IBA, Zambales — The 27,000-strong Zambales Provincial Fisherfolks Association (ZPFA), which represents small-scale fishermen in the province, has demanded immediate government action against beach resorts that block their access to the sea and prevent them from engaging in their only means of livelihood.

Waving protest placards in front of the Zambales Provincial Capitol on Tuesday, October 13, ZPFA members said beach resort owners have built illegal structures on the waterfront and treated what is clearly public land as their private domain.

They urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to remove the illegal structures and reopen the beaches for fishermen’s access and public use.

“We won’t tolerate this anymore,” said ZPFA president Paulo Quitaneg, stressing that structures built on the shoreline are illegal under the law.

“Wealthy people build illegal structures along the shore, while poor fisherfolk who belong to the marginalized sector and ought to be protected are denied entry to the beach,” Quitaneg lamented.

“The fisherfolk are here today to speak from the heart, to condemn these illegal structures that block our access to the sea and ask the DENR to take action against them,” he added.

The protesters also said that while they can get a good catch in municipal waters, they can no longer access the sea from resort communities where beach houses have been constructed.

According to Delia Magtalas, a resident of San Narciso town, some resort owners even forbid them from parking fishing boats in front of their establishments because the boats inconvenience their guests.

She said she lost her P75,000 fishing boat this way when resort owners prevented her from docking her boat for needed repairs during the recent typhoon season.

Some residents also bemoaned that some resorts charge entrance fees, even when they only have to pass through the establishments to swim in the area.

Rodencio Edora, vice chairman of the New Masinloc Fishermen’s Association, said the DENR should uphold the fishermen’s rights to access the sea and order the removal of fences and other illegal structures that block the public.

The DENR and the provincial government have repeatedly warned that accreted areas are no-build danger zones because they are unstable and remain unclassified public lands that cannot be legally titled.

In a recent message to the public, Governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. warned resort owners that accreted lands are owned by the State.  “A tax declaration, or a business permit, is not a land title and does not prove ownership,” he said.

According to Zambales Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Marife Castillo, the DENR had declared accretion areas as danger zones in 2008, but sellers and buyers had ignored the agency’s warning.

She said that under a program to delineate foreshore lands and manage accretion areas in Zambales,

the DENR had cited a total of 1,071 occupants and establishments in coastal accretion zones for illegal construction, lack of building permits, and infractions of environmental laws. – Taktikom News & Features