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For "groundbreaking studies" on mangroves and aquaculture, Time Magazine named Filipina scientist Jurgenne Primavera among 30 "Heroes of the Environment." She’s also a path-blazer.
Primavera marshaled 106 scientists to cobble a plan to ease the ratcheting stress on the 1.1 million-hectare Agusan Marsh, "Viewpoint" (PDI/ Aug. 28) reported in "Wrecking The Sponge." This strategic wetland waters Eastern Mindanao.
Now, this scientist and grandmother has waded into a new fray. Alongside Butuan and Agusan residents, she’s battling House Bill 03037. If the Senate concurs, this measure would throw open, to chain saws and carpet-baggers, protected forests on ecologically brittle Mount Mayapay.
"As the crow flies," Mayapay’s peak is only eight kilometers from Butuan’s Rizal Park . But pre-Spanish era traders from Indonesia and China steered by this 712-meter mountain. Today, it is not only a 2008 tourism booklet filler. Above all, Mayapay remains a critical watershed for tributaries of seven Butuan rivers. Gihau-an River provides water for all of Buenavista in next door Agusan del Norte.
The mountain is also being stripped bare. "It is dying," Primavera and allies write. Water flows of Bonbon River are now down to a trickle. Flashfloods swamp farms in barangays Dumalagan, Bancasi, Bonbon, Malalag, Libertad, Kinamlutan and Bit-os. Temperature and rainfall patterns seem changing.
Fault lines crisscross Mt. Mayapay. If the mountain is denuded further, it invites flashfloods and mudslides, warn geologists like Dr. Recarte Javelosa: Lowland victims could outstrip the 5,000 death toll in Ormoc’s flashfloods or 3,000 victims smothered in mud in Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte.
"Convert this mountain into a national park," more than 2,300 signatories from concerned Butuanons of California, plus citizens here appealed: The Butuan Global Forum’s chairwoman weighed in. Local government officials didn’t even bother to reply, Primavera recalls wryly.
Now, we know why? Look at Rep. Jose S. Aquino II’s bill. With little fuss, it slipped through the Lower House on May 12. On its cover, HB 03037 claims to fix boundaries of forests lands. In fact, it would vest in the Department of Natural Resources power to convert public land into "alienable and disposable" plots. This "open sesame" would even permit reversal of previous classifications of permanent forest land.
The historical record stokes unease, Butuan-Agusan residents say in a letter to senators: "DENR officials…in cahoots with land-grabbing syndicates and real estate speculators, circumvent conversion rules.. Even now, they’re eagerly anticipating the House bill's passage whereupon they can file claims for titling. If the Senate will investigate closely, the real owners using dummy claimants will be correctly identified.
Other congressmen did file bills "to declare specific parcels of land alienable and disposable." But these covered, at most, only a few hundred hectares. And they offered detailed justification. "In contrast, HB 3037 converts thousands of hectares of public lands… in one lump-sum fashion."
When Congress is in session, we feel the same as when a baby gets hold of a hammer, Will Rogers once noted. "It’s just a question of how much damage he can do."
From Hawaii , Andrew Lee wrote: "I read Viewpoint" on Internet. And I’d like to share my recent experience with Hong Kong immigration for Inquirer and other readers.
"I am a native-born U.S. citizen and U.S. passport holder. On October 25, I traveled to Hong Kong to meet my Filipina girlfriend."It turned out she was detained by Hong Kong immigration agents even though she has no criminal record and had a valid Philippine passport. …
"I found out later (too late) from Chinese airline ground agents that Filipinos, especially young women, are routinely singled out by immigration agents. They’re detained for fear that these women want to stay illegally in Hong Kong.
"It was clear the airline agents and security guards I spoke to were afraid of criticizing the immigration agents. They feared losing their jobs or worse.
"My girlfriend later told me that she and three other Filipino women were detained that night. Another Filipina had been held for three days! My girlfriend was interrogated like she was a criminal. Her crime? Being a Filipina in Hong Kong .
"Her phone was taken from her. She was not allowed to call anyone. She was held for approximately 16 hours with nothing to eat. She and the other women were also subjected to a humiliating strip search for drugs.
"The only good thing was the search was conducted by female agents. Like the other women that were detained, they had no criminal record and had valid travel papers. After this 16 hour-ordeal she was allowed to leave -- on the airline that brought her there.
"I later traveled to Manila to meet my girlfriend. At the Aquino International airport I saw many young Chinese women from Hong Kong who were visiting Manila for shopping and a vacation.
"How would the Chinese Government react if their citizens were treated the way my girlfriend and these other Filipino women were treated? Held without cause, denied food, isolated, then stripped searched? Filipinos need to be made aware of the type of abuse that is happening in Hong Kong.”
