Former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. called on the public to do their part in saving what is left of the environment.
“Humankind is in great peril, and the world is groaning in travail and torment because of the crisis we face today, perhaps unparalleled in terms of gravity, duration, and rapid succession—an act of self-defense by an aggrieved Mother Earth which has been manipulated, abused, plundered, and defiled by man,” he said to those who attended the Environmental Law Talks 3 at Hotel Elizabeth in Cebu City last Tuesday evening.
Davide said Yolanda, the strongest typhoon that ever hit land, earthquakes and floods are obvious manifestations of nature’s disgust over how it is treated by people. He said there’s no one to be blamed for calamities other than human beings whom the former chief magistrate referred to as “the principal culprit of Climate Change.” As a result, Davide said calamities brought forth unquantifiable damage to food, energy, water crisis, and diseases.
“In his quest for progress, in his madness to amass power, fame, and fortune, and with avarice, greed, selfishness, man has forgotten that the creator of the universe has so designed the earth to have a perfect equilibrium in everything,” he said.
The three-day event which carries the theme “Mainstreaming Environmental Justice through Science-based Participatory Governance and Effective Law Enforcement and Adjudication” was organized by the University of Cebu College of Law and the German-based Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.