I honestly didn’t think it was possible to expand a pier without people knowing about it but apparently, the Philippine Ports Authority just did.

Last January 24, a public forum was held in town to debate the port expansion and the dredging of El Nido Town’s harbor. The project has been approved by members of the municipal council but does not have the final Municipal Zoning Clearance.

At present, the town harbor is too shallow to accommodate the huge RoRo (roll on, roll off) barges that can bring more tourists to El Nido, hence the need for the dredging. Members of the municipal council are pushing this project, saying that the arrival of RoRo tourists will bring economic benefits to the town. However, key things to keep in mind:

#1: El Nido Town doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to handle tourists coming via RoRo. The 2-lane roads are only wide enough for 3 tricycles abreast. The jeepney El Nido Resorts uses to transport guests from the airport to the town pier occupies both lanes and almost scrapes the sides of the houses. Can you imagine what will happen once more vehicles come via RoRo? The town doesn’t even have 24-hour electricity yet!

#2: Even if they absolutely insist on having the RoRo despite having no supporting infrastructure, there are other places where you can build the pier, places where you don’t have to dredge. Barangay San Fernando is only about 20-30 minutes from the town, has a deep enough harbor that doesn’t need dredging, and will improve the livelihoods of the barangays north and east (San Fernando, Teniguiban, Villa Paz, Sibaltan, and Mabini) of El Nido town.

#3: The port expansion project and planned dredging have no Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECC), violating the requirements of the Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) of El Nido, the local government unit, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). In fact, the PPA received a Notice of Violation from the DENR-EMB last January 2007 but construction is still ongoing.

The planned dredging site is 650 m x 90 m, covering 51,440.8 square meters, and digging up 110,000 cubic meters of sand. No specific dumpsite for the dug-up sand was mentioned. To maintain the RoRo’s operation, a new round of dredging has to be done every 10 years.

Once the dredging is done, the shoreline will be eaten away at a rate to 10 cm per year. Goodbye Sea Slugs.

Once the dredging is done, the water in front of the town will become cloudy. The suspended sediments will suffocate small planktonic organisms.

The coral at the dredging site will certainly be destroyed. The sedimentation may also suffocate the coral reefs to the left of the dredging site.

It warmed my heart to know that the townspeople who attended the forum voted almost unanimously against (only 2 voted for the project) the port expansion and dredging. The PPA was ordered to stop construction.

The funny thing is, the pile driver was still working when I came back last February 17.