By Divina Aromin Diokno
Environment advocate Ester Perez de Tagle received a Plaque of Appreciation at the 353rd Kamayan Para Sa Kalikasan Forum last August in a tribute to her contribution to environmental conservation.
De Tagle’s husband and children received the plaque on behalf of the environmental champion, who founded the Concerned Citizens Against Pollution (COCAP) and a member of the Lead-free Coalition.
At the forum, current COCAP president Ester Pacheco spoke about advocacy and how it means delivering facts with a passion–one of De Tagle’s attributes that earned her recognition.
It is this ability to deliver facts that the monthly forum, with the theme “Pilipinas Paraisong Nanganganib,” highlighted to bring the issues of incineration, over consumption-production, and water security into the discussion.
Being able to explain facts helps advocates make the connection between incineration and the reduce-recycle-reuse campaign. This ultimately allows them to convince their audience to stop incineration when discussing overconsumption, overproduction of plastic packaging, the need to segregate waste, and how having a sustainable lifestyle helps the cause.
Presenting facts can also effectively explain the importance of the conservation and rehabilitation of natural resources, the need to revisit rivers and watersheds, and prohibit pollution–particularly those enabled by destructive operation of the mining sector. Not only do mining companies practice damaging actions against the environment, but they also utilize large amounts of water for their operations.
These destructive activities and technologies are what cause mountains to flatten, decimation of forests, the pollution of waterways, lower quality of soil, recasting of coastal areas, and endangerment of biodiversity. Government development projects only worsen these conditions that serve as warning signs to consider in approaching Philippine development.
Some of these include:
- The planned construction of Kaliwa Dam can potentially submerge 9,700 hectares of watershed territory and divert rivers that provide water supply in eastern Luzon.
- The 62 proposed reclamation projects that require carving up tons of land and dumping them into a total area of 39,394 hectares of the sea in different parts of the country–31,609 hectares of which are in Manila Bay.
- The planned division of Palawan into three provinces, which endangers the integrity of the island’s ecology.
There is a need to evaluate and critique what is happening in the environment like what they are doing in Dumaguete, Baguio, and Puerto Prinsesa, said Nina Galang, president of Green Convergence. Green Convergence is the main organizer of the forum with Kamayan Restaurant and support from the Forest Foundation Philippines.
The paradigm calls for the need to genuinely appreciate and protect the gift of Phillippine natural resources. However, many policies are against this gift, threaten ecology, and cause massive problems.
Ruel Cabile, guest speaker and regional campaigner of No Burn Pilipinas, discussed the issues that arise from destructive programs. Cabile presented the myths of the “Waste to Energy” movement and explained the problems of incineration, which doesn’t stop the overconsumption of goods and overproduction of waste.
The campaigner encouraged practicing proper waste management instead of incineration in getting rid of waste and achieving sustainability.
Meanwhile, UP Diliman researcher and forum guest speaker Rodrigo Narod Eco asserted that there is no such thing as a natural disaster and that a natural phenomenon only becomes a disaster if it intersects with human activities.
Speaking about the negative aspects of the Manila Bay reclamation–in which malls, hotels, and subdivisions will rise in filled-up land–Eco asked if such plans ever considered the environmental impact.
This, as well as the other issues brought forth by other speakers, shows that “the Philippine environment is like a ticking time bomb,” and further solidified the need to protect the diminishing natural resources.
Divina Aromin Diokno is a member of the Haribon Foundation.
