SUBSCRIBEHot flavor of the moment
INQ7 headline: DENR defends log firms
Philippine Star headline: 3 trucks with hot logs slip past Quezon DENR
After the series of storms, its blaming season again. This time, the flavor of the moment, favorite whipping boys are illegal loggers. Well, its pretty damn obvious. While the intention is good, it has always been like this. It constantly replays. When a rather sad fate descended upon Ormoc a few years ago, illegal logging made headlines. When Southern Leyte was struck with flood that claimed countless lives, properties and livelihood, illegal logging activities made headlines again. And so on and so forth, ad infinitum. But after a few days, what happened? Silence. Next issue please. It just dies a natural death. After being discussed and debated in the airwaves, after much grandstanding in the corridors of power, after kilometers of ink written on the issue, just a whimper, a whisper, a murmur to silence again. From the frontpages of newspapers, give it a week or two and you’ll have to sift through the other minor news items in the inner pages to just plain memory. How sad.
The Philippines has been considered a top biodiversity hotspot in the world. Its richness fascinates. From the thick, verdant and rich forests of the islands when the first conquerors saw it to the constant logging, rape and rampage in the succeeding centuries to the present, forest cover is down to less than 10%. Several native, endemic species of flora and fauna are listed as endangered. Couple that with people in dire poverty, eking out a livelihood who look at forests, trees, and other natural resources as money plus the inherent insatiable greed of the usual roster of corrupt officials and businessmen then you have disaster playing out.
People never learn. While its a good thing that the president of the republic declared a stop to all logging activities, it just don’t ring forcefully. Illegal loggers are just thinking: lie low for now, surface again tomorrow. Statutes exists, but these are just on paper with toothless underbudget agencies manned by a bloated inefficient bureaucracy thats, well, just inefficient.
Really sad.
