“It is high time to call a spade a spade: the Aquino government has
demonstrated that it can no longer meet even the minimum demands of the
Filipino people for environmental protection and the wise utilization of
natural resources towards people-oriented development and
industrialization.” – Kalikasan Partylist
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Nowadays, a mere low-pressure area can already submerge
villages and even cause a landslide. In some towns in Bataan, Pangasinan
and Bulacan, and in Metro Manila’s Valenzuela and Parañaque, for
example, there are villages still flooded by rains brought about by a
low-pressure area. “How much more if we had super-typhoons?” residents
wading through flooded streets asked in fear.
Early this year, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Council reported that an unprecedented 1,257 Filipinos died from Typhoon
Sendong in late 2011, while nearly 5,000 were injured. “Typhoon Sendong
exposed the Aquino government’s lack of disaster plans,” said Kabataan
Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino.
In President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s State of the Nation Address
last Monday, just six months after Sendong, Aquino boasted of supposed
improvements in his government’s handling of disasters. He praised what
he described as his administration’s improved capability at disaster
response.
But in a forum led by Kalikasan Partylist held shortly before Aquino
delivered his address, green groups found little to no trace of Aquino’s
touted disaster response capability in his administration’s track
record.
In fact, Filipinos are in greater danger today from environmental
catastrophes than two years ago when Aquino started to rule. According
to the Kalikasan Partylist, the Aquino administration has not addressed
but worsened the environmental crisis with its policies and programs.
Environmentally-destructive policies
After two years as president, Aquino has shown a track record of
“pursuing environmentally destructive policies,” said Clemente Bautista
Jr., president of Kalikasan Partylist. These policies, he said, include
the continued liberalization of mining industry under Aquino’s
Executive Order 79, and the limited log ban in 2011.
Mining-related sinking in Benguet (Photo courtesy of Amianan Salakniban / bulatlat.com)
Kalikasan Partylist suspects that Aquino’s recently signed
Executive Order 79
which further liberalizes mining operations in the country is issued
partly as payoff for his presidential campaign financiers from the
mining sector. “The signing of the said executive order had been delayed
because Aquino held consultations first with mining companies,”
Palatino said in this forum.
Under Aquino, the increase in large-scale mining is such that its
gross production value rose in 2011 by P18.9-billion (US$448-m), while
the contribution of metals to exports have increased from 3.8-percent to
5.6-percent, Bautista of Kalikasan Partylist said. But all these
brought only “minimal contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic
Product (0.9-percent of almost P200-billion), and employment
(0.6-percent),” added Bautista.....
MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL:
http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/07/27/%E2%80%98filipinos-environment-in-greater-peril-under-aquino%E2%80%99s-neoliberal-policies%E2%80%99-green-groups/
Fact: There are many maternal conceptions in the country. Government response: Promote contraception. 
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