Youths shown Manila Bay they’ll inherit

Using a series of computer simulations, environmental advocates showed students attending the 9th Youth for Environment Summer (Yes) Camp in Baguio City how the Philippines could be affected by climate change and what they could do as future leaders to avert the problem.

The program, held on Friday, particularly drew attention to the sorry state of Manila Bay, on which about a third of the country’s population rely for their food or economic activity.

Noel Antonio Gaerlan, executive director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) Manila Bay Coordinating Office, said young Filipinos should share some of the responsibilities in caring for the environment.

“Saan galing ang basura? Sa atin. Tayo ang nagtapon, tayo ang maglinis (Where does trash come from? From us! We should clean up our mess),”  said Gaerlan, who spoke about the pollution plaguing Manila Bay.

Fifty-one waterways from three regions in Luzon empty into Manila Bay, the DENR official said. Some 34 million Filipinos rely on the bay’s  condition for food and commerce, he added.

Gaerlan said that in 2008, the Supreme Court issued a continuing mandamus or directive that compels government to clean up the bay until 2015. “This means that if we can’t clean up the bay, I can go to jail,” he told the camp participants.

But the children can help him fulfill his mandate by helping reduce the amount of waste that flows into the rivers, Gaerlan said.

Metro Manila generates 11,500 tons of garbage daily, but 30 percent of this, or 3,450 tons, are not collected and end up in the bay, he said.

Nereus Acosta, presidential adviser for environmental protection, told hundreds of elementary and high school students attending the camp Friday that the Philippines has been described as the most disaster-stricken country in the world because almost all its provinces or towns have suffered a disaster.

“I am not doing this to scare you. I just want to show you that climate change is here,” Acosta told the attendees of the Yes Camp held yearly by the Department of Education to explore environmental issues.

Acosta said the simulations were made before Tropical Storm “Ondoy” buried most of Metro Manila in floodwaters in 2009. “But now, we see that many of the disasters we had simulated are happening today in parts of the country,” he said.

The environmental adviser went on to explain the connection between the environment and human survival: “Kung walang forest, walang watersheds. Kung walang watersheds, walang water. Kung walang water, walang palay. Kung walang palay, walang pagkain. Kung walang pagkain, walang tao (If there are no forests, there won’t be any watersheds. If there are no watersheds, there won’t be any water. If there is no water, then we can’t grow rice. If we don’t have rice, people can starve and die),” he said.