Fact-Finding Mission to expose impact of Aurora Pacific Economic Zone begins June 23

Fact-Finding Mission to expose impact of Aurora Pacific Economic Zone begins June 23

 By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com
June 23 marks the start of a national fact-finding and solidarity mission in Aurora as peasant advocacy groups seek to expose the impact of the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Act (APECO) project in the region. It will continue until June 25.

The regional farmers’ group Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL, Peasant Alliance in Central Luzon), Panlalawigang Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Aurora (PAMANA, Provincial Peasant Alliance of Aurora) and their national organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) are at the forefront of the mission. They are being joined by representatives from various people’s organizations including the human rights group Karapatan, Pagkakaisa para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (PATRIA), and Katribu.

According to reports, Apeco was established on the strength of Republic Act 10083 which was passed on April 22, 2010. The project covers 13,000-hectares of land. According to repots, five barangays with a total population of 5,430 are directly affected by the project.

Farmers, fisherfolk and Dumagat tribe members continue their protests against the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone program, saying that it’s immediate and long-term effects on the environment, the residents’ livelihood and welfare are grossly destructive.(Photo by Jon Carlos Sarmiento / Bulatlat.com)

Last February, President Benigno Aquino III appointed former Labor secretary Bienvenido Laguesma as Apeco’s board director.

Joseph Canlas, chairman of AMGL insists that the project has destructive effects on the land, livelihood and survival of farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous people living within the project’s territory and the immediate, surrounding areas.
“APECO is the result of a program that came into being through legislation, and like many of its kind, its proponents and supporters mainly sought to financially benefit from it. Those who masterminded the Apeco — primarily Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara and his father Sen. Edgardo Angara and their foreign partners — thought very little if at all what the impact of the project will be on the lives of the marginalized people in Casiguran,” Canlas said.

According to the AMGL, APECO is an expanded version of another, similar project, the Aurora Special Economic Zone Act of 2007 (ASEZA) which, in turn, was established via Republic Act 9490 or the Aurora Special Economic Zone Act of 2007.

Aseza only covered 493-hectares of land involving two barangays, Estevez and Dibet. In Apeco, the land areas of Aseza was expanded, and now it covers the said 13,000 hectares, with two more barangays falling under its jurisdiction. The APECO program is composed of residential, commercial, industrial, eco-tourism, highways, ports and airport projects..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/06/23/fact-finding-mission-to-expose-impact-of-aurora-pacific-economic-zone-begins-june-23/