DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 04 May) — If you have heard enough or read enough about the Samal Island Davao Connector (SIDC), AND you are sure you know all the facts (facts are true) it’s ok to stop reading. If you would like to know the truth, please give this piece about ten minutes of your time.
Here are the top ten truths about the SIDC.
Take the quiz!
10. What you can see today, if you are gawking from the ferry, a pumpboat, the Azuela promenade, or one of many seaside establishments, IS NOT the BRIDGE! It’s a craneway. It is a temporary structure used in civil engineering to offload heavy equipment (cranes, giant drills, cement mixers, pulley systems, etc.) and materials (steel posts, rebar, cement, scaffolding, etc.) shipped in from China. YES, CHINA.
TRUE
9. China has, this past decade, swarmed atolls, coral reefs, and sandbars within our 200km Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), using Coast Guard Vessels and militia boats (i.e. their own fishing trawlers), while preventing Filipino fisherfolk from catching what is rightfully theirs to catch. In the process they have destroyed many of our marine resources, built military establishments, and renamed the WestPhilippine Sea as the South China Sea.
TRUE
8. The Craneway is NOT a product of Philippine Engineers (our very own Department of Public Works and Highways) but is being directed, managed, and constructed (except for welders, day-laborers, and security guards) by Chinese nationals employed by China Road and Bridge Corporation.
TRUE
7. The Republic of the Philippines entered into a loan agreement with guess who? CHINA! For 23,000,000,000 pesos (lotsa zeroes huh?) , payable by you, your children, your grandchildren, and probably your great-grandchildren.
TRUE
6. A bridge connecting Samal Island to the Mainland is long overdue and is necessary for the economy, welfare, and progress of both Samal and the Davao region.
TRUE
5. The DPWH did not have a complete Detailed Design and Engineering Plan when the Environmental Compliance Certificate wad issued. A traffic management plan for R. Castillo corner J. P. Laurel was not provided to the Davao City Council at the time the City agreed to the project.
TRUE
4. The coastal zone, intertidal zone, fore-reef, and reef directly off Barangay Hizon is a Marine Protected Area, so the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) should never have accepted proposals to build there.
TRUE
3. Samal Island itself was declared a National Integrated Protected Area Sanctuary (NIPAS) by Ferdinand Marcos Senior by his Executive Order and such an order has to be reversed by an Act of Congress.
TRUE
2.The present craneway is built directly on top of the southern tip of a valuable, centuries old coral reef known as Paradise Reef, a crucial source of livelihood for generations of Samalenos.
TRUE
- All the corals underneath the craneway and in an adjacent margin alongside of it are now dead, and DPWH, DENR, and Philippine Coast Guard have done nothing to intervene. CRBC managers live high on the hog in Samal and Davao City, driving Toyota Fortuners and Land Cruisers paid by your taxes.
TRUE
Know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
Dedicated to Paulo Bergoglio, who took the name Francis as lover of the environment.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Dr. John Michael Lacson is a Davao-based marine biologist who has been actively monitoring the SIDC project and its impact on the marine ecosystem).
