Atty. Gloria Estenzo-Ramos
Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones is bent on reforming the Basic Education Curriculum to increase awareness for teachers, learners and community on the effects and challenges of climate change. This is a big step in the right direction and needs urgent prioritization not just by the Department of Education but all government agencies and instrumentalities and stakeholders.
Climate change is the greatest threat to humanity. The Philippines is among the most vulnerable countries to its disastrous impacts and we have experienced super typhoons “Yolanda” and the stronger “Lawin”(2016). Yet, our collective response has been disappointing.
Secretary Briones has seen devastations on a scale that one can never imagine to experience in one’s lifetime. She was in Camarines Sur affected recently by Tropical Depression ‘Usman’ and was quoted to say: “If you will see the landslide, it is the biggest landslide that one can possibly imagine,” she shared. “It covered more than five kilometers, so napakalaki talaga at kailangan napaghahandaan yung mga ganito,”she added.
She witnessed the dire impacts of the strong typhoons on our people, and infrastructures such school building and the entire town of Naval, in Biliran, Leyte, being covered with mud and flood waters, in Marawi, Isabela, Ormoc, to name a few.
Fortunately, she is among those in the Executive Department who believe that “Climate change is here” and we have to prepare hard for it.
And, we are not lacking in laws to fight it. Apart from RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 and RA 8749, the Clean Air Act of 1999, which are measures to curb greenhouse emissions which aggravate climate change, RA 9729, the Climate Change Act of 2009, was enacted to integrate climate change response in policies and programs of government. Sadly, It has become another law “languishing in the sickbed of non-compliance,” to borrow the words of a dear friend and colleague, Tony Oposa, Jr.
It is unfortunate, that the DENR is endorsingWaste-to-Energy (WTE) technology, which would make RA 9003,RA 8749 and RA 9729, inutile. WTE increases carbon emission and encourages collection of more waste materials instead of ensuring waste minimization, segregation, composting and recycling. Incineration is questionable under our legal framework as it causes pollution with dire impacts on the health of the people and the planet.
Environmental advocates oppose it for its serious environmental and health impacts, apart from being considered violative of our rights to health and balanced and healthful ecology. It promotes burning and production of dioxin, which according to Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, former United Nations (UN) Chief–technical advisor on environmental concerns, emit the most dangerous toxins known to science.
As Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, said “By polluting the oceans, not mitigating CO2 emissions and destroying our biodiversity, we are killing our planet. Let us face it, there is no planet B.”
We need more champions from our agencies to fight climate change, not accelerate it.
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