by Miriam G. Desacada
Ormoc City–Premiumlands Corp., an Ormoc City-based development contractor, confirmed that its multi-million Mega City Project, adjacent to a 150-hectare mangrove forest covering three coastal barangays, had been temporarily set aside due to a barrage of opposition from various NGOs, environmentalists and residents filed in court.
While the matter is pending at the Ormoc Regional Trial Court, Premiumlands said it will suspend the implementation of the Mega City project at this time, but its officials refused to comment on it, citing the sub judice rule while a case about it is pending in court.
City Vice Mayor Leo Carmelo Locsin Jr., when sought for comment in his office, said the same contention, by refusing to say anything to avoid sub-judice from his part.
Besides, there was a warning on sub judice rule in the judiciary not to discuss the merits of the pending case in public. However, the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the region held a public scoping event about another project, which is obviously a part of the Mega City, even if they denied about it.
EMB-8 chief for clearance and permits division, Hennence Hayag who acted as moderator of the public scoping held at the Ormoc Astrodome, clarified to the people in attendance that the event was not about the Mega City but on the one-hectare Eco-Park to be built near the proposed Mega City.
As part of the legal process leading to the issuance of the ECC, the EMB-8 held the public scoping on May 28 in Naungan Gym where Geospatial Consultants personnel initially tried to block the journalists and some NGO members’ access to the event.
They only said the city’s Eco-Park Project—located in Purok 8, Sitio Quinto Limbo, Brgy. Naungan—is aimed at protect the mangroves in the area, allowing them to thrive, and make a tourist destination out of their beauty. It had its soft opening ceremony on December 21, 2022.
“This is not about the Mega City, of which the oppositors had been allergic about due to unfounded fears that the adjacent mangrove farms shall be affected,” said Hayag to a select crowd, the access of which underwent strict screening from the agency itself, apparently to avoid opposing voices according to some journalists who were initially barred from entering the venue.
It was actually the second public scoping held in Ormoc regarding the Eco-Park that proponents now called as The Suruyanan Eco-Park, which by and large is understood visually, based on its project plan perspective or diagram, as significantly a part of the controversial Mega City.
According to the law, public scoping “is a process used in environmental planning and policy-making to gather input from the public and stakeholders about a proposed project or action. It is typically part of the early stages of environmental review processes, the main goal of which is to identify and clarify the issues, concerns, and potential impacts that should be considered to ensure that the review addresses the concerns of the public and other stakeholders.”
The process of selecting crowd allowed to attend the event was in itself a contradiction to the real purpose of public scoping, according to some NGO officers and journalists who were denied, for a time, to enter the Astrodome and participate.
The public scoping however went as intended and, at its conclusion, there arose the intense objections of the public and other stakeholders against these development projects, arguing that these will destroy the mangrove forests around them.
Two disappointed Naungan residents, Sol and Nora Mellere, bared that many barangay families were already dislocated and their fishing livelihood direly affected because of the partial destruction of the mangroves in their barangay due to these multi-million projects. They said mangroves are shields from devastation of typhoons in the past.
The Geospatial Environment Consultancy Services, consultant of the Eco-Park project, revealed that the Ormoc City LGU already allocated P80 million for the project. “This amount or budget may change during the final implementation of the project,” it said.
Their persistent denial however that the public scoping was only about the Eco-Park, became a source of light moments to the crowd when its power point presentation included photos of the mega-million Mega City project that they had denied beforehand to be a part of the public scoping.
Geospatial project manager, Mirasol Buenavista, quickly saved the embarrassing moment and asked for an apology from the crowd by insisting that they failed to remove the Mega City details and photos in their power point presentation. “We are sorry about this. We committed mistakes and we failed to correct these earlier,” she said.
Jean Justimbaste, desk officer of the Ormoc-based Pagtinabangay Foundation, boldly stood up in the crowd and reminded the scoping organizers that any destruction of mangroves has corresponding penalties.
“We should remember that mangroves are fish sanctuaries based on the country’s fishery laws, and complaints can be filed against the violators,” she declared.
Yoyoy Cala, a member of the Save Ormoc Alac Aggrupation (SOBA), publicly declared that the Suruyanan Eco-Park “is just a bait for the MegaCity project by the Premiumlands.”
“Public interest must reign supreme over big business interests,” said Alac who, while talking, the EMB personnel quickly grabbed the microphone away from him, during the public scoping proper.
Cala, is one of the founding members of SOBA, which consists of NGOs and civil society organizations from Baybay City, and the towns of Merida, Isabel, Albuera, Inopacan, Hindang, Hilongos, Bato, and Matalom, formed years before to save the Ormoc Bay marine environment.
EMB’s Hayag however denied that the Eco-Park is just a front of the real project, the Mega City. He vehemently denied that the scoping was about the bigger project, pending in court.
“No, no, this is not about the Mega City but on the Eco-Park, so we can validate the entire project not to violate environment laws, while the project’s Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) is not yet issued although already being processed, otherwise if they could not comply, then the ECC will not be issued,” he said.
Whatever is their explanation though, it was noted that, sometime on March 2023, the city govt of Ormoc officially launched the Mega City Township project right at Naungan’s Mangrove Eco-Park with City Mayor Lucy, Congressman Richard, and Francis Lloyd Chua, chairman of PMI, and the Chua patriarch, Manuel, for the project’s ground breaking ceremony.
Hayag said the Eco-Park project is one that started in 2020, and had its soft opening in December 2022, also spearheaded by the couple, Mayor Lucy and Congressman Richard. He added that this project, located at sitio Quinto Limbo in Naungan, serves to protect the mangroves in the area, “allowing them to thrive, and make a tourist destination out of their beauty.”
City Mayor Lucy Torres-Gomez said earlier this March, before she and some city officials went on a tour of Singapore, that the Ormoc LGU had to convert a 150-hectare Eco-Park into a Mega City, under its 20-year development plan that seeks to build a “City in Nature.”
The mayor herself said the project encompasses areas covering the villages of Naungan, Lao and San Juan, situated beside an estimated 200-hectare mangrove-protected area. She admitted that the project features residential, commercial, industrial and institutional spaces. For these alone, some observers said it would not be a remote possibility that the vast mangrove areas along the city’s coastline shall be destroyed.
The local government has yet to announce the cost of investment and other details for the development of the Mega City project, which will be built in partnership with PMI, but reports from LGU insiders said that around P800 million is the proposed budget for this, otherwise a quadruple “A” project contractor, such as PMI, will not spend much effort if it involves lesser financial outlay.
Mayor Gomez added: “In the city government’s thrust towards innovation, while preserving culture and nature, the collaboration of the private sectors is also important to bring Ormoc City to reach its full potential—especially in the rapidly changing world. In time, Ormoc will be a city in nature just like Singapore,” almost similar to the words of a mayor in Cebu regarding the transformation of his city also. —Miriam G. Desacada