METROPOST


JULY 18 - JULY 24, 2021 9


Statement of opposition to the ‘smart city’ reclamation project


By the Students toward Environmental Welfare & Research for Development and Sustainability (STEWaRDS)


STEWaRDS, a student organization of the undergraduate and graduate programs (Marine Biology, Environmental Science, Environmental Polic y, and Coa stal Resource Management) of the Institute of Environmental & Marine Sciences of Silliman University, joins the call of Silliman’s distinguished scientists to oppose the building of artificial islands in the vicinity of Dumaguete City’s coastal waters. We give this statement on behalf of the youth and young science professionals. Dumaguete City prides itself as a University Town. STEWaRDS has been fortunate to have Dumaguete’s rich


or the mountainsides. F urt hermore, t he uncertainty of source and the type of reclamation fillers to be used raises doubts on the stability of sediments, and the foundation of the artificial islands. An important feature of this project is shoreline protection against strong waves generated by seasonal perturbations and typhoons so that destruction from these events will be mitigated. This stems from experiences of the City during recent typhoon events notably TD Sendong in 2011. This is commendable, and we fully agree that we must step up to ensure that minimum damage


more than 200 species of reef fishes, most of which are targeted by artisanal fisherfolks in the area. This proposed expansion will bury approximately 36.2 hectares or 60.58 percent of the remaining coral reefs in Dumaguete.


Four marine protected areas in Dumaguete, two of which are categorized as having 33- 44 percent hard coral cover, will be decimated should this project be implemented. Dumaguete City will suffer the loss of vital ecosystem services that this habitat offers. Banica River. A significant proportion of the freshwater fish fauna in the Banica River are amphidromous --


results of the new census. For Dumaguete City, it tallied a new population figure of 134,103 as of May 2021, roughly a two percent increase from the old census of 2015, when Dumaguete registered a figure of 131,377 people. I’m not an economist, so


O


I won’t even dare go into deep interpretive mode about the nuances of population growth in connection to the economy—but even the most casual observer of these trends


IAN ROSALES CASOCOT


TEMPEST IN A COFFEEMUG


icasocot@gmail.com


n 13 July 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority released the


businesses do not really take into account the cultural readiness of a place and the specific mindset of its people when they decide to go ahead and stake their claim on new territory. Sometimes businesses fall flat on their faces because of this.


the local hospitality industry. Business people in Dumaguete know there is a dire need for new hotels and new restaurants in our fast-growing City, which has been catering to a significant increase of tourists and business people coming


Take note, for instance,


customers. And when they first opened, they sure did attract hordes of people.


But ultimate success in Dumaguete is measured in terms of the long game that is governed by local idiosyncrasies, and locals invariably rejected both. Tree Hive Food Hub and Chapters Café just did not jibe with the Dumaguete mentality and notorious pickiness—both had bad food wrapped in shiny gimmick the proprietors must have thought could hoodwink the locals, a no-no for the Dumagueteño, and the


Notes on a growing city Part 1


would know that the index of growth [whether of an increase or decrease] in the population of a place bodes something significant to the economic status of that place, and in a sense, also measures the attraction of that place to potential economic migrants and investors. Simply put, one goes where the money goes.


Mall developers and business franchises, for example, take note of specific population markers before they decide to open branches in a new locality. When RobinsonsPlace


to town for conventions and what-not.


There is also a native population with a comfortable middle class who have money to spare, and boredom to dissipate. You would think that any new restaurant and any new hotel would have a surefire entry into the City, given these factors. But not always.


Dumaguete opened on 9 November 2009—12 years ago—it significantly meant that Dumaguete was now big enough to sustain such an all-encompassing business enterprise as a mall.


At least, this is how numbers talk. But I’m sure these


coastal waters as its living laboratory, and has participated in biological and socio-economic assessments of various government and non-government projects in the City, Province and greater Central Visayas region. It is with the knowledge gained from our academic training and field exposure that we provide the following bases for opposing the proposed 174-hectare “Smart City” reclamation project.


Impacts on coastal features Reclamation projects cause landscape fragmentation, wherein ecologically- interconnected coastal ecosystems that complement each other are separated into isolated parts. The proposed “Smart City” will bury highly-productive coastal areas, resulting in the fragmentation of the remaining coastal ecosystems. The flow of different biological processes among these areas will cease, as they will effectively be isolated from one another, causing further degradation. Since land reclamation activities are built in coastal space, it will alter the sea bottom topography, which will consequently change the hydrodynamics of the area, causing sedimentation and inshore current systems to be modified, with detrimental effects on the surrounding coastal communities and marine life.


threat to the area beyond the reclamation site, as sedimentation cycles will be disrupted and may be altered. Disturbance and heavy maritime traffic during the construction, and the presence of the proposed yacht club will exacerbate coastal erosion which may negatively impact the surrounding ecosystems. We estimate it would require approximately six million cubic meters of sand to serve as infillers. Such volume would imply the displacement of a large portion of the seafloor


Erosion also poses a large


will be incurred in future catastrophic events.


that these recent massive and catastrophic events are not isolated, and that the southern tip of Negros is not within most typhoon’s tracks. Typhoons are indeed getting stronger and more frequent because of the global crisis of climate change, but the solution is simple: protect coastal ecosystems to build climate resilience of coastal communities.


Approximately 50 percent of all seagrass species in the Philippines can be found along Dumaguete’s coast.


Impacts on marine life Seagrass ecosystem.


This proposed expansion of the coastal stretch of Dumaguete will decimate as much as 36 hectares of seagrass beds, or 62.5 percent of the total seagrass in Dumaguete. Not only is this a reduction


of local biodiversity, it is also a major reduction in our natural capacity to offset global carbon concentration. Seagrass habitats also store more carbon than rainforests at equal scales. This means that one hectare of seagrass bed is 35 times more effective than a forest of the same size. This is equivalent to losing


approximately 1,260 hectares of rainforest, or about a third of Dumaguete City’s existing land area.


of the most vital, diverse, and productive of marine ecosystems, and provide numerous ecosystem services: from acting as shelter to several species of marine organisms, to coastal protection by acting as natural breakwaters, and an important source of food and livelihood for coastal communities. There are approximately 600 species of corals in the Philippines, which is home to 1,791 species of reef-associated fishes. The patches of coral reefs in Dumaguete alone support


Coral reefs are one However, we point out


an important stage in their life cycle is in the sea, which requires unobstructed access to the marine environment. The proposed island in front of the mouth of the Banica River will likely impede and disrupt the normal migration pattern of freshwater fishes, particularly the diverse gobies locally known as bunog or biya. Gobies inhabit much of the Banica River, from the mouth to as far as Casaroro Falls. They can climb boulders and waterfalls to find their suitable habitat. All the gobies that can be found in Valencia pass through all the obstacles along the River, including the dredging, quarrying, and barriers along the way. These fishes increase the biodiversity and biomass in upland freshwater systems, provide unparalleled resources for upland biodiversity, and facilitate long term equilibrium in freshwater ecosystems. Mangroves. The extensive mangrove stand in barangay Banilad will be effectively cut off from the open coastline due to the island reclamation. Mangroves are the only group of plants that can tolerate the marine environment. The established island will likely interrupt the movement of seawater over these mangrove areas, and may potentially cause die-offs.


important source of food for many local communities in the Philippines. Gleaners benefit from


Impacts on fisheries, livelihood Coastal fisheries is an


I remember two recent restaurants who tried to make their mark in Dumaguete— and ultimately failed: there was Tree Hive Food Hub along Veterans Avenue, and there was Chapters Café along Calle Sta. Catalina, both of which opened their doors in 2017. Their respective structures gimmi cky an d


we r e


Instagrammable—one was a multi-story space built like a tree house, and the other was a wonderland of books—and they were designed in such a way that was sure to entice


DR. EFREN N. PADILLA iLearn efren.padilla@csueastbay.edu


S AN FRANCI SCO, CALIFORNIA -- After reading the news in the past week that Catholic churches were burned to the ground in Canada’s indigenous land, it reminded me of the saying “some old wounds never truly heal”. In the wake of the


discovery of the remains of hundreds of children in the grounds of former Catholic boarding schools, the fuse of inter-generational trauma that colonization inflicted upon the Native Americans was ignited once more. What is the boarding school?


This was created by church missionaries and government functionaries to forcibly convert Native Americans to Catholicism, and assimilate them into the dominant white society.


Canada’s boarding school system which was first opened by


harvesting edible invertebrates such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers from seagrass beds, as well as seaweed like lato. Artisanal and small-scale


fishers in Dumaguete are engaged in coastal and pelagic fisheries using a variety of fishing gears (hook and line, spearfishing, fish nets, fish pots, and fish traps).


Fish catch monitoring records show economically- valuable pelagic and reef- TO PAGE 11


Roman Catholic missionaries in 1828 was eventually closed down in 1997. Initially buttressed by the passage of the 1876 Indian Act, 130 boarding schools were built between that time which were run and managed by the Catholic church or the federal government. It is estimated that a total of more than 150,000 Inuit and Métis children were forcibly removed from their families, and relocated to boarding schools hundred of miles away from their families.


abuse were not uncommon experiences for these children. Many died from homesickness, working accidents, uncontrolled diseases, and ill-planned escape attempts. It is estimated that more than 6,000 children died in their places of relocation, never to see their families again. At the boarding school, children were forced to remove indigenous cultural signifiers such as cutting their hair,


Physical, verbal, and sexual


making them wear school uniforms, prohibiting them from speaking their indigenous languages, and replacing their tribal names with English or French names, sometimes derived from Catholic saints under some religious orders. As a result, it contributed to a general loss of indigenous languages and cultures—a form of cultural genocide, so to speak. Interestingly, the Canadian


history of the boarding school system had its counterparts in Australia and the U.S. All of them espoused the ideology of Manifest Destiny—the justification that colonial expansion is a God-given right to remake the world as the colonizers saw fit.


With the passage of 1905 Aborigines Act in Australia, the guardianship of aboriginal


parents was legally removed via parens patriae that turned their children as wards of the state. It is estimated that a total of about 100,000 children were forcibly removed from their parents, and relocated to boarding schools run by church missions and government functionaries to assimilate them into accepting the white people’s religious belief and value systems.


1980s that the termination of the removal of Aboriginal children from their families earnestly commenced, and the boarding school system closed.


It was not until the mid-


In the U.S., the forced assimilation of the Native Americans into the dominant white society is succinctly exemplified by the ideology of Gen. Richard Henry Pratt who said: “…the only good Indian is a dead one…I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”


Indian Civilization Act, the U.S. established 357 government- funded, and often church-run, boarding schools in 30 states. It is estimated that between 1869 and the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were forcibly removed from their families, and sent to boarding schools to “christianize” and “civilize” them. It was not until 1978, with the passing of the Indian Child Welfare Act, that parents gained the legal right to refuse their children’s placement in boarding schools.


With the passage of the 1819 The colonial wound


As a result, many boarding schools were closed down in the 1980s and early 1990s. Currently, the remaining 60 boarding schools have been taken over, and managed by tribal groups within their territories.


shedding off the legacy of the colonial past is a painful and a difficult task to deal with, I am glad to hear that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops is planning to organize a meeting between Pope Francis and groups of Indigenous People. Definitely, there is a need to address the festering colonial wound and the role of the Catholic Church in breaking the most sacred and fundamental ties of parent-child bond, as well as to respond to the on-going effects of inter-generational trauma among Native Americans.


Although


In hindsight, I wish that we could have left them alone. But it’s daydreaming on my part. Like having no control over the cards we’re dealt with in life, the lived experiences of our species rise and fall with the vagaries and vicissitudes of history. Still, I daydream. After all,


gimmicks themselves [which made good Instagram posts] were so shallow, the picky Dumagueteño could easily see right through them. (We are so picky that I remember one Manila-based music producer once claiming that if you find success in Dumaguete, you’re sure to find success elsewhere in the Philippines.) We may be “gentle” and all that—but we are secretly vicious in selectively embracing anything that tries to join our community fabric. Personally, as a native born Dumagueteño, I knew both those places were doomed from the very start. You would think that as a writer, I’d take to the book gimmick of Chapters Café like a charmed customer, and think it a worthwhile addition to a place that likes to think of itself as a “city of literature.”


Nope, I found the food TO PAGE 12


those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.


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