RAVANERA...

having been bombarded for several decades with multifarious toxic chemicals, 8 of which are already banned internationally (based on the examined samples of water, air and soil in Davao.) Certainly, these chemicals are carcinogenic, the reason why cancer has become a common disease of the Mindanawons.

As far as fisherfolk, they are the ones catching fish, yet their children are hungry as malnutrition is highest in the coastal communities. This is so because the grandeur of the Philippine bays is now fast disappearing as they undergo progressive state of impairment and with it. The marginalization of the coastal populace. Unlike when fish would literally jump into their “banca,” fish now can hardly be caught.

Why? What are the fatal blows causing the death of the once mighty marine and fishery ecosystem? Well, the bays are treated as waste pits. First is industrial pollution. Chemical waste from industries and factories are dumped in the bays. Other silent killers are the internationally banned chemical fertilizers and insecticides which are heavily used in surrounding plantations.

These non-biodegradable, petroleum-based agriculture inputs are washed from the soil into rivers and into the sea, entering food chain and polluting the watersheds. I am very certain that these toxic chemicals are already in our water system, in the water that we drink or bath and water we use for cooking. Other countries have banned these chemicals, why these are being used by big plantations? Are we Filipinos guinea pigs? It is about time that we stop these plantations. For heavily using these toxic chemicals that have harmed the health of the people, some of these plantations are barred to operate in their own respective countries. That is the reason why they are operating (and expanding at that!) here in the Philippines particularly in Mindanao. What a tragedy! Gumising na po tayo!

All told, the above-cited realities are some of the horrors of social injustices that have been rammed down the throats of our oppressed but struggling people. Apparently, the victims include the ecosystems that provide the life-support systems to our ecological people in defiance of the Constitutional Principle (Art. II. Sec. 16) that, “The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.”

Unless we rectify such, there can be no genuine development. Only mal-development that sacrifices the people and development to the altar of greed and profit!