Navotas City fisherfolk launched another protest against reclamation projects in Manila Bay on June 8 to mark World Oceans Day. Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya, or National Strength of the Fisherfolk Movement in the Philippines)-Navotas primarily criticized the 650-hectare Navotas Coastal Bay Reclamation Project.

The local government is pushing through with the reclamation project with its partner Argonbay Construction Company, a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) owned by comprador bourgeois Ramon Ang. The reclamation is believed to be linked to the New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, also an SMC project.

Pamalakaya-Navotas said the reclamation project endangers the rights, livelihood, and lives of residents in the city. It carries threats of eviction, worsening floods, and continuous environmental destruction. The local government dismantled hundreds of mussel farms in March 2024 in Navotas City for reclamation purposes. This covered more than six kilometers long and three kilometers wide of mussel farms.

“Our families have had almost nothing to eat for more than two years since our mussel farms were removed because of reclamation. The primary livelihood at sea must be restored and these destructive projects must finally be stopped,” Pamalakaya-Navotas president Romel Escarial said.

Meanwhile, the fishers also criticized the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) for pushing for two reclamation projects in Manila Bay to proceed. The reclamation project in Bacoor City and the 318-hectare Manila Waterfront City reclamation have both been under suspension since August 2023.

Pamalakaya national chairperson Fernando Hicap said “the PRA is scrambling to push reclamation forward and is disregarding the existing suspension and the studies of experts on its harmful effects.” He said the agency should be dismantled for being an instrument of widespread destruction of fishing grounds and marine resources.

In April 2025, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources released the study of the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UP MSI) and Marine Environment and Resources Foundation (MERF) on the harmful impacts of reclamation in Manila Bay. “The damage caused by reclamation to the livelihood of many fishers in Manila Bay has not ended. Even the widespread flooding in Metro Manila and nearby provinces is caused by these projects,” Hicap said.