in a huge white piece of cloth.
