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Pamalakaya rejects plan to turn Taal Lake fishers into cultural hosts and performers for tourists

Pamalakaya rejects plan to
turn Taal Lake fishers into cultural hosts and performers for tourists

The fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday rejected the national and local government plan to transform fishermen and their families into cultural hosts and performers for visiting tourists in Taal Lake.

In a press statement, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said Malacañang through the Department of Tourism (DoT) and local government officials are persuading lake fisherfolk and dwellers to work as “ cultural attaché” for tourists in vain attempt to shift their livelihood from fishing to cultural hosting, posing as tourist guides and perform native cultural shows before their tourist guests.

The move will divert local livelihood to allow the “ conversion of Taal Lake and its surroundings as a major tourist destination under the Metro Taal-Tagaytay development project.

“ Tourists are always welcome to integrate with us and know our simple dreams and ordinary conviction in life. The cruel intention of this cultural drama is to divert the attention of fisherfolk from the lake and pave the way for the massive encroachment of agri-business and corporate tourism project in Taal lake”, Hicap said in a press statement.

“ The government wants to change us from productive forces to cultural hosts and performers in the name of their transnational clients dressed in tourist suites. This corporate takeover of Taal Lake deserves wholesale condemnation of the Filipino people, nothing more, nothing less”, the militant leader added.

Hicap said the corporate agenda of the national government and the local government units in Cavite and Batangas is to convert the municipalities surrounding Taal Lake into eco-tourism and agro-industrial parks under the Metro Taal-Tagaytay Development Plan (MTTDP) which was introduced in 1993 by former President Fidel Ramos.

In 1993, the Presidential Commission on Taal and Tagaytay was established as a policymaking body in-charge of implementing the MTTDP and the corresponding master plan for the development plan. The integrated master plan for Taal and Tagaytay started in 1993 and expected to wind up by 2013. The plan would cover the upland towns of Silang, Amadeo, Mendez, Alfonso and Tagaytay in Cavite, 11 lake towns of Batangas namely Balete, Talisay, Laurel, Agoncillo, San Nicolas, Santa Teresita, Cuenca, Lipa City and Mataas na Kahoy.

“ The Manila government and its local government units in Cavite and Batangas will sell Taal Lake to the highest bidder in the name of eco-tourism and agro-industrial interests and not for the common goal and general welfare of farmers and fisherfolk around the Taal Lake. President Arroyo and her cabal of corrupt officials will deny this to high heaven but the truth will always find a way to tell the real score to the public”, Pamalakaya said.

Data obtained by Pamalakaya revealed the extent of the projects and how these projects would affect farmers and fisherfolk families dependent on Taal lake resources:

· Green Square Properties Corp. plans to develop 611 hectares of upland areas in Barangay Sta. Maria and another 50 hectares in Barangay San Gabriel for its Las Haciendas project that would displace 1,745 farmers and fishermen

· The JAKA group of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, Fil-Invest and Sta. Lucia Realty Corp. are planning to develop a 300 hectare first class subdivision and golf course in Barangay Dayap Itaas and Paliparan in Laurel town.

· The Belle Corporation will construct a racetrack and a first class subdivision in the 150-hectare upland areas in Barangay Tumaway, Talisay, Batangas.

· Another Belle Corporation project this time in Barangay Maria Paz, Tanauan that will entail the conversion of 198 hectares of agricultural lands into an Asean Village that would include golf courses and first class subdivisions.

· The Department of Tourism will create a national park, a tourism receiving and information center also in Taal Lake that would be constructed in the 2,500 hectare area located in Isla Pulo and nearby barangays in Tanauan, Batangas.

Pamalakaya said a total of 4,691 hectares of agricultural lands situated along Taal Lake had been earmarked for conversion for tourism purposes under the MTTDP. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:40 | link | comments |

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