THERE’S NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE?

In one of the late night news a few weeks ago, I heard Senator Zubiri saying something like ‘wala na tayong magagawa, andyan na yan’ referring to the two high-rise building condominiums being built by a Korean investor within a watershed forest reserve in Subic. I cringe by the mere fact that here is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Land Use who appears to have given up the fight early on. Does the Honorable Senator know that we have more than 100 environmental laws to look at which will provide us with very good options on what to do with those buildings within a watershed?

I suggest that we bring them (the buildings) down if it has been proven that the construction has violated environmental laws. (Apparently the construction had and continues to violate not just environmental laws but our moral laws as well). This may appear to be a drastic recourse but it would be the best for the forest reserve. It would be the best not just for the current generation but, more importantly, for the future generations to come. Our intergerational responsibility requires us to conserve our environment and make sure that the future generations enjoy the same environment that we enjoy today. The money spent for the construction of those buildings is incomparable to the destruction of the forest reserve ecosystem. A single tree brought down in an ecosystem would mean a drastic change in that ecosystem following one of the laws of nature that every thing is interdependent. Hence, we should not be so worried about the construction costs being put to waste.

 I believe that the Honorable Senator, being an environmentalist that he is, would stand up for what is right not just for economic development but for the plight of our environment. There are a plenty of options to do with those eye sores within the Subic Forest Watershed Reserve.