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Finding inadequacy in addressing the problem on the environment, Catholic priests established the Parish Environmental Team in Sto. Niño de Mohon, Talisay City.

Rev. Fr. Tito Soquiño said he had already organized the PET and that “programs will trickle down to the most basic unit of the Archdiocese, which is the chapel.”

Soquiño said PET is the concrete and specific response to the call of the archdiocese, which is on stewardship of the environment.

The call to address environmental issues is among the concerns under the Service Committee of the parish, he added.

“The environment problem is not a political issue, it is an ethical and moral issue and so it needs the participation of the whole church,” Soquiño said.

Soquiño added that whether or not the government is interested to back this advocacy, their programs would push through, with the aim of “reaching out to the farthest and simplest parishioner.”

Soquiño, who is a member of the Solid Waste Management Committee of Talisay City, said he already has the pledge of support  from a marine biologist and from the Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation, Inc.

The core group will come up with an action plan that will be implemented by chapel leaders, he said.

The first program that they are planning is to attain a zero-waste parish through proper segregation of wastes, he added.

Further, he said the first program would include a materials recovery facility, which, in a way, will help the barangays observe solid waste management.

They will also have to establish linkages as to the market of the materials recovered and to be recycled.

“It will be a two-way target, environment and economic, not to mention prevention of the youth from doing  bad things,” Soquiño said.

The priest stressed that the program will deeply involve the youth - both the students and the out-of-school youth.

On June 3, the core group will have a meeting to decide on the would-be speakers in their drive on information dissemination.

When sought for comment on the mandate given to a priest as governor of Pampanga, Soquiño said “it was an act of desperation by the public who turned to the priest as someone who could help address societal problems.”

He said that parallel to the local government unit is the local church unit, which “may be more active than the other.”

Technical and educational support from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Soquiño said, are already underway.  — Ferliza C. Contratista/MEEV