The Faith-based Congress Against Immoral Debts (FCAID) is one with international and national delegates, members of affected local communities (residents, farmers, fishers and indigenous people) in supporting the anti-APECO struggle due to its “exclusive development model” and its violation of the 1987 Constitution on incurring indebtedness without need of the concurrence of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The APECO stretch covers three municipalities: Casiguran, Dilasag and Dinalungan. Formerly known as Aurora Special Economic Zone (ASEZA) in RA 9490, the new APECO law expands the ecozone from 500 to 12,427 hectares, covering more barangays in the municipality of Casiguran such as Dibet, Esteves, San Ildefonso, Cozo and Culat. Farmers, fisherfolks, indigenous peoples’ leaders and the residents have repeatedly raised concerns against the creation of the ecozone due to non-consultation with the officials of APECO and its violations of the CARPER and IPRA laws and some provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

In the Encyclical Letter of Pope John Paul II, “Sollicitudo Rei Socialis” during the 20th Anniversary of Populorum Progressio, it stated that the Social Concern of the church was directed towards an authentic development of man and society, which promote all the dimensions of the human person. Its Article 32 and 33 also said that peoples or nations too have a right to their own full development, which goes beyond economic. However, the need for development cannot be used as an excuse for imposing on others one’s own way of life. “Nor would a type of development, which do not respect and promote human rights – personal, social, economic and political, including the rights of nations and of peoples – be really worthy of man.”

The Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (APECO) insists that it is out to “develop” Aurora for the benefit of the province’s poor. It aims to rake up enough investment to transform the municipality into a “self-sustaining industrial, commercial/trading, agro-industrial, tourist, banking, financial and investment centre with suitable residential areas.”[1] Poverty in three municipalities covered by APECO, it is argued, will be alleviated, employment generated for the province of Aurora, and industrial development spurred throughout the Northeastern Philippines in general.

However, the local communities around the APECO site will be in danger of being or have been forcibly displaced, and their lands, which are either a part of CARPER or an ancestral domain, have become a part of the APECO coverage despite objections from the rightful owners – the farmers and the IPs. In addition, the IPs is forced to stay in core houses of substandard quality. Fisherfolks and their families are also affected since the shorelines for saltwater fishing starting from the southern tip of the peninsula of San Ildefonso going along Casiguran Bay to the opposite shore of the Casiguran Sound measuring 57.4 km are subject to conversion into a freeport.

As for spurring job growth throughout Aurora, the fact is that most of the residents near the area are considered too unskilled for the industries that APECO proposes to introduce. Once dispossessed of their lands, waters, ancestral domains and other livelihood resources, they are in danger of becoming part of the country’s low-end, contractual “floating work force”— who have been repeatedly shown “not to benefit from government projects like the public-private partnership scheme.”[2] As for the alternative livelihood program inside APECO, those who have already begun working for the SEZ have complained to anti-APECO groups of inadequate compensation, irregular and unstable work hours, delayed paychecks and a near-complete absence of other benefits. They retain almost no bargaining power with their employers, and due to the unskilled nature of the work that they perform, are easily replaced should any conflicts between them and the management arise.

“If development is supposed to be for the people of Casiguran, Delasag and Dinalyungan, why is it that the affected sectors and communities were never consulted prior to the passage of Republic Act 9490 now amended as RA 10083? Even local government units of covered barangays were never informed, consulted and considered before the approval of the law,” FCAID Coordinating Committee member Ric Reyes questioned.

“APECO is once more an example of development aggression. The people have become victims, not beneficiaries, treated as mere human resource, not as participants and partners in development,” Reyes added.

APECO encourages indebtedness

In a recently filed case at the Supreme Court, one of the cited violations of the ASEZA/APECO laws was written in Section 12, Powers and Functions of APECO. The ecozone can borrow funds from foreign sources and incur indebtedness without need of the concurrence of the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas. This provision is in direct conflict with Article XII, Section 21 of the 1987 Constitution.

“This is a dangerous idea to toy with because APECO can easily pass on its indebtedness to the national government by using sovereign guarantee like what the many corporations during the Marcos era did. If APECO is really for development, it should not depend on loans for funding its operations. It should not allow passing its debts onto the Filipino people. It should welcome mechanisms for checks and balances and thus follow the provisions of the 1987 Constitution. Let us not allow more immoral debts to emerge from this project that will surely destroy the environment and displace peoples/sectors and communities,” Fr. Edwin Gariguez, NASSA Executive Secretary and FCAID Execom member.

[1]An Act Amending Republic Act 9490, Otherwise Known as the “Aurora Special Economic Zone Act of 2007”. R.A, 10083. 27 July 2009. Laws of the Republic of the Philippines, 2009. Print. 16.

[2]Cellona, Jonathan. “Gov’t urged to aid ‘floating work force.” Business World Online.8 December 2011. Web. 12 February 2012. <http:></http:>