STOP US INTERVENTION IN THE ASEAN

photos by May Macapobre

PAMANA(Panaghugpong sa Gagmay'ng Mananagat sa Sugbo) together with FIDEC and other fisherfolk groups denounce US participation in the ASEAN summit by holding a protest on board fishing boats and swimming along the Mactan channel.

photo from Reuters

MEDIA RELEASE
Nov. 28, 2006

STOP US INTERVENTION IN THE ASEAN. US OUT OF SOUTH-EAST ASIA NOW.

We condemn US blatant intervention inthe ASEAN. No less than the DFA and DTI confirmed Pascal Lamy director generalof WTO will be at Cebu during thesummit to urge ASEAN leaders’ assistancein resuming stalled WTO talks.

It is also a clear indication that themoves of WTO is in consonance with USPresident George Bushs’ call for the exploration into the creation of atrans-Pacific, region-wide Free TradeArea of the Asia-Pacific- - reportedlythe largest free-trade agreement ever conceived.

The Bush administration had also signedin 2005 a US-Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN) EnhancedPartnership Agreement (EPA) whose main objectives are to increase security and political cooperation and enhance trade and investment flows as well as strengthening the investment climate inASEAN to encourage US investment in the region.

Such liberalization and integration efforts are less about strengthening ASEAN as an economic and political bloc than they are about allowing US transnational corporations the greatest freedom to locate their investments interms of cheap labor and resources, access to markets and geography.

US-ASEAN EPA led to the signing of a US-ASEAN Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in September 2006 that lays the groundwork for an eventual US-ASEAN free trade agreement. Such an agreement could demand a level of liberalization even higher than that ofthe World Trade Organization (WTO) andthus, cement US economic control over Southeast Asian countries. Southeast Asia is essential to theUnited States (U.S.) for securing its geopolitical and economic interests not only in East Asia and the Pacific but beyond to South Asia, Central Asia andeven West Asia (or the Middle East). A sustained American military presence in the region is indispensable; an economic presence is likewise vital, both for the regional alliances that they underpin and the super profits that they directly generate.

These interests are what motivate theU.S.’ engagement in the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The grouping itself was created by the U.S.as a Cold War line of defense.The U.S. has also become the dominant economic power in the region. In the last five to six years it has overtaken Japan as the region’s biggest source offoreign direct investment (FDI). Total U.S. FDI in the region over the period1995-2003 sums to $35.7 billion or 16.3 percent of total FDI in Southeast Asia--followed by Japan ($28 billion or 12.7 percent of the total) and the UK ($25.8billion, 11.7 percent).

The U.S. is also ASEAN’s largest trading partner where, at $1.2 trillion over the decade 1995-2004, it accounted for 14.7 percent of total ASEAN two-way trade (i.e. import and export) outside Southeast Asia. All these investments have been in the service of creating a FirstWorld-dominated region-wide production base through dispersed industrial enclaves or so-called export processing zones. American, Japanese and European transnational corporations (TNCs) have taken advantage of economic globalization to fragment their production processes across SoutheastAsia and set up firms and domestic enterprises in the form of subsidiaries, affiliates and subcontractors.

Also on the agenda are the approval of a“blueprint” for the proposed ASEANCharter and the creation of a draftingcommittee for this towards completion intime for the 13th Summit in Singapore inDecember 2007. The proposed ASEANCharter aims, among others, to tighten organizational structures and establish more formal decision-making processes which would facilitate the implementation of region-wide interventions.

The Philippines is also pushing to discuss energy security including opening up access to the region’s oiland liquefied natural gas resources;Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines are known to have rich oil and gas reserves. In concrete,Visayan fishermen have experienced this such as what is happening right now; offshore drilling in the protected seascape of Tañon and Cebu Bohol Strait. All these initiatives make it clear what the essential agenda of the 12thSummit is: to increase U.S. military presence and to deepen neoliberal globalization in Southeast Asia.

Executive Committee
Panaghiusa sa Gagmay’ng Mangingisda sa Sugbo
PAMANA Sugbo
09062955971 – (032)256-1365

FIDEC CONDUCTS PRESS CONFERENCE ON GUIMARAS OIL SPILL LAST AUGUST 27, 2006

photo courtesy of Greenpeace

PRESS STATEMENT
MAKE PETRON ACCOUNTABLE. ALL FOR REHABILITATION.

We should not ease our campaign stand that Petron should be held accountable for the worst environmental tragedy that occurs in our water. We should put in mind that there were only 200,000 of the 2.19 million (500,000+ gallons) liters has been released to our seas and the rest of the bunker oil is a 'ticking time bomb' waiting to become our worst nightmare yet. This is a national calamity that needs action and cooperation of the entire nation, while those who are involved should be meted the harshest means possible, there is an immediate need to salvage and surface the tanker.

We condemn Petron Corporation and Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation for repeatedly ignoring international maritime restrictions in its greed for profit, and for refusing to take charge of the critical situation it has wrought. We are likewise holding the government accountable to the Filipino people for the continuing loss of livelihood and marine resources its incompetence has brought about and for allowing the ship captain to continue plying despite possessing an expired license and likewise allowing single-hulled tanker.

Petron should be made accountable for the long-term rehabilitation of the affected marine sanctuaries, mangrove areas, reefs and coastal ecosystem and that the insurance money amounting to 250 million dollars to 300 million dollars should go directly to compensation and rehabilitation of the marine ecosystem. Since more than 3,918 families made up of about 26,000 people were fisherfolk whose catch could not be sold and more than 320 kilometers of coast line, 58 hectares of seaweed, and 454 hectares of mangroves were destroyed by the oil spill.

It is disheartening and we deplore to hear that our national government doesn’t have the expertise to deal with this kind of accident – it seems that they in the government are more concern in ensuring the profiteering of oil corporations. The government must learn from this disaster and put in place policies and create specially trained response personnel to protect the marine environment and millions of Filipinos who rely on them for food and livelihood such as compelling Oil corporations to put up an Oil Spill Trust Fund.

FISHERFOLK NGO TO ASK OIL SPILL AFFECTED COMMUNITY TO TAKE THE ISSUE INTO THEIR HANDS. TO ASK PROVINCE TO INCLUDE CEBU IN IN THE STATE OF CALAMITY.

Press Statement Published August 2006

The Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center Inc. an NGO established during the 80’s is asking the community affected by the massive oil spill to organize themselves and do the necessary actions in protecting their lives and ocean and make Petron, Maritime Development Corporation and government agencies accountable.

Vince Cinches, the Executive Director of FIDEC Inc. in response to the government's earlier confession that it neither has the proper machinery nor the resources to probe or raise the tanker that is causing what is to be the largest oil spill the country has ever experienced said that “It is both a disappointment and a tragedy that a country with the 4th longest coastline in the world is ill-equipped to handle a calamity affecting its seas. This is a renewed manifestation of the government's neglect of development sectors like Science and Technology, focusing its funds and energy, instead on senseless endeavors as the Oplan Bantay Laya and its so-called war on terror”.

“Furthermore, the national government has taken a feeble approach in responding to the disaster and holding the liable parties responsible for the environmental and economic damages their recklessness has caused. Instead of pressuring Petron and Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation to immediately contain and clean up the effects of the spill, and demand the immediate retrieval of SOLAR.
Relief operations must continue to help the people of Guimaras. Petron must also compensate villages for loss of their livelihood, and set up plans to give these communities long-term livelihoods. Instead of making the people in the community janitors for the oil spill. The government must also hold Petron accountable for the long-term rehabilitation of the affected marine sanctuaries, mangrove areas, reefs and coastal ecosystem The impacts of this oil spill on the environment will linger for years, even decades. The government must learn from this disaster and put in place policies that protect the marine environment and millions of Filipinos who rely on them for food and livelihood

"We share the frustration of the local government of Guimaras, the Philippine Coast Guard and Greenpeace for the blatant lethargy of the national government in the face of this 'ticking time bomb'. We condemn Petron Corporation and Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation for repeatedly ignoring international maritime restrictions in its greed for profit, and for refusing to take charge of the critical situation it has wrought. We are likewise holding the government accountable to the Filipino people for the continuing loss of livelihood and marine resources its incompetence has brought about."

He added that they will ask the Provincial Government of Cebu to include Cebu as part of the Calamity area since the spill is threatening Cebu’s already sorry marine situation and it is only a matter of days before the poision from the tanker will reach the northern waters of Cebu.
It is important that the Cebuano community should act together and mobilize the necessary resources and actions to stop the oil from reaching our waters, without easing on the culprit of the tragedy, We reiterate the demand for Petron to immediately raise the ship out of the seabed or pump out remaining oil from its tanks. Unless this is quickly dealt with, there looms the prospect of a bigger catastrophe”.