SOMETHING SMELLS
Negros Daily Bulletin
By Alan S. Gensoli
Just when you were beginning to understand R.A. 9003 and E.O. 774, here comes another law, R.A. 95121. Whew! But then again, to paraphrase the adage, if education is exasperating, try ignorance.
Signed into law on Dec. 12, 2008, R.A. 95121, “an act to promote environmental awareness through environmental education and for other purposes,” is officially known as the Environmental Awareness and Education Act of 2008. A copy of this law has been lounging about in my Anti-Baha roll-aboard (yes, my documents now require a roll-aboard), and I really should have discussed this law sooner. After all, education, and in this case educating the public on Solid Waste Management (SWM), is at the core of why I joined the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance. Education also, is an express concern of E.O. 774, the Executive Order Reorganizing the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change, where influencing the “mindsets” of government and the citizenry are repeatedly identified as objective of the E.O.
Education, education, education...that’s the key to environmental awareness. Indeed, all these laws, including this column, will be for naught if we do not understand and commit to memory what we must understand and commit to memory. Inhale and recall: If education is exasperating, try ignorance. Now, exhale and read on.
R.A. 95121 institutionalizes environmental education. It mandates the DepEd, the CHED, the TESDA, and the DSWD, in coordination with the DENR, the DOST, and other relevant agencies, to integrate environmental education in school curricula at all levels. This includes all classes, even those that are not mainstream, such as barangay daycare, pre-school, non-formal education, technical vocational, and professional-level. Even out-of-school youth programs are included. Even indigenous learning programs are not spared. “At all levels” means at all levels. Bravo, 95121!
A parenthetical remark: Speaking of the DSWD, wasn’t Sec. Esperanza Cabral recently in town? She gave out P10 Million to senior citizens, and promised to help the province survive the dead season since this is supposedly the deadliest of all dead seasons, deader than dead. That’s all well and good, but what about R.A. 95121, Esperanza? Is there hope that you will address your department’s role in this as well? Anyway.
When must environmental education begin? Although R.A. 95121 was signed back in December and ordered to take effect 15 days after publication in national newspapers, the deadline for the commencement of environmental education may be found in E.O. 774, Sec. 13, which states in part: “By the opening of the next school year, environmental education must have been incorporated in all levels of the school Science curriculum.” Well then, prepare to stay longer in school starting June 2009.
And what should environmental education teach us? What must environmental education encompass? Oh, plenty. We will be taught environmental concepts and principles, environmental laws (like this one), the state of international and local environment (review Al Gore, but don’t bother with Atienza), local environmental best practices (this is easy because they are few and far between), the threats of environmental degradation and its impact on human well-being (such as the presence of fecal coliform in the waters in, around, and under the open dump in Purok Acacia, Brgy. Felisa), and the responsibility of the citizenry to the environment (like segregating your garbage) and the value of conservation, protection, and rehabilitation of natural resources and the environment in the context of sustainable development (recycling, precisely!). Right away you ask, who are they fooling to learn all these? To which I say, if the government is dead serious about the environment, they’re fooling no one. So, don’t fool yourselves that they are, because you could end up slapped a handsome fine.
If we don’t buckle down now to educating ourselves about the environment, the task of learning how to preserve our habitat will only become more daunting as years of irresponsible neglect pile up. Do we really expect for this problem to disappear? Do we really expect that our unsegregated garbage will assume to garbage heaven? Do we really expect the waters in Purok Acacia, Brgy. Felisa, now contaminated with fecal coliform, to one day suddenly clear up and teem with flora and fauna? Without us lifting a finger? Without environmental education? If by environmental ignorance we came to this, only by environmental education can we get out of this.
To help enforce education, as I presume there will be resistance, may I suggest the following to government. Each time a citizen applies for a license, a permit, a clearance, anything at all, it must require the accomplishment of an environmental duty. In Baguio City for instance, to get a marriage license you must first plant pine tree seedlings. But let’s not limit ourselves to tree-planting, though that is certainly needed because our forest cover has been reduced to 3%, which is bad for our watershed. In addition to tree-planting, however, a company renewing a business permit should enroll its personnel in an SWM seminar and apply the learnings in the workplace. Delinquency will mean fines, and so many offenses thereafter should mean revocation of the business permit.
A note to the DENR: With E.O. 774, the task of implementing SWM was taken over from you by the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change. And now, with R.A. 95121, the task of educating the public about the environment has been removed from you and assigned to the DepEd, CHED, TESDA, and my goodness, even the DSWD. Perhaps, rightfully so, but it shouldn’ have taken the Senate and the House to pass another law when our original environment law, R.A. 9003, of which the DENR was assigned as chief implementor, already provided for the education component. Anyway, with most of the major functions reassigned to other agencies, perhaps the DENR can now proceed with monitoring non-compliant LGUs, in earnest. If not that, then what for, DENR? What else could be your raison d’etre?
In the course of my involvement with the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance, I have met so many good members of the DENR team, including those working in its downline agencies, such as the Environmental Management Board, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the PENRO, and the CENRO. I admire their professionalism and can almost feel their frustration at their leadership’s ineptitude. I am not saying that the DENR is incapable of functioning. In fact, under another secretary it very well could. If there is anything left that I can expect out of Lito Atienza, it is delicadeza, that in the face of great public criticism, in the face of his own admission of failure as evidenced by hundreds of non-compliant LGU’s eight years after R.A. 9003 was signed into law, and most of all, in the face of obvious disapproval and public chastisement manifested by E.O. 774, which empowered his boss to take over the performance of his duties, he should resign. There’s nothing more for him to do here, can’t he read that?*
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