Today, we are one with environmental advocates who rejoice at the news that San Miguel is pulling out of the Pasig River Expressway Project (PAREX). But as with public pronouncements, as long there is no withdrawal of permit applications and environmental compliance certificate (ECC), rest assured that this development will be taken with a grain of salt.
PAREX is just one of the many projects of San Miguel that pillage the environment and harm people and the environment. In Batangas, fishers and communities have long expressed their objection to San Miguel Corporation’s subsidiary Excellent Energy Resources Inc. (SMC-EERI) and its 1.75 GW liquefied natural gas power plant. This project is a grave threat to the marine life-rich Verde Island Passage, considered to be the center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity in the world, and further risks and affects the livelihood of communities who depend on it. There have been several complaints asking the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to suspend the ECC of the said project but this has fallen on deaf ears.
San Miguel, as the biggest expansionist of gas in the country and even in Southeast Asia, cannot be rid of its role in the worsening climate impacts and the destruction of our environment if it does not halt its fossil fuel projects. SMC's newly announced 3.3B LNG facility is a betrayal of its own sustainability targets.
If Ramon Ang is indeed ‘very sensitive to the opinion of the public’, we urge him to heed the call of the people and stop the destruction of the Verde Island Passage and the lives and livelihood that depend on it.