“I MUST confess, we have realized we are a failure in our campaign against illegal logging and illegal fishing.”
Thus a contrite Honorable Governor Enrique “Tet” Garcia beat his breast before his constituents in assembly for the Bataan Integrated Coastal Management Program Wednesday last week.
Garcia admitted that the provincial government has failed in its campaign to totally eradicate the province’s twin menace to the environment: illegal logging and illegal fishing. This despite the purchase of a brand new helicopter enlisted in the campaign.
Even as he conceded some modicum of success, the police apprehending a number of illegal loggers and destructive fishers and impounding boats, trucks, jeeps and even carabaos used in the nefarious trades, Garcia still felt there was nothing to celebrate. What with violations still continuing.
Time now for the “iron hand” to be enlisted in the campaign: Garcia proposed a “power shift” to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police being the lead agency in the war against illegal logging and illegal fishing. A war indeed it is, a war it is to be pursued as, Garcia in effect was saying.
“Kailangan matakot ang mga perpetrators at kayang-kayang gawin ito ng AFP at PNP.” So was the governor quoted as saying, underscoring the urgency of need if only “to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
At the same time Garcia was admitting failure, making his mea culpa and steeling his resolve to rise above it, the Honorable Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez was vehement in his denial of the existence of any dumpsite in his city, in direct contravention of the notice issued by the regional office of the Environment Management Bureau ordering the closure of 16 dumpsites in Pampanga, including the City of San Fernando.
“I have already closed all open dumpsites here since I assumed office.” So Rodriguez declared.
“THE BIG LIE.” So were bulleted pictures splashed on the front page of this paper Friday last week, captioned: “Continuous dumping of unsegregated wastes at the open dumpsite in Barangay Lara, City of San Fernando gives the lie to the denial of its existence by Mayor Oscar Rodriguez as bannered in Sun-Star Pampanga on Wednesday. One photo showing a boy holding a copy of the paper before a garbage truck being emptied of its load of plastic bagged wastes by scavengers.
“There is no lie to that. That is not an open dumpsite. Those are residuals that we have separated from the biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes.” So said Rodriguez of the photographs in the following day’s issue of Sun-Star Pampanga.
Though conceding that “there is a ‘residual waste storage’ in Barangay Lara where the city’s materials recovery facility can also be found.”
“TRUE LIES.” So this paper frontpaged on Tuesday photographs anew captioned: “A sorry excuse for a materials recovery facility is this dilapidated, hardly used sawali shed by the entrance to the Barangay Lara open dumpsite where actual recovery of recyclable materials is done by scavengers right on the garbage truck. Again putting the lie to Mayor Iscar Rodriguez’s statement of a residual waste storage at an MRF in Barangay Lara where “we have separated the biodegradable from the non-biodegradeable waste.”
Need more proof to Rodriguez’s lie of a non-existent dumpsite in Barangay Lara? See the front page today where through the acrid smoke of burning garbage, garbage trucks go on dumping their stinking cargo at the site. Taken only this Monday, February 7, at 4:20 p.m.
Confronted by issues not to their liking, once congressmen now local government executives Tet Garcia and Oca Rodriguez took to different tack. The former with meek submission, the latter with haughty denial.
Of Tet and Oca. Of humility and pride. Of sincerity and obstinancy. Or should that be hypocrisy?
Shame.
Thus a contrite Honorable Governor Enrique “Tet” Garcia beat his breast before his constituents in assembly for the Bataan Integrated Coastal Management Program Wednesday last week.
Garcia admitted that the provincial government has failed in its campaign to totally eradicate the province’s twin menace to the environment: illegal logging and illegal fishing. This despite the purchase of a brand new helicopter enlisted in the campaign.
Even as he conceded some modicum of success, the police apprehending a number of illegal loggers and destructive fishers and impounding boats, trucks, jeeps and even carabaos used in the nefarious trades, Garcia still felt there was nothing to celebrate. What with violations still continuing.
Time now for the “iron hand” to be enlisted in the campaign: Garcia proposed a “power shift” to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police being the lead agency in the war against illegal logging and illegal fishing. A war indeed it is, a war it is to be pursued as, Garcia in effect was saying.
“Kailangan matakot ang mga perpetrators at kayang-kayang gawin ito ng AFP at PNP.” So was the governor quoted as saying, underscoring the urgency of need if only “to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
At the same time Garcia was admitting failure, making his mea culpa and steeling his resolve to rise above it, the Honorable Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez was vehement in his denial of the existence of any dumpsite in his city, in direct contravention of the notice issued by the regional office of the Environment Management Bureau ordering the closure of 16 dumpsites in Pampanga, including the City of San Fernando.
“I have already closed all open dumpsites here since I assumed office.” So Rodriguez declared.
“THE BIG LIE.” So were bulleted pictures splashed on the front page of this paper Friday last week, captioned: “Continuous dumping of unsegregated wastes at the open dumpsite in Barangay Lara, City of San Fernando gives the lie to the denial of its existence by Mayor Oscar Rodriguez as bannered in Sun-Star Pampanga on Wednesday. One photo showing a boy holding a copy of the paper before a garbage truck being emptied of its load of plastic bagged wastes by scavengers.
“There is no lie to that. That is not an open dumpsite. Those are residuals that we have separated from the biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes.” So said Rodriguez of the photographs in the following day’s issue of Sun-Star Pampanga.
Though conceding that “there is a ‘residual waste storage’ in Barangay Lara where the city’s materials recovery facility can also be found.”
“TRUE LIES.” So this paper frontpaged on Tuesday photographs anew captioned: “A sorry excuse for a materials recovery facility is this dilapidated, hardly used sawali shed by the entrance to the Barangay Lara open dumpsite where actual recovery of recyclable materials is done by scavengers right on the garbage truck. Again putting the lie to Mayor Iscar Rodriguez’s statement of a residual waste storage at an MRF in Barangay Lara where “we have separated the biodegradable from the non-biodegradeable waste.”
Need more proof to Rodriguez’s lie of a non-existent dumpsite in Barangay Lara? See the front page today where through the acrid smoke of burning garbage, garbage trucks go on dumping their stinking cargo at the site. Taken only this Monday, February 7, at 4:20 p.m.
Confronted by issues not to their liking, once congressmen now local government executives Tet Garcia and Oca Rodriguez took to different tack. The former with meek submission, the latter with haughty denial.
Of Tet and Oca. Of humility and pride. Of sincerity and obstinancy. Or should that be hypocrisy?
Shame.
