Lawmaker seeks probe of Chinese shore leaseholds

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers —File photo

MANILA, Philippines — Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers on Sunday asked Malacañang to look into the lease by some 80 Chinese-owned firms of shoreline properties in Bataan, Zambales, and Pangasinan from where local fisherfolk were reportedly being shooed away and deprived of their livelihood.

Barbers stressed what particularly needed investigation were the basis and legal protocols used by the local government and national agencies in granting leases to the companies as well as the firms’ actual activities and businesses in the coastal communities.

READ: 5 Chinese nabbed in Bataan now operate dredger in Zambales

The Mindanao lawmaker, who heads the House of Representatives’ quad committee and the panel on dangerous drugs, said he received information from some fishermen in the area about the Chinese-owned firms’ activities.

The veteran legislator said one of his sources told him fisherfolk on the shorelines leased by Chinese nationals were losing their means of livelihood because they were being driven away and barred from passing through the properties.

“If indeed these more than 80 Chinese firms were allowed to lease, operate and ‘exploit’ properties in those coastal towns, who or what government agencies, aside from the local government, have allowed them to operate and what type of businesses they are engaged in?” Barbers said.

He also cited reports on the presence, for nearly three months, of two Chinese-owned ships in waters off Palauig, Zambales. Barbers claimed the activities of the vessels still remain unknown.

“These ships could be engaged in dredging activities, mining, smuggling and possibly drug smuggling. But the concerned law enforcement agencies are doing nothing about them,” he said.

He lamented the supposed inaction on the matter of the concerned local government as well as the local Philippine Coast Guard, Bureau of Immigration, the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.