Urbanization and Displacement of Farmers

The CALAX or the Cavite-Laguna Expressway is expected to finish this 2023. This highway is predicted to lessen travel time from Laguna to Cavite from two hours to less than an hour, with over 45,000 vehicles passing through each day.

This public-private partnership deal between the DPWH and MPCALA Holdings Inc. under the Manuel Pangilingan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. This project started construction in 2017 after the Aquino administration awarded the project to MPCALA back in 2015.

Despite the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) claiming that the ₱35 billion CALAX project will “solve current traffic congestion” specifically around the Cavite area, this project has also sped up the decline of agriculture in the affected areas such as Imus City.

In the Environmental Impact Assessment report conducted by the DPWH, the CALAX project would eventually lead to “permanent loss of agricultural land” and displacement of establishments and families in the Cavite area. The report likewise showed that the affected area contributed an estimated 40% of the rice production in the province.

In the environmental management plan of the project, construction work should take place after the harvest, and in which the stockpiles should be placed far from productive agricultural lands.

However, according to a journal article published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, this was not the case.

Farmers are being short-changed, being offered meager amounts for their land. Aside from this, they are being uprooted from their homes with no transition to new work, meaning a loss of livelihood and income.

Sources: Rappler, PCIJ