Complacency culprits the ruin of our environment. Prevalent belief existed that
the trees won't run out. That Mother Nature would just take care of the whole
thing and everything was okay. It was the same story with our kasawgan. How bad
would a fishpond here and another down there? How could it change the landscape
considering the immensity of the land? How can a chicken or a pig farm up river
adversely affected people's lives? That these were only small venture thereby
ecological repercussion was negligible. That no one would even feel it.
These were presumptions of the past and the now generation bears the
consequence.
I stand corrected that shortsightedness or imbecility caused this to occur. In
retrospect, egotistical stubbornness of leaders played a big role.
Knowledgeable people foresaw it coming. Scientists advised of possible outcome.
But not so many listened and those that did were imputed as deceptive
doomsayers.
This was way back then. But despite this awareness, we still haven't come close
to the turning point. Echoes from past mistakes though criticized with fervor
fail to translate as deterrent. The unsightly footprints of the reckless remind
us of baneful deeds; yet we refuse to modify our ways. We didn't learn a
lesson. The carnage continues and what is faintly left from previous plunder is
again under siege.
The intention however is somewhat different. It isn't purely greed anymore, but
guises for common good. But it's as deadly as the last. Armed with multi
billion loans from a foreign country, heavy equipment again is ravaging the
land, This could have been blissful had it not for the intrusive inconsistency
perpetuated against the ecological comportment of the region. It causes
irreparable damage to the environment most specially to Masao River and to what
remains of our already devastated wetland.
Bantay Kasawgan Group is going against this onslaught. What they have is sheer
courage and wishful thinking of protecting the remnant of what then was verdant
mangrove woodland.
This is not enough, but at least an improvement. We pretended to be asleep when
the sins of our fathers were committed. We didn't even raise a squeak of
resentment. We knew that something wasn't right, yet we just glided smoothly
with the flow. Yes, there was a reason. And that we already reconciled in the
privacy of our conscience. Case is closed.
But the game is not over. The resurgence of the beast again emerges. It sings
different tune, but still is brutally destructive in the same ballpark. Bantay
Kasawgan is the vanguard against it. It's not their war alone. It is to every
caring Butuanon everywhere. It is an open assault on our heritage. Masao was
where it started. It shall not be molested again. Let us stay awake this time
around.
The word prosperity is often used as alibi to justify abuses on the
environment. Mistreatment of nature's ecological arrangement and its effect
has always been equated as price to progress. Maybe, people with little choices
could painfully endure when family sustenance relies from it. But what about
the rights of other citizens to live freely without being poisoned or pestered
by recklessness and perverseness of insidious entrepreneurs?
A good example is the current perpetual invasion of disease-carrying flies in
Cabcabon. Chicken poultry and pig barns in the neighborhood are causing it.
There are also occasions when water of the Taguibo River turns green from
industrial waste with inauspicious effect on people and livelihood downstream.
There are supposedly safeguards to prevent this. But obviously, these so-called
regulations are not rightly in placed. It is apparent that for whatever reason
the system fails to function.
There were instances that had it not for cooler heads, some barrio folks were
already willing to put the law in their hands. They even yearned the kind of
justice of time passed when 'shoeless people' fixed community and individual
problems quickly and efficiently.
The encroachment of innumerable langaw swarms the barrios like a plague of
locust. Some people rather have the locust. At least they have the choice to
cook and eat it. This has been on going for years that rural folks have no
option but to live by it. Houses of those that can afford barred their windows
with screen. Most people however simply dwells in disgust with the flies.
Why is this happening when it can be avoided? What madness is there in the mind
of those who permit it? It's naïve to postulate that this seeable cruelty
and abuse bestowed on barrio folks escape the knowing from authorities. To
ignore and tolerate injustice of this magnitude is not only barbaric but also
sadistic. It's true that the people of Cabcabon collectively lack the elegance
of social and political graciousness, but they too are human beings. They are
people that are literally living with the infernal embrace of these horrible
creatures.
Being born in the very barrio, which now agonizes in misery understandably
harbors my sense of bias. But when I play back images of that little girl
sitting on the floor with flies on her face while eating rice from a
fly-infested plate, anyone's feeling toward this atrocity draws anger wherever
they come from. Yes, more so in me. And who wouldn't be? It's despicable and
uncivilized. It's savagery.
How dare you people to allow this!
The workings of the reckless continue to claim victims both in Masao and in
Cabcabon. Obsessed by unalterable mandate to fulfill, voices to resist are
muffled in deaf ears as negligible nuisances. Bantay Kasawgan is David against
Goliath and when billions are factored in, mighty Goliath is the one with
slingshot. On the other hand, inhabitants of Cabcabon run out of shoulders to
cry on. In anguish they crave for compassion and sanity.
They suffered long enough.
