FOR AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, SEPARATE FROM DENR

SHOCK, sadness and alarm met the horrendous assault on a protected area, the Chocolate Hills, recognized as a geological monument. Unesco recently just provided Bohol the honor as the first geopark in the Philippines.

We are glad the collective voice of protest has been registered by the Senate Committee on Environment and Climate Change headed by Sen. Cynthia Villar, who already filed a resolution for an investigation, while Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos has organized an oversight technical team. Nobody is above the law, and that must be executed with diligence without favor to anyone. President Bongbong Marcos has committed at several United Nations meetings to promote sustainable tourism while actualizing our fulfillment of the SDGs 2023 agenda linked to the Paris Climate Accord.

In 1987, when then-senator Heherson Alvarez assumed chairmanship of the environment committee, his concern was to provide the pioneering voice of defusing the ecological time bomb of global warming as the world now suffers climate change catastrophes. He crafted and sponsored the National Integrated Protected Areas System — the Nipas Act of 1992.

I recall he pointed out that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has an identity crisis, a conflict of interest ingrained in its function that naturally favors creating wealth through resource development, sacrificing its regulatory function of biodiversity-ecosystem protection, which needs police power so this will ensure the rule of law prevails in granting permits, supervising pollution control causing deforestation and wanton industrialization polluting our water bodies, land, air with black carbon and destroying heritage sites. Circuitous breakage of restrictive barriers must be prevented.

Thus, Senator Alvarez pushed in the Senate a bill detaching the Environment Management Bureau from the DENR through the passage of an independent National Environmental Protection Agency as the watchdog for Mother Earth. Unfortunately, like the anti-dynasty bill, it could not gather the majority support. As director of Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble, Unesco Artist for Peace, I am compelled to speak out and consider a look back at the value of Senator Alvarez’s original proposal. Consider the amazing existence of the construction and operation of a resort at Chocolate Hills without an environmental compliance certificate. One wonders how many more protected areas are defiled. Also observe the absence of basic coordinated hearing among all constituency sectors.

Immediate action for reparation and restoration is essential to avoid the possible challenge of delisting from being a heritage site or from being branded with a Unesco-designated honor realized after years of tedious study and verification. We must remember: any honor has the concomitant responsibility of guaranteeing the integrity of the honor bestowed to a country, province or city.

We at the Philippine Center of the International Theater Institute, currently led by former senator Joey Lina, with the Earthsavers now headed by Consul General Fernando Pena, are ready to assist in an effective culture-based information campaign to fill the communication gap of engaging all citizens to be aware of their rights and duties to care for creation. Neither ignorance of the law nor insensitive execution of the law is an excuse for non-compliance with the law.

It is important to have continuous diligent monitoring and transparent review of needs and conditions besides excising the culture of corruption and promoting a dedicated public service mindset to achieve peace, justice, truth, and freedom geared toward a unified effort to unlock the gridlock of poverty.

As Senator Alvarez’s widow, I re-echo his clarion call, “Urgent action now to save tomorrow for survival of mankind and our common home, planet Earth.”

Cecilia Guidote-Alvarez Director, Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble/Unesco Artist for Peace