Kim’s Dream Orlan Ravanera
No Rule of Law on Environment
It has been said that in this country, no one is above the law; all must bow down to the majesty of the law because we follow the rule of law and not of men! Tell that to the marines! No such thing as rule of law on environment. A century or so ago, our country had some 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest very rich in megadiversity, oozing with billions of flora and fauna that were endemic in a tropical country. Such was reinforced by a study of Dr. Larry Heaney, an environmentalist from California, USA who came in the eighties and stayed somewhere in Mt. Kitanglad Range for three months. He was so astonished to see monkey-eating eagles hovering above against the backdrop of flowering plants and radiating trees, i.e., almaciga, red lauan, mahogany, narra, etc., which were the finest in the world. As Dr. Heaney’s study concluded, “ the number of flora and fauna what found in the 5,000-ha. Mr. Kitanglad Range is greater compared to those found in one-billion hectare continent of North America. Visiting Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Kalatungan Range in Talakag, Bukidnon, it was so frustrating to see some 200,000 hectares denuded areas after six logging companies, i.e, TIPI, Roa & Sons, Valderama, Dacudao, Remedios Fortich, Vicmar, Desty Eleazar, etc. massively logged our forest ecosystem without let-up in total violation of existing laws. Don’t you know that our forest ecosystem is well protected by existing laws that are prohibiting the cutting of trees in forest areas that have an altitude of more than 1,000 meters above sea level or in topography with slope having 50% gradient. These notwithstanding, laws were enacted then prohibiting logging of the finest of trees that were found only in the Philippines.
There was no stopping the powerful loggers then who had formed a strong cabal of vested interest. These loggers who would earn as much as 400 million pesos in one shipment of logs alone, were even elected to high positions as mayors, governors, congressmen and even as senators. Of course, such gargantuan raking had also been shared to offices of government mandated to enforce environmental laws, to law enforcers and even to judges. In the nineties, during the height of our human barricades against logging to stop some 50 10-wheeler logging trucks passing the thoroughfares of Cagayan de Oro from 12midnight to 4am when Cagay-anons were fast asleep, one personnel manning the check-points confessed to us after being asked why these checkpoints were allowing the passage of these logging trucks carrying illegally cut logs, “each truck is paying the checkpoint 5,000 pesos.” If 50 trucks were paying 5,000 pesos per check-point, about 250 thousand pesos were being pocketed by these personnel. How about that agency mandated to enforce environmental laws? After we arrested three logging trucks owned by the late 2 nd Lt. Desty Eleazar, he bragged to me that no way can I stop him and shouting “90% of the personnel working in that office are under my payroll.” Well, I was not surprised then. Everytime we arrest logging trucks carrying illegally cut logs, those trucks that we have apprehended were readily released the following day. Thus, from then on, logging trucks that we apprehended were turned-over to friends in the Air Force, particularly to Abel Idusma, a good friend working with the Air Force then.
That was how we lost our natural wealth above the ground, the forest ecosystem, the richest on earth – all in violations of existing laws. But our natural wealth is even richer under the ground, oozing with ores and mineral only found in our country. Cagayan de Oro, for example, is called “de Oro” because of its tremendous ore and mineral deposits. As the Presiding Officer of Task Force Kinaiyahan formed in consonance with the Writ of Kalisasan issued by the Court of Appeals in 2013 to stop illegal logging and illegal mining in Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon and Lanao Provinces, we were so aghast to see in the mining camps of these illegal miners during our law enforcement operation, bombs, AK-47 and Armalites. Three Chinese holders only of tourist visa were arrested. Where are they now? Well, we were shocked to know that they were just detained for one week. They were released and allowed to go back to China accompanied by a high ranking official. Well, again, where is the rule of law?
But the natural wealth of our country does not only stop at the shorelines. The Philippine archipelago has been described Dr. Kent Carpenter, the President of the United Nations-Food and Agricultural Organization as the “Center of the center of marine life on earth.” But not anymore. Glaring is the state of environmental crimes committed against the Filipino people. During the Martial Law period, Japanese trawling vessels had been raking our seas called “muro-ami.” As the Philippine archipelago is so vast to protect by our Naval Force, it has become a “dumping ground” of toxic and highly radiated garbage from Canada, Japan, Australia and South Korea. What remains of our marine and fishery resources are being taken advantaged by powerful China as the West Philippine Sea is now the subject of exploitation by Chinese being back-up by the Chinese Navy. Such illegal Chinese intrusion is a glaring violation of our sovereignty as ruled by the United Nations’ Arbitral Ruling.
What is so painful in the truism that the poorest of the poor now are our coastal communities due to the demise of our fishery and marine life. Don’t you know that 10 pf the 13 major bays in the Philippines are now biologically dead; of the 25 major rivers, 15 are already dried-up due to deforestation that killed our watersheds. Again, we have lost our fishery and marine resources because of the crimes committed against our coastal communities. We have lost the grandeur of the bays because all the environmental laws that were enacted to protect our fishery and marine resources were violated. Don’t you know that all industries along the bays are just treating the bays as their “waste pits?” Many of these industries operating without anti-pollution device, that’s the reason why every one and then our seas are turning yellow or red. During my stint as head of an environmental NGO, we have put-up coastal guardhouses to protect the bays from the intrusion of big commercial fishing boats that are raking the bays at the expense of the poor fisherfolk. Many of these commercial fishing boats are owned by powerful people.
The state of the crimes committed against GAIA (Mother Earth) must now be courageously stopped. All of these environmental crimes are robbing the future generations of their inheritance. Killing the integrity of the environment is a crime against the future generations. Indeed, we have not inherited the environment from our parents but we owe these to our children. But at the rate that we have massacred life forms, be it in the land or in the sea, we have committed the heinous and unprecedented crimes against nature and against humanity. It has now become imperative to bring back the rule of law or we will all perish!
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