Should we rejoice?

Atty. Gloria Ramos

The report on the finding of alleged commercial quantities of natural gas in Alegria, Cebu hugged a lot of attention from stakeholders, including media. Cebu Daily News bannered the deadline “Alegria, Cebu rejoices: We struck gas!” on March 16.
Should we rejoice at the prospect?
Many were jolted by the news. Cebuanos did not know that exploration and drilling activities in the area started way back, according to the news, in 2009.
Why the secrecy? To think that the municipality of Alegria is part of the Tanon Strait Protected Seascape.
Although Tanon Strait’s protected area management board was formally convened only in February, 2015, despite being proclaimed as such in 1998, this proposed extractive energy exploration project should have been presented to the management body for its action. The board and stakeholders in the protected area are guided by existing laws and regulations and the approved General Management Plan which is the roadmap for planning and development in the area.
A protected seascape, like Tanon Strait, which can be composed of as many provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays, is subject to the policies, provisions and principles enunciated in RA 7586, the “National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992? and relevant national laws such as RA 9729, the Climate Change Act of 2009”, RA 8585 as amended by RA 10654, RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, among others.
Take note of the overriding goals: The National Integrated Protected Areas System refers to “The classification and administration of all designated protected areas to maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems, to preserve genetic diversity, to ensure sustainable use of resources found therein, and to maintain their natural conditions to the greatest extent possible”.
The principle of local autonomy does not exclude the requirement that local government units should ensure that any program or project within the municipality/city should be towards maintaining the ecological integrity of the protected area and does not cause its harm or destruction.
RA 7586, the NIPAS Act, declares as a public policy that “use and enjoyment of these protected areas must be consistent with the principles of biological diversity and sustainable development”.
To ensure such goals, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary has even the authority and responsibility, under said law, “To adopt and enforce a land use scheme and zoning plan in adjoining areas for the preservation and control of activities that may threaten the ecological balance in the protected areas.”
It is naïve to argue that the exploration and mining (or is fracking?) are done on land, and thus beyond the concern of the Tanon Strait management body. We know very well the significant environmental impacts of natural gas exploration to biodiversity, water resources, land and marine ecosystems and in the air such as methane emissions, and of course, the consequent public health and social impacts.
Precisely, because all natural life-support systems, including living and non-living among us, are inter-connected, and human actions impact the environment, our country adopted as a matter of policy, and specifically for fisheries, “the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management and integrated coastal area management in specific natural fishery management areas”. (RA 10654)
The ridge to reef ecosystems philosophy mandates a holistic and comprehensive approach to management and development.
What are the implications of this project to the future of Cebu, our country and our planet and people? Well, it is regressive and a set back in a big way. It stands to set aside the State guaranteed right of a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.
Considering that we have a commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to lessen our vulnerability and increase our resiliency to climate change, it is high time for government to cast away its penchant and love affair with fossil fuels, of which natural gas is.
Cebu hosts perhaps the most number of greenhouse gas – emitting coal power plants in the country, and a hub of industries plus open dumpsites which contribute to carbon and methane emissions.
Allowing this project does not definitely bring us nearer to the much-needed pathway of sustainability. It is a clear example of a deeply-embedded and unfortunate business-as-usual mindset that can only bring us faster to the road to perdition.
Our decision-makers need to appreciate the meaning of sustainable development and the fact that sustainable development is the cornerstone of our fight to protect our common future and those of the current and future generations.
The Climate Change Act of 2009 underscores that “As a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the State adopts the ultimate objective of the Convention which is the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system which should be achieved within a time frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.”
Let’s prioritize the massive shift towards the use of renewable energy as primary source of our energy requirement as demanded by the imperiled state of our world and of our laws – we owe that big time to our children and their children.
We care for them and their future, don’t we?