Environmental activists' silence

THE dumping by the Cebu City Government of garbage in what it calls as “transfer station” at the South Road Properties (SRP) is a major environmental concern not only in the city but in the entire Cebu as well. The “transfer station” is actually an open dumpsite, the setting up of which is illegal according to Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

Before that, the administration of Mayor Tomas Osmeña reopened the closed Inayawan dumpsite, a facility that was once a sanitary landfill but had long ceased to be one because it was already filled beyond its capacity. The move resulted in a stench blanketing the dumpsite and its environs even as it threatened the ecology and the health of the residents in the area.

This was why the Osmeña administration has gotten in a bind. Environment Secretary Gina Lopez called the Inayawan dumpsite an “environmental bombshell.” The Court of Appeals (CA) granted the petition for a writ of kalikasan filed by City Councilor Joel Garganera and eventually ordered the closure and rehabilitation of the dumpsite. Lack of preparation forced the mayor to dump the city's trash at the SRP.

Comparisons are odious, but consider this. A few weeks ago, candidates of the Miss Universe pageant that the Philippines is set to host next year visited Oslob to view the whale sharks or butanding (“lumod”?) that frequent its seas. The guided tour had some of the candidates swim with the sharks. Environmentalists of all shapes instantly conjured a furor on social media criticizing the pageant organizers.

I'm not saying that environmentalists were wrong in criticizing the Miss U organizers for supposedly promoting bad practices in the treatment of wildlife, but the noise the issue generated made me compare it with the silence of environmentalists on Cebu City's solid waste disposal woes. I miss those times when environmentalists pick up every environmental concern and either issue statements or launch protest actions.

Interestingly, former city councilor Nida Cabrera, who is known as an environmentalist, assisted instead the Osmeña administration in the reopening of the Inayawan dumpsite, coordinating with officials of the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) 7 in making it appear that the move was environmentally acceptable. Was this among the reasons for the silence of environmental activists in Metro Cebu on the issue?

I don't know the status of environmental activism in Cebu (perhaps I will have to ask my friend Vince Cinches of Greenpeace about this). But it does look to me like they have been for one reason or another marginalized prompting them to be selective in picking up issues. Or have funding support (I don't mean this in a sinister sense) been drained that some previously active groups have been paralyzed or have disbanded?

It seems to me that environmentalism in Cebu has degenerated into something like consumerism here. Consumers used to have organizations and leaders to pick up their concerns but that is no longer the situation now.

Meanwhile, even if the garbage issue in the city is still to be resolved, the Cebu City Council and some people with questionable intentions are finding ways to make palatable the plan by the Ludo group to build a coal-fired power plant in Barangay Sawang Calero, or right in the middle of a populous area. Will environmentalists pick up this issue, or will they stymied by their political leanings?

As the late journalist Abe Licayan would say, “Let us to see.”