San Felipe, Zambales – With beaches vanishing, resorts collapsing, and livelihoods lost, coastal communities in Zambales are issuing an urgent appeal to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.: immediately suspend all dredging and sand mining activities across the province. The call comes after a devastating erosion event in the coasts of San Felipe that displaced families and destroyed over 30 beachfront establishments—damage now linked to massive dredging vessels operating under the guise of flood control.

At the center of this crisis is DENR Administrative Order No. 13, series of 2019, which authorizes widespread desilting of Zambales’ rivers—Bucao, Sto. Tomas, San Felipe, and San Marcelino—a major flood control project of the DENR which, in reality, is just a program to extract reclamation sand for Metro Manila projects like the Pasay Harbor Reclamation. But locals say Zambales is not a flood-prone province, as its natural drainage is the West Philippine Sea, making the dredging both unnecessary and dangerous.

“If Governor Ebdane does not halt his sand mining activities, the entire coastline of San Felipe, San Narciso, Cabangan, and Botolan will disappear. Where will our people go? Without fishing and tourism, Zambales will become the poorest province in the country,”
— Hai Fernandez, Executive Director, Zambales Ecological Network (ZEN)

A Preliminary Damage Assessment Report from San Felipe Resort Owners Association documents the destruction covering 8 days of two typhoons and three low pressure areas: 

  • 100 meters of shoreline loss in some areas;
  • ₱66 million in structural damages to resorts and homes;
  • Over ₱100 million in tourism revenue lost;
  • Zero income for surf schools and beach-based businesses;
  • 400+ workers affected, 10 families displaced;

“We came here to invest and helped build a vibrant tourism economy. But now we’re being punished because the governor prioritizes the Pasay reclamation over his own province,” — PJ La Viña, Save Our Shores (SOS) Zambales and member of the San Felipe Resorts Owners Association, said. 

In Barangay Sindol, the PhP 100 Million Coastal Road, a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has disappeared like it never existed. 

“It was last year after six months of reclamation sand extraction on the seabed by several Chinese dredging vessels when the Coastal Road started cracking. The road is now part of the deep sea, an area where tourists and locals used to lounge and sell fish. Now, we can’t even fish in our precious fishing grounds and can no longer work in the nearby beach resorts,” —Myra Marinas, a resident of the barangay shared. 

“This is a big crisis like we’ve never faced before. I still have my resort but I have no more business because the beach no longer exists,” —Elezer Requirme, member of Save Our Shores Zambales lamented. 

Environmental experts also warn that dredging has severely disrupted natural sediment flows.

“Massive dredging of the seabed and the river delta creates a sediment deficit that interrupts the longshore drift responsible for replenishing our coastline,” — Philip Camara, Chairperson, Institute of Area Management explained. 

ZEN and allied groups are now calling on the Marcos administration to repeal DAO 13 series of 2019 and to replace it with a scientific, transparent, and community-led sediment management plan, starting upstream near the Mt. Pinatubo crater— not along fragile coastlines.

“We demand accountability. The sea is swallowing our future. If no action is taken, Zambales will become a cautionary tale of environmental collapse enabled by failed policy,” Fernandez concluded.

About ZEN:
Founded in 2021, the Zambales Ecological Network (ZEN) is an environmental NGO committed to protecting biodiversity, defending human rights, and empowering communities in Zambales. Follow them at Facebook: Zambales Ecological Network.