THE PROPOSED P7.8 billion Boracay Bridge, which would ease global and local tourists in the resort famous for its white sand beaches, is undergoing one of the worst communication crisis with the stakeholders, represented by Aklan Gov. Jose Enrique Miraflores, who claimed to have succeeded in convincing the bridge proponent/executor SMC Holdings president/CEO Ramon S. Ang to cancel his project. In a press release, SMC Holdings flatly denied.
Obviously, someone is telling a big lie. The way people look at it, this is not coming from the small and ill-equipped island people but from the powerful and moneyed conglomerate in Metro Manila – which lately has also been lambasted for the cutting of trees along Quirino Avenue, Manila to give way to the subway and perhaps in Palawan also.
‘The people of Boracay … have been appealing to the President to discontinue the bridge, which will only destroy the livelihood of the boatmen, the small businesses, and most importantly, the marine ecosystem and the entire environment of the province.’
Our country is now being run and owned by just a few rich and influential people and no one in Malacañang or the bureaucracy– with its immense power and resources– would dare confront. Is it because those in power now are beholden to a few rich oligarchs who financed their way to power?
The people of Boracay, including the Boracay Chambers of Commerce and Industry, have been appealing to the President to discontinue the bridge, which will only destroy the livelihood of the boatmen (who ferry people from the main province of Aklan to any of the three stations of Boracay), the small businesses, and, most importantly, the marine ecosystem and the entire environment of the province.
MORAL OBLIGATION
As one journalist– Joel Paredes– posted on his FB page: “if Mr. Ramon Ang is genuinely as patriotic and caring as he is projected to be in public, he should realize that even within a “free market,” he has moral obligations that go far beyond mere profit. Hopefully, gone are the days when corporations could simply circumvent the law to the point of defying nature itself.”
”We have already seen how the public reacted to his planned felling of trees to accommodate a modern skyway. This time, he is insisting on pushing forward with the P7.78 billion bridge project his company proposed to connect the mainland to Boracay Island,” he added.
This persistence comes despite Aklan Governor Joen Miraflores’ pronouncement that the project will no longer proceed, following intense backlash from local residents concerned over fragile marine ecosystems and the destruction of local boatmen’s livelihoods.
Mr. Ang has attempted to justify the venture, highlighting it as a proposed public-private partnership (PPP) that his firm won through a competitive challenge process. Yet, the project only secured its footing in the first place because of Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon’s nod.
Ang seems to remain the villain in a province ravaged by unprecedented flooding, which many blame on his massive aerotropolis project—even if there is already a laundry list of other environmental degradations to account for.
”No, sir, we cannot simply return to the days of unabated corporate lobbying that, with a little help from political friends, ravaged the beautiful greenery we were once proud of. We are entering an era where there will always be dissent, because enough is enough,” Paredes concluded.
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