We must all do better!

With Christmas/New Year/and the Sinulog coming soon, as our gift back to the Lord, we all need to remind ourselves and others as well to do our own share of proper/better waste management not only for controlling flood/protecting our people/our environment, but for restoring God’s creations, by protecting our common home.

We commend the convenors/organizers/speakers/the SK/Barangay Captain and officials of Guadalupe for organizing their December 10th Program entitled “The Role of the Youth and Stakeholders in Mainstreaming Ecological Integrity and Ecological Conversion amid the Climate, Pollution and Biodiversity Crises.”

This is a timely response to the call of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si to heed the cry of the earth, the cry of our people by protecting our common home- our earth.

Last December 4, Cardinal Pablo “Ambo” David also sounded off the same call in his message: “The shame we must finally face: The Philippines is the world’s #1 source of ocean trash.”

The highlights of his very timely reminder and appeal:

“The Philippines—our beloved archipelago of 7,641 islands—is ranked Number 1 in the world in contributing trash to the ocean. Not number one in reading/science/mathematics/good governance/environmental stewardship. But number one in polluting the very seas that give us life.

“How did we get here? More than 20 years ago, we passed one of the most progressive laws in Asia: RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

“The law abolished open dumpsites, required every LGU to dispose of solid waste legally only through sanitary landfills—meant to receive only residual waste.

“That is possible only if segregation from source actually happens.

“Because that is the heart of RA 9003: Segregation, Composting, Recycling → Residual Waste (the least possible amount).

“But what have we done instead?

“We continue a national habit of throwing everything together—biodegradable/recyclable/hazardous/medical/industrial—into the same black bag/the same truck/the same dumpsite.

“So our landfills are filled to the brim not because our waste is too much, but because we refuse to obey the most basic rule: segregate your trash.

“Sanitary landfills, without segregation, become nothing more than unsanitary landfills. And we see the consequences everywhere.

“Where in the world do fishponds become garbage pits? In the Philippines. In Navotas, where leachate from these “unsanitary landfills” has poisoned aquaculture/killed livelihoods/threatened food security.

“The sea that once fed our people is now choking with plastic washed down through our canals/creeks/rivers by torrential rains into the ocean.

“We did this—to ourselves/to our neighbors/to our children.

“We love to blame government/corporations,/or the informal waste sector. But the truth is harder: RA 9003 failed because we, as a nation, refused to change our daily habits.

“Because we did not have the discipline to segregate.

“Because too many LGUs opted for the easy way out—hauling/dumping—as if “out of sight” meant “out of responsibility.”

“Because corruption fattened itself on hauling contracts/tipping fees rather than investing in real waste reduction/composting/and Materials Recovery Facilities.

“This is one of the great ecological sins of our time. A sin not only against creation, but against the poor who suffer first from polluted water/poisoned fish/and floods worsened by canals clogged with our own negligence.

“A sin against future generations whose shores will be lined not with seashells, but with our plastic shame.

“But guilt is not the ending. Repentance is. And repentance means change.

“Segregate from home. Demand that LGUs comply with RA 9003. Support recycling/ composting.

“Stop treating the ocean as a bottomless pit. And start treating our country as the fragile/ beautiful/irreplaceable archipelago that God entrusted to our care.

“We can do better.

“For the sake of the seas that surround us, the children who will inherit them, and the Creator who commanded us to “till and keep” his garden— we must do better.”

We must all do better!