BATANGAS CITY, Philippines — On a hot October afternoon near the largest oil and gas port in the Philippines, the roar of a nearby natural gas tanker drowned out conversations on the shore. Wilma Abanil and her husband, Joseph Vargas, have called Santa Clara, a fishing village on the shore of Batangas Bay, home for decades. Standing outside a neighbor’s house, the couple explained how their home was destroyed by a tropical storm, Trami, that passed through days before. Storms aren’t the only threat they face. They live in a shipping channel touted by the government as a superhighway for liquefied natural gas. Local officials have repeatedly asked them to leave, to allow for the LNG companies whose plants surround them to expand their operations. “They told me, ‘Do not be an obstacle to the development of this town,’” Abanil says. “We want a simple life, but they say we are an obstacle.” When Mongabay caught back up with Abanil and Vargas in May this year, they still hadn’t been able to save up enough money to rebuild their home. The couple and their seven children have all but lost their main source of income. “There are no fish to catch in this area because of the power plant,” Vargas says. About 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, fisherman Jaime Ulysses Gilera has seen his daily catch dwindle. Off the coast of Mabini, a peninsula world-famous for its muck diving, he says the health of corals has deteriorated since a nearby…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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