December 2020 to November 2023
The Women’s Resource Center of Visayas, Inc. (WRCV) is currently implementing a three-year project, “Towards empowerment for social justice among women affected by national infrastructure projects in Cebu, Philippines.”
The project is implemented in Barangays Calajoan, Tungkop, Tulay, and Tungkil in the Municipality of Minglanilla, Barangay South Poblacion in the Municipality of San Fernando, and Barangays Sawang Calero, and Suba in Cebu City. It started in December 2020 and terminates in November 2023.
The project partners with the Calajoan Women’s Organization, Tulay Women’s Organization, Tungkop Women’s Organization and the Nagpakabanang Kababa- yen-an sa Tungkil. It also partners with the Sitio Lawis Women’s Organization, Sitio Lower Luknay Women’s Organization, and Sitio Pantalan in South Poblacion. It also partners with the Sawang Calero Women’s Organization and the Suba Women’s Organization. Their members and other residents may be affected by the infrastructure projects.
Infrastructure projects include the San Fernando Port in South Poblacion, the Minglanilla Reclamation Project that will cover the shorelines of Barangay Tungkil, Tulay, and Calajoan and the Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway.
The plan for the construction of the port was announced by San Fernando Mayor Lakambini Reluya in 2017. Once operational, the new port which has an initial budget of P 336 million will accommodate vessels with routes covering Cebu, Bohol, Camiguin Island, and Cagayan de Oro City.
Unconfirmed reports are that the construction will affect the fishing grounds of Barangay South Poblacion that will adversely affect the residents’ means of livelihood which is fishing. Houses built on the shorelines of the reclamation may also be demolished and their residents relocated.
The Minglanilla Reclamation Project is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the Municipality of Minglanilla, Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), and Cebu Landmasters, Inc. Dubbed as Ming-mori Techno Business Park and developed and managed by CLI affiliate Ming-Mori Development Corporation, the 100-hectare P billion reclamation project will have an integrated mixed-use development that will house light industries, commercial, residential and port facilities, among others. Construction is said to start in 2022.
There are fears that completion of the reclamation project will cost the fishermen their livelihood since they would have to go farther to the sea aside from not being able to dock their boats anymore, with the shore covered by reclaimed land. By having to go farther to the sea, the small fishermen with their small fishing gear compete with big commercial fishing vessels. In effect, the reclamation project results in the loss of fishing livelihood among the fishermen.
The Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway, also known as the Cebu–Cordova Bridge and the Third Cebu–Mactan Bridge, is an 8.9-kilometer toll bridge expressway in Metro Cebu that links Cebu City and Cordova in Mactan Island. The construction of the bridge started in 2017 and was finished in 2022. When the proposal for this project of the WRCV was conceived for funding, there were fears of residents that many houses in Barangays Suba and Sawang Calero, the two project sites in Cebu City, may be demolished in order to give way for the construction of the foot of the bridge. However, the foot of the bridge was later seen to be connected to the highway in the South Reclamation Properties and no houses would be demolished.
This project is conceived with the aim that the women in the project areas, if provided with education, training and other measures that will organize, empower and strengthen their organizations, they will stand up to their basic human rights and collectively address the urgent issues that threaten their abode, livelihood and very lives of their families and become a force capable of determining their own course of development.