State shouldn’t prioritize one natural resource over another — UP exec

RIVER CLEANUP Workers of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission collect garbage thrown into the waterway in Carriedo, Manila. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines – The state should not choose which natural resource should be prioritized and protected, a University of the Philippines (UP) researcher said on Wednesday.

Instead, UP Marine Science Institute (MSI) Deputy Director for Research Dr. Deo Onda said that people should consider one portion of the environment as directly relative to another.

“I think as a human being we should not be saying let’s not protect this and let’s just protect this.  We need to understand the entirety of the ecosystem, there is a strong connection between land and the seas,” Deo said in press conference in Quezon City.

“Not protecting one would actually affect the other,” he added.

Deo and the other panelists were asked to react on Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr.’s comments where he said that the government should spend its budget on rehabilitating Pasig River rather than buying ships to guard the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Petitioners from Palawan and Zambales were asking the SC to order the executive branch to implement the laws mandating government to protect the WPS, but Reyes asked them if the government should spend P5 million for airplane and ship gasolines when the marine vessels being taken away are worth P500,000.

“You know it’s embarrassing that [we] even discuss these things because your petition really falls down to the basic fact that we are not yet a well-developed country and the way your petition is drafted is as if you are the USA that the government can attend to every problem of the country,” he said.

READ: SC Justice: Guard WPS for 24 hours? Spend money on ‘more important’ things 

Deo clarified that they are not against rehabilitating the Pasig River, but what they are calling for is a holistic approach to taking care of the country’s resources.

“Maliliit pa lang tayo sinasabihan tayo na ‘we need to protect the environment.’  Tapos ngayon sasabihin natin na hindi na kailangan (protektahan) ‘yan, ito lang?” he asked.

“Alam niyo naman kung saan lumalabas ang tubig sa Pasig River.  We’ve been treating the environment separately but in fact we should be treating it as one unit,” he said.

The petitioners facing SC recently filed a petition asking the high tribunal to issue a writ of kalikasan, amid supposed violations against the constitutional mandate of the government to protect the resources inside the territorial waters. (Editor: Jonathan P. Vicente)

READ: SC asked to direct gov’t execs to enforce environmental laws in West PH Sea