The rape of our ecosystem continues!

It’s back to school for the 25.7 million Filipino school children from all over the land. But was the Department of Education (DepEd) as ready as what they proclaimed? I got this emailed report about the shortcomings of the, where it says, that DepED still lacks 4, 538 school principals, 54,060 teachers, 6, 473 head teachers, 61,343 classrooms, 816,291 school desks, 113,051 water and sanitation facilities and needs P400 million more to purchase the textbook shortage. But somehow, the national media came up with a DepEd report that blared that they are prepared for the opening of classes.

 While these figures were sent to me a week ago, I still have to verify whether they are accurate. I didn’t print this report earlier simply because the only way these figures can be verified is when school finally opens. So in a few days or a week, we can verify these figures. Mind you, when Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III came into power, he attacked the previous administration for not having solved the problems of the DepEd. Now we shall see whether under his watch, PNoy has licked the problem or not?

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 I had a small chat with our good friend, Sir Bobby Aboitiz last weekend and he told me about his frustrations about our country… “More than 25 years have passed and it seems that we are still standing on the same street corner. We have lost so much time, but there seems to be no will to get things planned and executed.” Hence he asked this question in the vernacular, “Asa man ta padoong? (where are we going?).” Indeed, this is the question that our political and civic leaders ought to ask themselves in the mirror… what else must we do in order for our nation to move forward?

 I can understand the frustration, not just of Sir Bobby, but to a greater majority of us as well because we all want our country to move away from the tag of being a 3rd world country. In the last couple of weeks, the news headline was the destruction of coral reefs five times the size of Metro Manila. At the same time, marine corals and wildlife like endangered turtles and other products were confiscated in the various ports of Manila, Cebu and Zamboanga, which should bring us to ask… why is this still going on even under the Aquino administration?

 So who should be blamed for this unabated destruction of our ecosystem? Meanwhile those so-called many “Environmentalists” seem to have focused their advocacies against Nuclear energy or Coal plants, but they are strangely quiet about the destruction of our ecosystems? Perhaps now is the time for me to refresh your memories, that many so-called environmentalists are there because they can get foreign funding from their advocacies.

 But we should never allow the continued destruction of our ecosystems, which my good friend Environmental Activist Atty. Antonio Oposa says is the Center of the Center of the World’s Ecosystem. But alas, the Philippine government has failed to protect our nation’s patrimony and I’m sure that this is due to unbridled corruption within the Barangays, the DENR or the DILG and the PNP which plays a huge role in allowing irresponsible businessmen to profit from the destruction of our ecosystems.

 My good friend, environmental activist and head of the Bantay Dagat in Cebu City, Mr. Elpidio “Jojo” dela Victoria unfortunately was killed on April 12, 2006 and I believe that he died in vain because years after his death, the destruction of our ecosystem continues. Thanks to a government that really doesn’t care about the continued rape of our ecosystem.

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 One good news in our relentless battle against the proposed Reproductive Health (RH) Bill came in the form of a statement from Rep. Tomas Osmeña that he won’t be voting for the passage of the RH Bill when it comes to the Plenary in Congress, even if he is in favor of the RH Bill. He was obviously convinced by former Rep. Raul del Mar who is staunchly against the bill, which is why Raul was one of the Humane Vitae Awardees by his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. With this news, you can safely say that all Cebuano Representatives in Congress are now against the RH Bill, except for the Partylist Representatives, Alcover and Mendoza.

 It would have been easy for me to tag Rep. Osmeña for playing politics; after all he would need the votes of the pro-lifers in the coming election. But in the end, I call this a victory by Raul del Mar for at least “neutralizing” one pro-RH vote. Earlier, Rep. Osmeña said that he didn’t want to put religion into this vote. But many pundits say that “Every educated and civilized person is bound to uphold and protect the Right to Life of any human being by reason of the natural moral law, even if he disobeys the teachings of his own church.” I too believe strongly in this statement.

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