The Palawan NGO Network, Inc. (PNNI), a group of more than 30 non-government organizations and people’s organizations (PO’s) in the province, once again aired their disapproval in splitting Palawan into different provinces.
Through a photo that PNNI posted on their social media page on Feb. 21, Executive Director and advocacy officer Robert “Bobby” Chan and six other members are shown giving a “thumbs-down” hand gesture, accompanied with a statement that “PNNI says ‘No to dividing Palawan.” They are all wearing a white t-shirt with a big and single-word “No!” on it.
The lone photo has also a long caption of which, they reiterate that they oppose the proposal based on the result of the general assembly conducted by the non-government organizations (NGO’s) and people’s organizations (PO’s) few days ago.
“NO! To division ang tinayuan ng Palawan NGO Network, Inc. sa general assembly ng mga NGO’s at PO’s nitong Pebrero 20,” they explained.
The caption also says that during the assembly, several reasons on PNNI’s decision about the division of Palawan had been brought up and they summarized them into four.
Their contentions are, the division of Palawan will only promote lines of dynasties of politicians, may result to the prevalence case of land grabbing, may increase the emergence of plantation inside the forested areas, and most of all, they lambasted the unfair sharing of the province in terms of national wealth as compared to barangay and municipalities.
“Sa ilalim ng division, ang probinsiya ay may share na 60 percent habang ang munisipyo ay 24 percent lamang at ang barangay ay 16 percent,” they exclaimed.
Discussion about this post