Are we having fun yet?

It felt strange to read my Twitter timeline last week. There was excited reporting about the new Department of Tourism slogan “It’s More Fun in the Philippines.” And then there were tweets of the body count of the dead found in the latest Compostela Valley landslide that seemed to get higher every few minutes. I imagined a macabre poster showing the bodies recovered in Compostela Valley with the following words: Mining. It’s more fun in the Philippines.

I had envisioned a quiet and peaceful end to 2011 but Sendong and its disastrous effects in Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro prevented that. Similar to the aftermath of Ondoy, it was inspiring to find individuals and groups who mobilized their friends, family and other contacts through social networks to raise funds and collect relief goods for the Sendong victims. The survivors continue to need help and I hope that we never tire of giving them what we can.

Despite Sendong, I continued to imagine a quiet and peaceful beginning to 2012. The Compostela Valley landslide arrived on the first week of January and destroyed my cocoon. While I knew that it would be unrealistic to believe that we will be spared the usual number of typhoons and other forces of nature this year, I never stopped wishing that all of us would be better prepared for the next one, including putting a stop to all man-made activities that make natural events like storms and earthquakes more deadly, like staying in geo-hazard areas.

I wanted to stay in this positive, happy, happy, joy, joy, Namaste-to-everyone state for as long as I could but reading the news made it very difficult. I came across an article quoting the Philippine Wood Producers Association spokesperson as stating that there are no commercial logging operations in northern Mindanao. She also said that commercial loggers have not operated in 10 months because of the logging ban imposed by Malacañang. She blamed illegal logging for the disaster. The mining industry issued a similar denial of responsibility for the effects of Sendong in Mindanao. Its spokesman said that illegal logging and illegal small-scale mining were to blame. Picking up from this, the House of Representatives immediately passed on third reading a bill increasing the penalty of illegal logging to life imprisonment.

I am tired of loggers, miners, and politicians blaming illegal loggers and illegal small-scale miners for natural disasters. The mountains of northern Mindanao and other areas in the Philippines did not become bald in the last ten months because of illegal logging. Mining kills forests and there is no mine in the Philippines that has successfully restored the forest that it destroyed. The only people I know who have been charged with illegal logging are poor, desperate farmers who are trying to survive and members of indigenous people’s groups who had cut trees in areas identified as part of their ancestral domain without a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Ironically, most of the remaining forested areas in the Philippines are places where indigenous peoples stay and practice their traditional way of life. 

2012 is a time for all of us to see things as they really are and to act accordingly. We have allowed our forests to be treated badly. We will continue to suffer the effects of years of deforestation. We have to stop all activities that destroy our remaining forests and work quickly to restore denuded areas. Trees don’t grow overnight. It would be more fun in the Philippines if we act fast enough.

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