DUMAGUETE City—Hundreds joined the celebration of Pride March held Saturday, June 28, to express solidarity with the members of the LGBTQIA community as well as oppose the construction of a seawall project here.
According to Silliman University professor Karl Villarmea, one of the event organizers, they took the opportunity to back local environmentalists who raised serious concerns over the project dubbed “Seawall for Shoreline Protection.”
The project covered about 1.7 hectares on the south side of Rizal Blvd. in the city. The city government allotted P54 million for the project, initiated under the watch of outgoing Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo. In an interview with Manila Standard, Villarmea said their Pride March event—led by the LGBTQIA community in Silliman and civil society organizations—called for the total scrapping of the project, which he said, “will bring ecological disaster in Dumaguete and neighboring areas.”
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Dumaguete Pride March protests seawall project”
