Navotas Regional Trial Court (RTC) recently dismissed a petition opposing the demolition of mussel farms in the city filed by affected residents last June 2024. Residents and Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya)-Navotas fisherfolk condemned the ruling. Together with their lawyers, they filed a motion for reconsideration on August 27 to ask the court to overturn the decision.

Residents and fisherfolk filed the earlier petition against demolition to stop the local government from tearing down their mussel farms and pens. The 400 petitioners asked the court to issue a writ of preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the demolition.

They also urged the court to compel the local government to allow fisherfolk to obtain permits so they could restore the demolished mussel farms and pens.

Thousands of fisherfolk, workers, and vendors in the city lost their livelihood following the demolition of more than 200 mussel farms along Navotas City’s coastline. The demolition began in March 2024 and covered over six kilometers long and three kilometers wide of mussel farms.

Pamalakaya-Navotas has long asserted that the local government carried out the demolition to clear the way for the 650-hectare Navotas Bay Reclamation Project. The project is being pushed by the local government in partnership with Argonbay Construction Company, a subsidiary of Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Corporation.

According to Sentro Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (SENTRA), legal counsel of the petitioners, the local government’s refusal to accept new applications for fish corral permits violates the law and the fisherfolk’s right to due process. They said that the local government rejected their applications despite submitting complete documents.

“The city government must accept and process our mussel farm permits. By continually depriving us of this, they rob us of our livelihood and clearly open the way for the reclamation project,” petitioner and Pamalakaya-Navotas president Romel Escarial said.

Escarial appealed to the Navotas RTC to stand with fisherfolk and to reconsider the reasonable grounds of their petition. “We call on fisherfolk to unite to assert our rights to fishing grounds and to stop destructive reclamation projects,” he added.