"Philippine fishers struggle as LNG ‘superhighway’ cuts through biodiversity hotspot", 20 August 2025

Fishers in the Philippines’ Batangas Bay are struggling to make ends meet and feed their families as nearby coastal areas are developed into a natural gas import hub, …

Families that have been fishing in Batangas Bay for years have been asked by local officials to leave to make way for the expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in the area as the government eyes the development of a shipping “superhighway” for LNG, Aspinwall wrote.

“They told me, ‘Do not be an obstacle to the development of this town,’” Wilma Abanil, a resident of the fishing village of Santa Clara, told …

Jaime Ulysses Gilera, a fisher, said he hasn’t been able to catch much fish, with the waters off Ilijan now inaccessible. He also said sediment from the plant construction have worsened the condition of the nearby corals, which are already bleaching due to climate change…

“There will be a domino effect in the marine environment,” said Jayvee Saco, head of the Verde Island Passage Center for Oceanographic Research and Aquatic Life Sciences at Batangas State University, Lobo.

Saco said that with the sedimentation, rising temperatures and other stresses on the marine ecosystem, “There’s a high possibility of shifting from a coral reef area to a seaweed dominated area.”

Advocacy groups warn that crucial spawning grounds for fish are being heavily affected amid the construction of LNG terminals…

While LNG burning is said to produce less air pollution than coal, it still has a huge carbon footprint across its entire production cycle.

“LNG is not a transition fuel. The carbon intensity is about the same as coal,” Kurt Metzger, head of the energy transition program at Singapore-based Asia Research & Engagement, told Aspinwall.