The fear of the unknown is preventing the progress that could bail them out of poverty. Impoverished folks in three Panglao villages said the imagined destruction of the marine resources is becoming the obstacle to their deliverance from poverty. “Our officials in connivance with those who have vested interests are blocking the progress of our town,” the concerned residents noted. They pointed out that the strong lobby against the proposed reclamation project is premised only on their unverified claims and nothing more. “They claim that the reclamation project will destroy the environment. What is their proof?” the villagers said. This could have been proven if the environmental study was conducted. However, the residents said it is now very clear that the said study will not push through. “The same people who claim that the project will destroy the environment are the same people who do not want the truth to come out,” one villager declared. He noted that if the destruction is very certain as the critics of the project want people to believe, they will be the ones who want the study to push through and not the ones who are preventing it.

“The claim that the project will be environmentally destructive is at best debatable,” a resort owner who has since changed his position from critic to passive supporter. The owner said that a project in itself is neither good nor bad but depends on how it will be managed. “There are reclamation projects in many countries and there is no complaint that they destroyed the environment,” the source said. On the other hand, he said that a seemingly harmless project like a tennis court at the Garcia Park in Tagbilaran has resulted in destruction because many trees were cut in the process. The source added that the environmental study would have been a very good basis to determine the effects on the environment of the proposed rehabilitation project. “I join many people who are getting impatient over the delay in the conduct of the study,” he added. One of the residents claim the ploy to prevent the conduct of the environmental study is actually intended to discourage the proponents.

“What they are actually doing is depriving us of the opportunity to get out of poverty which the project would have given to us,” the resident added. He said there would have been no problem if the government officials and the resort owners would be able to give them concrete alternatives. “Unfortunately, they have not done anything to alleviate our misery until this time,” the villager added. Another resident in another village went as far as accusing government officials who have opposed the project of hypocrisy. “If they are really concerned about the environment, all they need to do is open their eyes to many incidents of environmental destruction that are on-going,” he added. Instead, the fisherman said the government has not done anything about these violations. The villagers argued that if there is anybody who is more concerned about the environment, that would be them. “We live here and we have no other place to go to so we will do everything to make sure that our town will be safe to live in,” they added. On the other hand, they said many of those professing concern for the environment in Panglao are merely “transients” who will move out when the tourism industry takes a hit. “That explains why they do not care about the harmful environmental practices that are going on even as they try to frighten us with the supposed dangers of the reclamation project,” a leader of a fisherman’s organization declared.