Pollutant

ILOILO CITY- The American speaker who I mentioned in the preceding article entitled “Disaster” continued lashing at the “unpreparedness” of people in the countries severely affected by natural disasters. He did this while announcing his credentials being a global expert in disaster risk management for 38 years now.

Right after the foreigner wrapped up his more than 30-minute talk, the lady moderator asked for comments and questions from us-- the audience who have been tightly squeezed inside the congested hall. In a matter of seconds, former Sen. Heherson Alvarez of  Climate Change Commission stood up and announced his admiration to the speaker.

But before his admiration could sink in, his tone immediately twisted to emphatically criticize the first world’s huge emission of carbon dioxide that is primarily responsible for the excessive warming of the earth, melting glaciers and eventually causing the irregular increase of water levels at a global scale.

“You should reduce your emission if you are genuinely concerned of abetting future mega disasters,” was in effect what Alvarez wanted to tell the speaker who seemed to overlook the real causes of the natural tragedies  that hit several places of the world. First world’s carbon emission is placed at 80 percent while 20 percent is shared by second world and third world countries, according to Alvarez's figures.   

This line of Alvarez reminded me of the article I read from the Internationalist magazine while I was still inside prison in 2010. The article, which title I forget now, analyzed which contributed how much to global warming. It argued that it is the first world particularly its giant corporations that are truly responsible in the destruction of the earth’s ecological balance at its present horrendous proportion in pursuit of profit.

With this level of culpability, the first world should lead in the rehabilitation efforts for mother earth, the article further noted.  As response to the challenge,  first world  governments are giving incentives to companies that meet carbon emission standards, among others.

 This effort and other similar regulations are laudable.

But what we need is more than carbon emission regulation. What we need is the protection of the remaining resources we have from being continually exploited  and the restoration of those that have been ravaged in the name of profit.

I wonder if  environmental rehabilitation and protection can go hand in hand with the Capital’s inherent drive for super profits. I learned that  no matter what the costs could be, Capital is innately willing to go as long as huge profit  is assured. 

Masterpiece

I read somewhere that agriculture is also an art, besides being a science. I didn't quite get it until I meet Nong Tiloy, the farmer.

Nong Tiloy considers the land as a wide canvass on which his dream of abundance is being painted. In silence, he tills his field with utmost care so that crops would grow and bear fruits for his family and for the community. He ensures that the crops are arranged in a way that the soil fertility is maintained and enhanced. He is quick to see areas that are prone to erosion and he plants right away madre de cacao to prevent a land slide. When piangaw attacks his upland rice he ignores them at first. When he senses that their presence gets damaging, he sprays them with pesticide made of panyawan, sili kulikot, luy-a, suka and tabako. 

He plants rose, gumamela and many other flowers in between tangkong, lemon grass and other vegetables and fruit trees. Every morning he wakes up early to the call of his hungry chickens. Their number is huge, enough to cover his entire lawn. At the lower portion of his little field, not less than 100 maturing tilapia fish compete to take the feeds broadcasted by his 11-year old son Simon.

While Nang Bilay returns home after washing clothes at the nearby creek with Inday Mely, Nong Tiloy pours steaming corn coffee on five cups on the dining table that holds newly cooked denurado rice, sinugbang bulad, kangkong salad and a bowl of boiled native chicken eggs.

 "Mangaon na ta!" Nong Tiloy calls me to join them.

It’s a hearty meal, incomparable to any meals at the leading fast-food chain in the cities. The meal, dipped in deep conversation about Nong Tiloy's farm and his family does not only feed my stomach, it does to my mind as well.

Now, I like to paint on the same canvass which Nong Tiloy mounts his masterpiece on.

Ang Atong Panguil Bay

Ang Panguil Bay giila nga usa sa pinakabahandianon nga tinubdan sa isda, kinhason, alimango, ulang, mga nagkadaiyang tanom sa dagat ug daghan pang uban.

 Nabuhi gikan sa iyang kamanggihatagon ang liboan ka mga lumulopyo sa tulo ka probinsiya sa Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental ug Zamboanga del Sur. Partikular nga nakapahimulos (ug tingale midaot usab niya) ang mga lungsod sa Tambulig, Bonifacio, Clarin, Aurora, Tangub City, Ozamiz City, Maigo, Kolambugan, Tubod, Baroy, Kapatagan ug Lala.

 APan niadtong 1990 nahaapil ang Panguil Bay sa listahan sa nag-unang 12 ka pinakanamiligrong katubigan sa tibuok kapopod-an (FSP, 1991). Matud sa mga banggiitan, wala makatabang sa pagsulbad sa padayong kadaot sa Panguil Bay ang pag-iyahay sa mga lungsod ug probinsiya diha sa pag-atubang sa mga problema sa iligal nga panagat ug pagguba sa mga mangrove.

 Natukod unta tong Panguil Bay Development Council (PBDC) niadtong 1988 nga gilangkoban sa nasangpit nga mga probinsiya ug tagsa nila ka rehiyon. Apan namingaw ra usab kini niadtong 2001 human wala makakuha og Executive Order (EO) gikan sa Malakanyang aron unta bendisyonan ang iyang pagtunhay. 

Busa nagsugyot ang mga banggiitan nga dili nalang unta magpahikot sa EO sa Malakanyang. Ang iyang katahom ug kamanggihatagon ug ang padayong hulga nga giatubang sa Panguil Bay mao untay mohiusa sa katawhan dinhi ug dili ang papel gikan sa Palasyo.

Hard lessons about Sendong

I recently had a conversation with a friend who's one of those working for the relief and rehab of Sendong victims in CDO and Iligan.

He said there are already a total of 7 persons who committed suicide due to intolerable depression following the loss of their loved ones and the subsequent suffering and the seeming hopelessness they have gone through at the evacuation centers. Shortage of medicine, food and psycho-social support are among the immediate needs of the victims.

Meanwhile, the group of my friend made a study on the causes of Sendong. The causes of Sendong, the study  says are: destruction of watershed in Bukidnon-Cagayan-Lanao Sur areas due to logging (mainly legal), quarrying, mining, destructive farming practices and overexpansion of dole, del monte farms and others.

Because of this, the experts have issued warnings many years back  to LGUs and other concerned agencies of the looming disaster these so-called "development" projects posed to the communities. And as usual, the warnings that stemmed from studies remained in the papers buried somewhere in the government offices.

Maybe those warnings were among the stack of trash that mixed with the mud when Sendong unleashed its fury.

Among Kapatagan

Sa imong kadagatan gitugob among kinabuhi
Unos, ayaay giagwanta aron pamilya mabuhi
Kanunay nag-ampo panalangin di mopalayo
Matag pagbugsay sa kaharuhay mosangko

Sa imong kaumahan among kinabuhi gipugas
Tudling sa maamomahong pag-ugba dili motipas
Sa kalisud among pamilya mahaw-as
Panalangin sa Tibubdan kanamo walay puas

Oh among minahal nga Kapatagan
Sa imong sabakan kami nag-ambahan
Panaglahi sa pagtuo dili suliran
Kay sa imong grasya kami gibubuoan

Mag-uuma, mangingisda ug kabataan
Mamumuo, negosyante ug simbahan
Alimahan ang kinabuhi ug mga maayong mithi
Kanamong tanan modagayday hamiling kinabuhi

Pls respond

The recent typhoons (Ondoy and Pepeng) that ravaged the country should serve a stern warning for local government units to take environmental concerns seriously. Although the destruction of the environment has already assumed an "irreversible" level according to experts, LGUs can still do great things to mitigate the harsh impact of natural disasters.

Environmental programs should take a prominent place in LGUs' development programs. From now on,(for starter LGUs) they should begin by assessing the present condition of their waste management, their water bodies, forest lands, coastal waters, etc. Repair of river banks and unclogging of creeks and drainage systems should be addressed as a short term solution. Rehabilitation of forest and coastal areas, watershed areas and other water ways should be done as part of long term solution programs.

To do this, LGUs can tap the expertise and resources of civil society organizations in their localities. Churches and schools are excellent sources of volunteers in cleaning waterways and tree planting activities. Business groups can provide material, financial and human support. There is no other ripest time to initiate a multi-sectoral environmental work than today, I think.

Flooding, landslides, prolonged droughts, tsunamis and the like are likely to be experienced in frequent and usual manner according to experts. So environmental work should be the top concern of LGUs.

The worst disaster that we can make now is to neglect the challenge of environmental rehabilitation and management in our respective localities.