Feb 10, 2012
It’s More Fun Without APECO – A Call for Solidarity with the Struggle of the People of Casiguran
February 2012
Dear Friends, Supporters and Fellow Advocates,
We, from the Prelature of Infanta and Task Force Anti-APECO, are hoping for your solidarity with our latest efforts to stop the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO). Since 2007, we’ve been campaigning against the construction of this ecozone in the town of Casiguran, Aurora.
This February, we’re launching a social media platform entitled “It’s more fun in Aurora, without APECO” to spread word and to reach out to sympathetic groups. Beyond APECO itself, this platform will highlight the negative impact of special economic zones and their underlying development model on the poor, showcasing concrete grassroots alternatives to APECO, in Casiguran and beyond.
If completed, APECO will sequester 12,923 hectares of the municipality’s landscape to lure foreign investors, real estate projects and other private sector ventures to Casiguran. Its sponsors have said that these initiatives will “modernize” Aurora, providing jobs that will uplift the province’s poor.
But to do this, APECO will displace the very people it claims it will benefit. More than three thousand families of farmers, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples will have their lands and resources seized by the Freeport, even if no consultations were ever conducted with them. Just as disturbing, APECO’s port will be built in the natural habitat of endangered species such as whale sharks and pawikans.
If you’re committed to seeing the law creating APECO repealed and a more people-centred, equitable, and ecologically-rooted development model adopted in the Philippines, we’re warmly inviting you to follow (“like”) us at the following websites and venues:
- Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-More-Fun-in-Aurora-Without-Apeco/247048898709191
- Youtube Page: http://www.youtube.com/user/Morefunwithoutapeco?feature=mhee
- General Information Page: https://www.focusonpoverty.org/category/campaigns-and-initiatives/its-more-fun-in-aurora-without-apeco/
What’s happening in Casiguran and APECO, we believe, is a microcosm of what’s happening in the entire Philippines. Beyond supporting our social media platform, we’re highly encouraging you and your organizations to issue public statements against APECO, or to stage solidarity film showings on the APECO issue. In the past, we’ve been able to have filmmakers such as Ditsi Carolino produce wonderful documentaries on the APECO issue— it’s these documentaries that we can share with you in your respective areas.
For more information about the anti-APECO struggle, about what kinds of statements you can write, and about arranging these possible film screenings, you’re welcome to to email us at [email protected], or reach us at any of the websites listed above.
Thanks for reading, and we’re hoping for your support and solidarity. The future of Casiguran, and those who will be affected by APECO hangs in the balance.
Sincerely,
The Prelature of Infanta
Task Force Anti-APECO