A group has asked the Supreme Court to issue a Writ of Kalikasan to stop San Miguel Corporation’s construction of a domestic and international airport in Bulacan called the “Aerocity Airport Project.”
In a petition, fishermen based in Bulakan, represented by Teodoro Bacon and Rodel Alvarez, together with Oceana through its Vice President Gloria Estenzo Ramos, Archbishop Roger Martinez of the Archdiocese of San Jose del Monte, and Aniban ng mga Mangagawa sa Agrikultura led by Renato de la Cruz, the group’s Chairman, argued that SMC’s airport project should be stopped because it was violating many environmental laws, adversely affecting the resident and migratory bird population and increasing the risks for adverse climate change, thus, adversely affecting the marine habitat.
Oceana is an international advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans.
SMC Aerocity, with its subsidiary-contractor Silvertides Holdings, plans to construct the New Manila International Airport that will be built on a 2,500-hectare foreshore area of Bulakan, Bulacan, classified by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority as forestland and permanent forest land.
The airport is part of an envisioned 12,000-hectare township featuring a residential zone, a government center, a seaport and an industrial zone.
According to the petitioners, the airport project area and the Airport City Area cover forest and permanent forest land that are not alienable and disposable, thus it violates Republic Act 4701 or An Act Declaring a Portion of the Foreshore Fronting Manila Bay Along the Province of Bulacan as Bulacan Fishing Reservation and Authorizing the Appropriation of Funds Therefor. Rey E. Requejo
They say that portions of the areas covering the project are classified as public forest and fishery reserves and therefore inalienable.
Named respondents in the case were Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu, Environmental Management Bureau Region III regional director Wilson Trajeco, Transportation Secretary Art Tugade, San Miguel Aerocity President and CEO Ramon S. Ang, and Silvertides President and CEO Hercules V. Galicia.
