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A Letter to persuade oil exploration be aborted addressed to Australian Prime Minister

Written by bjalba on 15 July 2008

A militant group of fishermen wants Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to “persuade” oil exploration company, NorAsia Energy Ltd, to abort its planned oil and gas exploration in the Visayan Sea and the Cebu-Bohol Strait. A letter to Rudd, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamalakaya ng Pilipinas (National Strength of Movement of Fishers in the Philippines or Pamalakaya) stated that the air and water pollution as well as the noise resulting from the oil exploration would affect fish and other marine life in the area and could result in lean harvests for 100,000 small fishermen in the Visayan Sea.

Provinces straddling the Visayan Sea include Masbate, Biliran, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, and Capiz. That the offshore exploration posed “extreme danger” to the east Visayan Sea, which is a center of marine biodiversity in the Philippines and Southeast Asia...

The content of the letter persistently explains the disadvantage of oil explorations. And that the Prime Minister would personally support and understand the importance of terminating oil exploration agreement in marine biodiversity areas

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