Korean investor: Resolve black sand mining issue
ECO-TOURISM PROJECT AT RISK
A KOREAN investor who has committed to build several projects in the 264-hectare tourism-industrial park in Lingayen has appealed for the immediate resolution of the issue over the alleged illegal black sand mining in the area.
Kim Moon Gil, president of All Weather Aqua City Philippines, said the stoppage of the separation of black sand from pure sand already going on for months in Barangays Estanza, Sabangan, Malimpuec and Capandanan in Lingayen will have a considerable negative impact on their plans.
The black sand separation is supposed to be part of the groundwork for the 18-hole golf course that the company will build.
Kim, despite being unable to speak English, called a press conference at the Capitol Resort Hotel last Feb. 7 and said through an interpreter, his business partner Kim Dong Pil, that he felt sad that the separation of black sand, also called magnetite sand, has been stopped.
He explained that contrary to allegations, the black sand extraction is by no means intended as a mining operation but a necessary part to build their project.
Aside from the golf course, Aqua City will also set up a hotel with a swimming pool, tree plantation, an amphibian port for sea planes that are expected to fly in and back to Subic, and factories that will manufacture export goods.
Work has been stopped in the area after some residents in the affected barangays filed a complaint against Governor Amado Espino Jr. and other provincial officials before the Ombudsman alleging illegal mining and citing threats to the environment.
A call for an inquiry before the House of Representatives has also been filed.
Kim explained that he was actually the one who sought the removal of black sand otherwise investors would not come in.
“Black sand is no good. It is no good for trees and plants which we intend to plant in most of the areas,” he said in Korean.
He added that several other foreign investors have actually walked away after seeing the area because they were discouraged by the soil composition.
But they, Kim said, saw the potential and believed that the black sand could be addressed.
GROUNDBREAKING
Before the stoppage, Aqua City was already planning to have a groundbreaking ceremony on March 14, during which the company will also showcase one of its products, a moving house intended for export that will be manufactured here.
Aqua City had been in Pangasinan for one year and four months now in preparation for the project.
Kim said he is worried about the delay because it will impact on the loan that his company applied for with a bank in South Korea for the investment.
He said a delay on the project will bear on his company that will have to pay the interests on the bank loan.
The investors stressed that their project will be beneficial to the province with the entry of tourists and employment opportunities at the factories.
The company is eyeing to connect Subic and Lingayen via sea planes they will purchase, thus the need for an amphibian port.
They also intend to strengthen the river embankments to prevent overflows which occur during rains.
The domestic factories, they continued, will be built by the Pangasinan Heavy Industries, which will manufacture, aside from the moving house, boat houses made of bamboo and plastic.
Ming Dong Pil said his company, All Weather National Housing based in Chicago, already ordered 150 moving houses to be marketed in the U.S.
Workers from Pangasinan will be employed for manufacturing the moving houses.
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