Garbage, among other continuing crises

As we continue to be thankful for continued days of sun, no rains and floods, let us also remember to offer prayers for our kababayans in Luzon battered by combined habagat and tropical depression Luis and Maymay!

The death toll, the number of homeless/hurt/lost/hungry and others heavily challenged by the strong rains/floods/landslides are still rising.

Sadly, the most adversely affected are those who have already been marginalized before these destructive weather developments.

When the tropical depression and habagat will have died down, the aftermath of the destruction will still remain and persist especially among the most affected.

And the number of the victims/needy will rise and multiply.

And the pre-storm/habagat continuing crises will remain, until, God forbid, the next round of typhoons/floods/other disasters and calamities.

Garbage in Para?aque may have made its debut only this week, However, the same ugly/smelly/harmful sea of garbage has become a common sight throughout the country!

Upon seeing the August 11 garbage clogging of the Redemptorist water channel in Baclaran, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon declared - “Parañaque City is facing a full-blown garbage crisis.”

And believe it or not, DPWH Sec. Dizon also remarked that he “has never seen the region’s waterways in such a severe state.”

Really? Hello?

Has Sec. Dizon never seen similar photos of garbage-clogged rivers/canals/ communities in Metro Manila/other parts of the country?

With the flood control controversy not yet over and resolved, BBM government is, unbelievably, belatedly recognizing the garbage crisis?

Our people, especially our poor, have long known/experienced the garbage crisis as one of the already persistent socio-economic-political-environment crises they continue to face each day.

How much more will our people have to carry the burden of ineffective, corruption-filled governments? How much more will our people have to suffer through ordinary days, through days and weeks of typhoons, rains, floods and other disasters?

The garbage crisis and all other crises borne by our Filipino people are really reflections of the filth, stench, corruption and abuse of power and national funds/resources that have persisted through decades among those in government and their partners.

Patronage has also negatively damaged our Filipino voters who have agreed to relinquish their right to good governance and genuine public service for a measly sum each election.

Filipinos are so used, have become so numb experiencing the stench and filth of poverty and other crises, they have become resigned, branded even to have become resourcefully resilient about staying alive for as long as they can, on their own.

And what are the corrupt and abusive doing - those that cause and contribute to the continuing crises, garbage included?

Oh, they have become even more resourceful, enterprising and efficient with their plunder of national funds and assets! And they are legion!

They continue to thrive in unexplained/undeserved wealth/power, across generations, while the poor and the marginalized continue to suffer through each day, through the years.

Will there be an end, will the various crises, including garbage, be solved? When, how, by whom?

The present knee-jerk response of government (national or local) to the garbage crisis, for example, is to declare ongoing waste management solutions and programs as ineffective and to resort to what to them will finally make the garbage disappear quickly, effectively.

Rather than call for full compliance and implementation by national and local governments of R.A. 9003 (the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000) that focus/emphasize participatory waste avoidance/reduction/other eco-cost-friendly management practices, BBM (including local officials) instead called for “updating the 25-year old R.A. 9003, aligning it with modern waste management practices, such as waste-to-energy and waste treatment technology.”

Will WTE technologies solve the garbage crisis?

Or as environmentalists raise, is WTE a false solution that will discourage waste avoidance/reduction/recycling, continue the garbage crisis, and, threaten the health of people, economy, the environment?