Julius Rocas

Ternate Landfill: A Call for Action by Dok Natividad

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Narito ang buong artikulo na isin­u­lat ni Gerard "Dok" Nativi­dad, isang guro at bantay-​kalikasan ng Paman­tasang De La Salle Das­mariñas tungkol sa nakak­aba­ha­lang pag­bubukas ng isang land­fill sa bayan ng Ter­nate, Kabite.

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a pro­posed land­fill threat­ens mts palay palay/ mataas na gulod national park (better known to us moun­taineers as Pico De Loro).. please read and please spread the word.. we really really need every help we can get with regards to this issue. -- Gerard "dok" Natividad

It was during the first months of the year 2006 when vig­i­lant Cavite-​based envi­ron­men­tal groups, Non-​Government Orga­ni­za­tions (NGOs), People’s Orga­ni­za­tions (POs), reli­gious, aca­d­e­mic insti­tu­tions, and others first heard of a star­tling project that caused a once peace­ful and silent upland munic­i­pal­ity to engage into a height­ened level of aware­ness and to unite in action oppos­ing a multi-​million peso project in their area.

A pro­posal for a san­i­tary land­fill that would cater for the province’s so-​called waste man­age­ment prob­lem was sub­mit­ted to the office of the Provin­cial Gov­er­nor by its pro­po­nent, Envi­ron­save, Inc. An esti­mated 8 hectare piece of land just at the foot­steps of a National Park would serve as cradle for wastes gen­er­ated by a whole province. As if inad­ver­tent, the pro­posed site is located within the area of the quar­ry­ing company- Cavite Ideal (better known as Cavdeal), who hap­pens to be the same people behind the land­fill project. These series of events even­tu­ally led to the for­ma­tion of a community-​based, people’s orga­ni­za­tion called Ter­nateños Against Land­fill Asso­ci­a­tion (TALA) com­pris­ing of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from var­i­ous sec­tors in Ter­nate, Cavite. A con­crete exam­ple of a clas­sic com­mu­nity orga­niz­ing prin­ci­ple wherein envi­ron­men­tal groups, NGO’s and the like, coming from out­side the com­mu­nity facil­i­tated the basic infor­ma­tion with regards the issue and “which cor­re­spond­ingly stim­u­late local ini­tia­tive and lead­er­ship as the pri­mary instru­ment of change.” (Polson, In The Lasal­lian Way towards social trans­for­ma­tion (p.100) Lasal­lian Com­mu­nity Devel­op­ment Center)

This truly is an effec­tive strat­egy of par­tic­i­pa­tory, people-​centered and area-​based ini­tia­tives to address the land­fill issue. With the col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts being done by dif­fer­ent con­cerned sec­tors, manual and tech­ni­cal sup­port sys­tems to address the land­fill issue has greatly mate­ri­al­ized. Rang­ing from dia­logues with the Local Gov­ern­ment Units, con­sul­ta­tive meet­ings and pre­sen­ta­tions with both the pro­po­nent and stake­hold­ers, data gath­er­ing and inquiries with legal coun­sels and tech­ni­cal experts, ground-​working and paper-​trailing the dif­fer­ent doc­u­ments con­cern­ing the project, and also, there had been 4 major ral­lies and mobi­liza­tions which reflects advo­cacy lead­ing to action through a peace­ful yet active non-​violent dis­play of deep com­mu­nity concern.

All these efforts even­tu­ally led to an empow­ered PO and a well-​coordinated and con­sorted effort to oppose the project. During the course of all these, var­i­ous stand­points and argu­ments came to light on why there is a dire need for the project not to push through. Listed below are some of these rea­sons as well as steps done by the groups:

• We believe this to be oth­er­wise. We have yet to deter­mine this by an actual site visit and GPS reading.
• The pro­posed site for the land­fill is sit­u­ated right beside? the buffer zone of a national park as pro­claimed in Oct. 26, 1976 by then Pres­i­dent Fer­di­nand Marcos under Proc. No. 1594 “Declar­ing Mts. Palay-​palay/ Mataas na Gulod and vicini­ties sit­u­ated in the munic­i­pal­i­ties of Ter­nate and Maragon­don, province of Cavite and the munic­i­pal­ity of Nasugbu, province of Batan­gas, island of Luzon as a National Park, Game refuge and bird sanctuary.”

Just this year, Pres­i­dent Gloria Maca­pa­gal Arroyo issued Proc. No. 1315 “Declar­ing Mts. Palay-​palay/ Mataas na Gulod National park as Pro­tected Area which shall be known as Mts. Palay-​palay Mataas na Gulod Pro­tected Land­scape.” Signed this June 27, 2007.Thus, being declared as a pro­tected area, this ought to have stricter poli­cies and guide­lines favor­ing the anti-​ternate land­fill groups. But the procla­ma­tion also led us to doubt that a much grander scheme is at work favor­ing the land­fill. Here are some of the ‘ques­tion­able and dubi­ous” state­ments in the Proc.no.1315.

1. The orig­i­nal land area of the park was 4000 hectares, but it was nar­rowed to 3973.13 hectares as stated in proc. no. 1315.
2. As stated in the procla­ma­tion no.1315, the pro­tected land­scape would now be “sub­ject to pri­vate rights”.
3. When the “tech­ni­cal descrip­tions” of the procla­ma­tion was plot­ted to a topo­graphic map, it showed a dif­fer­ence of area of the delin­eation than that of exist­ing records of the park’s orig­i­nal boundaries

Former Pres­i­dent Marcos issued Procla­ma­tion no.1520 dated Nov.28, 1975 “Declar­ing the munic­i­pal­i­ties of Maragon­don and Ter­nate in Cavite and the munic­i­pal­ity of Nasugbu in Batan­gas province as a Tourist Zone, and for other pur­poses.” which is under the juris­dic­tion of the Philip­pines Tourism Author­ity. Con­trary to what the pro­po­nent says about tourism, the anti-​ternate land­fill groups believes that this facil­ity would only drive away tourists en route to the beaches and mountaineering/trekking des­ti­na­tions in Ter­nate if ever the project might proceed.

Accord­ing to the Imple­ment­ing Rules and Reg­u­la­tions (IRR) of the Repub­lic Act 9003 also known as Eco­log­i­cal Solid waste man­age­ment Act of 2000, as stated in Sec­tion 40. Cri­te­ria for Sit­ting a San­i­tary Land­fill. (d) “The site must be chosen with regard for the sen­si­tiv­i­ties of the community’s res­i­dents.” The project should gain Social Accept­abil­ity from the com­mu­nity con­cern. But the community’s oppo­si­tion to the project is reflected by these courses of actions:

1. Series of ral­lies and mass mobi­liza­tions par­tic­i­pated by the thou­sands around the town of Ter­nate which was also fea­tured in dif­fer­ent tele­vi­sion, radio and print media.
2. Sig­na­ture cam­paign com­pris­ing of 12,000 sig­na­tures of Ter­nate res­i­dents from a pop­u­la­tion of 20,000 which was sub­mit­ted to the Envi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Bureau region 4A (EMB-4A) and the DENR main office to stand as basis for the gov­ern­ment agency not to issue an Envi­ron­men­tal Com­pli­ance Cer­tifi­cate (ECC). But even­tu­ally they did issue an ECC dated Sept.26, 2007.
3. The res­i­dents and orga­nized groups also decided to file a peti­tion to the COM­ELEC Propos­ing By Local Ini­tia­tive the Enact­ment of an Ordi­nance under RA 6735 enti­tled, “An ordi­nance declar­ing Barangay Sapang, Munic­i­pal­ity of Ter­nate, Province of Cavite as being an inte­gral part of the con­tin­u­ing clas­si­fi­ca­tion of the munic­i­pal­ity of Ter­nate as a Tourist zone and fur­ther clas­si­fy­ing Barangay Sapang as a Spe­cial Eco­log­i­cal Zone, pro­hibit­ing the open­ing, con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion of any san­i­tary land­fill therein, pro­vid­ing penal­ties for vio­la­tion of this ordi­nance and for other pur­poses,” as a munic­i­pal ordi­nance for the munic­i­pal­ity of Ter­nate, Cavite. Rare is the instance that this type of move is done wherein a given per­cent­age of voting pop­u­la­tion would make a move to enact an ordi­nance. Being this, lawyers from the Com­elec faced a blank wall upon receiv­ing this doc­u­ment. And we are cur­rently on the move and look­ing for assis­tance from legal coun­sels who could shed some light with this type of action.

Accord­ing also to the Imple­ment­ing Rules and Reg­u­la­tions (IRR) of the Repub­lic Act 9003 also known as Eco­log­i­cal Solid waste man­age­ment Act of 2000, as stated in Sec­tion 40. Cri­te­ria for Sit­ting a San­i­tary Land­fill. (e) “The site must be located in an area where the landfill’s oper­a­tion will not detri­men­tally affect envi­ron­men­tally sen­si­tive resources such as Aquifer, Ground­wa­ter reser­voir or water­shed areas.”

Also from the IRR of RA 9003. Penal Pro­vi­sions. Sec­tion 48. Pro­hib­ited Acts (16) “The con­struc­tion or oper­a­tion of land­fills or any waste dis­posal facil­ity on any Aquifer, Ground­wa­ter reser­voir or water­shed area and on any por­tions thereof.”

• The pro­posed site for the land­fill is declared part of the study area by the Local Water Util­i­ties Author­i­ties (LWUA) and the Japan­ese Inter­na­tional Coop­er­at­ing Agency (JICA) issued last 1995 as a Ground­wa­ter Basin and declared also by Bech­tel Engi­neer­ing hired by Puerto Azul Resort as a Water Basin.
• As stated in the “Report on the Geo­log­i­cal assess­ment of the pro­posed san­i­tary land­fill located inside the quarry site of Cavdeal in Ter­nate, Cavite” pre­pared by the Mines and Geo­sciences Bureau (MGB) of the DENR, “Based on the ground­wa­ter avail­abil­ity map of the Philip­pines, the project area has fairly exten­sive and pro­duc­tive Aquifers with aver­age annual poten­tial recharge of 0.3 to 0.8meter.”
• Safe drink­ing water for the sur­round­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties are threat­ened by the facil­ity. Because one of the major haz­ardous by-​products by land­fills are called Leachate. Accord­ing to the Uni­ver­sity of Wisconsin-​Eau Claire web­site, “Leachate is a poten­tially toxic fluid that could leak from a land­fill site and pol­lute aquifers and sur­face water.”
• Accord­ing to the same report that was released by the MGB, it states that the site “Is located in a creek valley bounded by two high hilly terrains… The creek is part of the trib­u­tary of the Sapang River.” We all know that water always go down stream, having the site as a trib­u­tary for a river would surely be alarm­ing for those living down stream. Con­t­a­m­i­nated water can easily flow to other trib­u­taries posing a threat not only to humans and ani­mals but also plants.

Hydro­logic hazard stated in the “Report on the Geo­log­i­cal assess­ment of the pro­posed san­i­tary land­fill located inside the quarry site of Cavdeal in Ter­nate, Cavite” pre­pared by the MGB indi­cates that “Since the pro­posed area for land­fill site is sit­u­ated on a drainage floor, it is very likely that the area may expe­ri­ence flash flood­ing caused by heavy runoff coming from the upstream area.” Let us not set aside the fact that the site pro­posed is within a quarry site. The capac­ity of the soil to hold mois­ture has already been depleted and that if a flash flood may occur, it could easily boul­ders and rocks that can easily be dis­lodged from the site due to the quar­ry­ing activ­ity. This, again, pose a major threat to the community’s safety and welfare.

Mts Palay palay/ Mataas na Gulod National Park is home to a wide array of flora and fauna and quite a number of endemic and endan­gered species. Stud­ies and researches are being con­ducted in the area both by stu­dents and fac­ul­ties from De La Salle University- Das­mariñas in Das­mariñas, Cavite. And bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion is one of their main thrusts in their field. The national park is one of the iden­ti­fied sites in the book: Key Con­ser­va­tion Sites in the Philip­pines: A Hari­bon Foun­da­tion and Birdlife Inter­na­tional Direc­tory of Impor­tant Bird Areas (IBAs) by Mal­lari, Neil Aldrin, et. al. (2001). And having such a facil­ity in the area may create a big imbal­ance in the ecol­ogy that might affect the sen­si­tive wildlife.

In the pre­sen­ta­tions con­ducted by Envi­ron­save regard­ing the land­fill, one of the com­po­nents of the said facil­ity is a Mate­ri­als Recov­ery Facil­ity, wherein the said land­fill shall be receiv­ing ‘mixed (unseg­re­gated) waste’ from all over the province and that seg­re­ga­tion shall be done on-​site. It is clearly stated again, in the IRR of RA 9003 Arti­cle 2. Seg­re­ga­tion of Wastes. Section21. Manda­tory Seg­re­ga­tion of Solid Wastes. “That seg­re­ga­tion of wastes shall pri­mar­ily be con­ducted at the source, to include house­hold, insti­tu­tional, indus­trial, com­mer­cial and agri­cul­tural sources.” If the facil­ity will be receiv­ing mixed waste, then there would be no effort done at the house­hold level to help reduce, reuse, refuse and recy­cle wastes. The very heart of RA 9003 is that it must be done at source.

Traf­fic and road-​safety also is a major con­cern. If the facil­ity would be cater­ing for all the trash the province would pro­duce then it may create unrest for those living along the high­ways that these trucks would pass by. Foul smell (due to unseg­re­gated wastes), noise pol­lu­tion and safety for both com­muters and pedes­tri­ans at stake if there are an added number of trucks pass­ing a single route to a common des­ti­na­tion. Even if it has ‘trans­fer sta­tions’ it would still not dis­count the fact that trucks would be set to go to these so-​called trans­fer sta­tions as pro­posed by the pro­po­nent. High­ways and road sys­tems will also be sub­jected to damage due to the volume and capac­ity of these bridges and road­ways to ser­vice large and heavy dump trucks.

Based on the reprint of Rachel’s Envi­ron­ment and Health Weekly (#37 Aug10,1987, #116 Feb.14,1989, #617 Sept.24, 1998)

• #37: The U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency says All Land­fills Leak, even those using best avail­able liners.
• #116: Ana­lyz­ing why all land­fills leak.
• #617: Land­fills are dangerous.

Here in the Philip­pines there are quite a number of expe­ri­ences that so-​called land­fill pro­po­nents submit pro­pos­als for a San­i­tary Land­fill that in the end only ends up to be an open dump­site and con­trol dump­site. But, in paper, they all claim to be land­fills. Unfor­tu­nately irre­versible damage has been done to these sites with the cost of both human and envi­ron­men­tal costs. This is true with the “land­fills” located in San Mateo in Rizal, Pay­atas, San Jose Del Monte in Bula­can and even Clark and in Cebu. All of them ended up to be well below of what was expected to be as a “san­i­tary” landfill.

Based also in the offi­cial report released by the MGB, it states that “Geo­graph­i­cally, the project site is cen­tered at coor­di­nates, 120 degrees 41’ 30” East Long. And 14degrees 05’ 57.2” North Lat.” Sup­pos­edly, this coor­di­nates would fall at the center of the pro­posed land­fill site. But when we plot­ted these coor­di­nates, we made a star­tling dis­cov­ery. It cen­tered nowhere near the known land­fill site or even nowhere near Cavdeal, the quarry com­pany beside the site. The said coor­di­nates when plot­ted to a topo­graphic map, fell some­where in the munic­i­pal­ity of Nasugbu, Batan­gas. This being a major dis­crep­ancy in the offi­cial report released by the MGB.

In the study con­ducted by Ten­gon­ciang, et al. 2002, the soil along Ter­nate, Maragon­don, and up to Mag­a­l­lanes are said to be volcanic.

With all these infor­ma­tion at hand, we are call­ing for those who in one way or another could be of help regard­ing this matter. The Office of the Provin­cial Gov­ern­ment (OPG) of Cavite is sup­port­ing the pro­po­nent with regards to the project. But the dif­fer­ent sec­tors con­cerned will not be taking this sit­ting down. Moves have been made also by the Dio­cese of Imus and dia­logues between the dio­cese and the OPG have already been ensur­ing. Sup­port groups coming from out­side Cavite also flour­ished through con­tacts and link­ages of those involved. NGO’s, Pro­fes­sion­als, and other insti­tu­tions are cur­rently work­ing together to offer alter­na­tives and train­ing pro­grams to address this issue.

We, as Lasal­lians must take part in such an under­tak­ing. The Lasal­lian Com­mu­nity Devel­op­ment Center has been part of the issue since the very begin­ning of the matter, lend­ing a hand during the pre­lim­i­nary meet­ings while orga­niz­ing the com­mu­nity, pro­vid­ing some tech­ni­cal and infor­ma­tion/ edu­ca­tion cam­paign for the enrich­ment of those con­cerned. Coor­di­nat­ing with other link­ages as well as other offices within the Uni­ver­sity for a more holis­tic and syn­er­gic approach to attain­ing Social Trans­for­ma­tion. In the past, we have been part of the clo­sure of the Car­mona Land­fill and oppos­ing the con­struc­tion of the Mag­a­l­lanes Land­fill which even­tu­ally led to the for­ma­tion of the Cavite Greens Coalition- Kalikasan to whom LCDC is also a member. This is a call for action to us Lasal­lians, as part and parcel of a much larger com­mu­nity rather than just being in the con­fines of our walls, let us make a move to inflict the change that we want to see in the society…bearing in mind that all these must be in the con­text of a Lasal­lian touch and in line with the Lasal­lian Guid­ing Principles.

This is a call for action to all those who would want to pre­serve the pris­tine envi­ron­ment of Ter­nate, we as moun­taineers/ envi­ron­men­tal­ists, being the guardians of the moun­tains spe­cially in this case, the national park wherein Pico de Loro is part of.

Gerard S. Nativi­dad
Project Offi­cer, Envi­ron­men­tal Advo­cacy, Lasal­lian Com­mu­nity Devel­op­ment Center, DLSU-D
Adviser, DLSU-D Moun­taineer­ing Soci­ety
Member, Cavite Green Coalition-​Kalikasan
Member, 505th Search and Rescue Aux­il­iary Group, Inc

Car shows are conventions for Air polluters

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Aaminin ko na mahilig ako sa mga sports cars, pan­garap ko ang mak­a­bili ng isang Fer­rari F430, pero dahil ubod ng mahal ang kot­seng ito at madaming lubak at humps sa kalsada ng Pilip­inas, hang­gang pan­garap na lang siguro ito.

Pero nana­natil­ing buhay ang pagkahilig ko sa mga mag­a­garang sasakyan, bumibili ako ng mga mag­a­zines noon, madami din ang akong laro sa PC na tungkol sa mga kotse at karera tulad ng For­mula 1, Need for Speed at GTA. Bumili pa nga ako ng isang MOMO Racing Wheel na gawa ng Log­itech para kahit man lang sa mga com­puter games ay nararanasan ko ang paki­ram­dam ng mag­maneho at maki­apg unahan kasama ang mga kampyon na sina Michael Schu­macher at Mikka Hakkinen.

Hindi lang sa pan­garap bagkos ganoon din sa mga real­i­dad ko, sa uri ng aking mga gawain sa loob at labas ng DLSUD, kung saan-​saan ako nakakarat­ing. Tuwing mai­im­bita­han ako na maging ispiker o taga­pagsanay sa mga pal­i­han o train­ing work­shops, mga con­ven­tions, mga sem­i­nars at sim­pleng paglilibang, madaming nagsasabi na kailan­gan ko ng sar­il­ing sasakyan para maging maal­wan para sa aking sarili.

Pero hindi, mas gusto ko, mas sanay ako na mag­byahe sa pama­m­ag­i­tan ng pam­pub­likong sasakyan. Mas tipid ngayon kaysa sa pag­ma­maneho ng sar­il­ing sasakyan dahil sa ubod ng mahal ng gasolina at krudo. Mas magaan sa paki­ram­dam dahil pwede akong mat­u­log, mag­text at makinig ng tug­tu­gin habang nasa byahe nang walang pag-​aalinlangan dahil hindi naman ako ang nagmamaneho.

Pero ang isa sa mga malak­ing dahi­lan kung bakit kun­tento ako sa pagig­ing bya­hero at hindi nag­ma­maneho ay dahil sa isa sa aking mga adbokasiya ang pan­gan­galaga sa kalikasan. Sa pana­hon natin ngayon na lumala ang sit­wasyon dahi­lan sa global warm­ing, gina­gawa ko ang lahat ng aking makakaya, sa per­sonal na kapasi­dad, upang mak­abawas sa poluyson.

Aminin natin na tayong mga tao lamang ang nakaka­likha ng polusyon kaya sa atin lamang pwe­deng isisi ang pagkasira ng kalikasan. Nakakita ka na ba ng mga hayop na gumawa ng pabrika para makakuha ng pagkain nila?

Maba­lik ako, ano ang koneksyon ng pan­gan­galaga ko sa kalikasan at pagig­ing kon­tento sa pagig­ing bya­hero imbis na bumili ng sar­il­ing sasakyan? Narito ang sagot:

The impor­tant sources of atmos­pheric pol­lu­tion on a global or regional scale are:

1. Auto­mo­biles. Accord­ing to the U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA), dri­ving a car is the single most pol­lut­ing thing that most of us do. Motor vehi­cles emit mil­lions of tons of pol­lu­tants into the air each year. In many urban areas, motor vehi­cles are the single largest con­trib­u­tor to ground-​level ozone, a major com­po­nent of smog.

The pri­mary pol­lu­tants pro­duced by auto­mo­biles are:
1. Hydro­car­bons. They come from the evap­o­ra­tion of fuel, espe­cially on hot days, leak­ing fluids, and during refu­el­ing at gas sta­tions.
2. Nitro­gen oxides. Pro­duced by high heat during the burn­ing of fuel.
3. Carbon monox­ide. Pro­duced by the incom­plete burn­ing of fuel.

Modern auto­mo­biles pol­lute much less than older models thanks to emis­sion con­trols includ­ing cat­alytic con­vert­ers. But the number of cars is so large, and they are driven so much, they are still major sources of pol­lu­tion. (source)

Kitams? Malak­ing kasalanan para kay Inang Kalikasan ang paggamit ng sar­il­ing sasakyan ngayon. Pero dahil hindi mai­wasan, minu­mungkahi ko na mag car­pool o magsama-​sama sa isang sasakyan kung meron ang isa sa mga kasama nyo. May polusyon pa rin dahil sa sasakyan pero nabawasan dahil isang sasakyan lang ang dala niyo, sa halip na tag-​iisa kayong lahat na magkak­abarkada o grupo.

Sa bayan nga ng Silang kung saan ako lumaki, umuso ang mga scooter o motor na pam­bi­nata. Guma­gas­tos sila ng malaki para maging "maporma" ang kani­lang motor. May mga ilaw, malakas na soundsys­tem, magara ang pin­tura, pero ang resulta ay ingay at polusyon. Saga­bal pa nga sa mga pru­sisyon at parada dahil nakakai­nis na usok at ingay lamang ang kani­lang nalilikha. Ubod pa ng yabang ang karami­han sa mga ito, nagka­roon lamang ng motor ay akala mo kung sinong may maha­la­gang gina­gawa sa lipunan, tambay lang naman pala ang iba. (Pas­intabi po)

Ganoon din sa mga kotse o sasakyan na apat ang gulong. Totoong maporma at mag­a­rang tingnan, pero sa ban­dang huli, ano ang epekto nito sa ating kapali­gi­ran? Sa ating mga kapwa tao at ibang nilalang?

Kaya kung mapa­pansin nyo, noong eleksyon sa DLSUD, hindi kami kumukuha ng mga sasakyan at nag­mo­mo­tor­cade. Bukod sa wala kaming pondo para sa gasolina, Ingay at polusyon lamang naman ang nililikha nito, dagdag dito, nagig­ing maya­bang kami sa mata ng mga nakararam­ing estudyante na ang ini­isip ay nang-​iinggit lamang kami sa tuwing may sasakyan kami. Tapos hiram lang pala ang mga sasakyan, kaya sino ang niloko namin? (Muli, pasintabi)

Ngayon, kung ang isang sasakyan at pag­ma­maneho nito ay isa sa mga pinaka-​malakas sa polusyon, ano pa kaya kung magsama-​sama ang mga ito sa isang car show o convention?

Sa tingin ng mga may malasakit sa kalikasan ito ay con­ven­tion ng mga air polluters

Round 2 para sa mga anti-JPEPA! Huray!

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Nakakatuwa talaga ang Senado ngayon, bukod sa mga pag­dinig at imbesti­gasyon niyo sa NBN deal ay sabay din nitong pinag-​aaralan ang JPEPA ang kon­trober­syal na tratado o kasun­d­uang na siyang lalong lulugmok sa ating mga Pilipino at gagawin tayong basur­a­han ng bansang Hapon.

Sa gani­tong banda, nalu­lunkot ako dahil ang bansang pinag­mu­lan ng Gundam Wing at Naruto, mga paborito kong anime, ay siya pang kumik­i­los upong pahi­ra­pan lalo ang Pilip­inas. Hindi ba sapat na kaming mga bagets (naks) na Pinoy ay mahilig na sa mga anime? Ngayon ay gagawin pa tayong basur­a­han at aagawan ng mga nurses at duktor?

Maba­lik tayo sa Senado kung saan muli ay naka­pun­tos ang mga pwer­sang tumu­tu­tol sa JPEPA, aniya nga sa ulat mula Inquirer.net:

Sen­a­tor Miriam Defensor-​Santiago, chair­man of the com­mit­tee on for­eign rela­tions, has threat­ened to sit on the JPEPA and not spon­sor it on the floor, which would effec­tively make for a diplo­matic rejec­tion of the treaty.

During the hear­ing, San­ti­ago told gov­ern­ment nego­tia­tors, headed by Trade Under­sec­re­taries Thomas Aquino and Elmer Her­nan­dez: “If I find it impos­si­ble to defend it on the Senate on the basis of your state­ment, then as chair, I will be com­pelled to defer sub­mis­sion of my com­mit­tee reports. In other words, JPEPA will be dead.”

This after Sen­a­tor Manuel Roxas II failed to get answers to the fol­low­ing questions:

• What is gov­ern­ment doing to help people take advan­tage of the JPEPA? “I want to know were, what, and what sectors…will be able to take this stepladder...to the window opened by the JPEPA?”
• What are the ben­e­fits of the JPEPA? “[What the gov­ern­ment pre­sented] are pie in the sky num­bers based on leads, inquiries, and let­ters. I want the records of the BOI [Board of Invest­ments] and DTI [Depart­ment of Trade and Indus­try] of what actu­ally came in. A lot of the deci­sions depend on the valid­ity of your claims of ben­e­fits,” Roxas said.
• How much did the Philip­pines give up to get these benefits?

“In the last hear­ing, I was left dis­ap­pointed because it has been made clear why it is good for us…We are fin­ished with the period of gen­er­al­i­ties. We want to move…to specifics,” Roxas said.

Mahusay hindi ba? Bravo kina Mar Roxas at Miriam San­ti­ago. Sana nga ay magtuluy-​tuloy na ang pag­baba­sura ng JPEPA, kung hindi man ay muling makipag negosasyon sa bansang Hapon upang lin­isin at gawing mas makatarun­gan ang kasun­d­uang ito.

Para naman sa mga ahente ng pekeng pan­gulo, tama na. Wala namang may gusto sa JPEPA, kayo lang ang mapilit, bakit? Malaki ba ang pam­padu­las o grasyang kayo lang ang makikinabang?