PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT, BUT WHAT ABOUT POPULATION CONTROL?

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal’s exhortation for people to plant trees and protect the environment is never too late.

The tragic scenes we all have been seeing lately, brought about by rains, floods and landslides are so bizarre and pathetic that it all points to government apathy,  people’s total neglect of the environment and overpopulation.

These heartrending events that started when tropical storm Ondoy (international codename Ketsana) unleashed a month’s worth of rain in Metro Manila and its adjoining provinces resulting to the worst flooding this country had in 40 years, then followed by the slow-moving typhoon Pepeng (international codename Parma) that brought in more rains, have already displaced many families, ruined crops and properties and raised the death tally to over 600.

There is no better person, therefore, to make an appeal to care for the environment and forewarn the people to heed the signs of the times than the good Cardinal himself. An act of God can be better verbalized by, supposedly, a true servant of God, and he, too, can adequately articulate what God wants in return.

Cardinal Vidal’s plea to plant more trees should be listened to and taken to heart by corporations, civic societies and every concerned individual, and by government itself, both national and local. His expression of concern over the indiscriminate throwing of garbage is laudable that everybody should heed.

But, the good Cardinal and the Catholic Church should also realize that the burgeoning population has something to do with the debacle that has befallen this country in the last two weeks. Sad to say it is the poor segment, which comprises the greater number in our society, that is putting pressure on the country’s current situation and is the segment that suffers the most when tragedy of this nature occurs.

As deforestation increases the loss of soil by erosion and adds to the silting up of rivers, creeks, canals and other waterways, so does the poor families, who has no where to go but to squat on river beds, creeks, canals and other waterways, contribute to the ominous disaster when their existence hinders, if not diverts the flow of water from these natural channels to previously dry lands especially during heavy rainfall.

The circumstances becomes even worst when you have an inept government who can’t seem to regulate the land use for settlements, roads and farmlands and has ineffectual management policies on dam maintenance.

The condition becomes even more frightening when you see the volume of garbage strewn all over and collected.

Inept government, unmindful citizenry and over population are good recipes for adversities in a poor country like ours.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND GOVERNMENT PUSSYFOOTING

The torrential rains that brought about the horrific rampaging floods in Metro Manila leaving the whole country in utter disbelief had been a government wake-up call long in coming.

There should be no more pussyfooting. It is time for national government and the politicians to stop “fuckin’ around!” It is time to take a stand.

Sometime in September 2008, no less than a Filipino physicist, Josefino Comiso, who is working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and studying, among other things, global warming in the Arctic, has said that, “climate change could have a devastating impact on the Philippines, leading to widespread destruction of the country’s flora and fauna and flooding the capital Manila.”

Comiso also said that, “the slow melting of the ice caps should be more than ‘just an item of curiosity’ for Filipinos. The Philippines is a country that is among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.”

Comiso’s warning on the vulnerability of our country due to the effects of climate change simply echoes the many presages brought about by world organizations monitoring global warming.

But as usual, authorities in our national and local governments may have read or heard about it but, alas, nobody acted upon it.

Complacency has always been the Filipino’s undoing.

Being proactive has never been our forte.

What is worse is that political will is clearly absent in our governance.

It is about time government has to take the “bull by its horns” and declare to the Filipino people that it means business in its governance. We can only succeed in our struggle to move forward and help mitigate the worst that could happen if instead of being complacent we get concerned.

Government should earnestly start scanning the horizon for ominous events that could possibly impact our country and people so it could proactively handle the situation as it arises.

Most of all, government, both in national and local levels, must start showing commitment of strong and undivided political will so that plans, policies, and programs for country and people can be carried out no matter who gets offended and upset.

More than anytime, political will is needed to relocate the squatters and not allow their makeshift housings to encroach onto riverbanks, creeks, canals and other available waterways. What this does is only narrow the capacity to handle the water discharge and eventually blocks the way for any equipment and maintenance work to be done.

Political will is needed in implementing strictly the law against dumping of garbage anywhere, especially in the esteros and drainage canals. We all have seen how high and wide the pathetic garbage and debris were strewn when the flood waters subsided in Metro Manila.

Political will is needed to ensure that indiscriminate logging is completely stopped and the violators sent to jail.

Political will to put a halt to deforestation for settlement, roads and farmlands.

Political will is needed to ensure that dam spill-over or water release does not, in any way, make worse the effects brought about by heavy rainfall to lives and property, like aggravating the overflow of waterways.

Lastly, but not the least, political will is needed to control the country’s burgeoning population.

Foreigners who arrive in Manila are immediately struck by the mass of humanity that they see in the streets. And the worst part is government statistics show that the segments that are increasing the fastest are the poorest segment of Philippine society.

It is high time the state has to tell the Catholic Church not to meddle in government affairs. Let the Catholic Church, her bishops and archbishops, concentrate on saving the souls of their parishioners while singing their Gregorian chants and let the matter of population control be the responsibility of the elected officials of the land who are the ones answerable to the people.

We may have seen the brutality of death suffered by many during typhoon Ondoy’s onslaught, said to have been brought about by climate change.

We may not want to see the slow, painful, and harrowing death of young children when another extreme effect of climate change, that of water shortage and lack of food security, resulting to starvation, will happen, God forbids.