Illegal loggers and government to be blamed for the Luzon calamity

Arroyo rallies nation towards unity amid tragedy

By Joel Francis Guinto
INQ7.net


PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo rallied the nation towards unity in the aftermath of the death and destruction recently caused by four typhoons.

“This tragedy will unite the country,” Arroyo said in a speech on Friday at a meeting of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) in Camp Aguinaldo.

Arroyo also thanked volunteers and private organizations, which have contributed their time, money, and resources to rescue and relief operations.

“It is a time for the country to come together. For individuals to do heroic deeds together,” she said.

“The manpower and resources of the government are stretched thinly, but I am proud that volunteers and private companies have filled the gap,” she added.

“Yoyong,” the fourth storm, to hit Luzon in two weeks, left eight people dead so far, the civil defense office said.

Before “Yoyong,” tropical storm “Winnie” left 407 dead. “Violeta” and “Unding” were the two other storms that ravaged the country.

The president didn't mention in her speech the reason/s why the calamity in Luzon happened, or how her administration is going to go about punishing the culprits of the tragedy. Yes, she did create a special unit to go after the illegal loggers who raped the mountains of the areas affected by the flashfoods, but it's not clear exactly how they are going to go about that, and considering nothing ever happened in the aftermath of similar calamities in the past, notably the Ormoc tragedy a few years ago which drowned about 5,000 people and recently the landslide in Southern Leyte which also claimed the lives of numerous residents.

A shocking fact: in the time of Marcos we had 17 million hectares of forests all over the country, now the number is about 700,000 hectares. If the government will continue to turn a blind eye on illegal logging and the destruction of the environment, and, in fact, continue to play a part in it (For example local officials who protect illegal logging and has business dealings with illegal loggers), calamities like these, and in even bigger scales, will happen again and again. I think we have no problem with regard to laws that protect the environment. It is in the implementing of these laws that government fail.