8 December 2004
Sapporo City, JAPAN
19:00

To: Hon. Sec. Mike Defensor
Department of Environment & Natural Resources
Republic of the Philippines

Dear Sir:

Greetings!

Whereas, your column dated 8 Dec 2004 (Philstar) and entitled Paghuli sa illegal loggers pagtulungan natin, calls for united vigilance against illegal loggers may look appealing, what about the legal loggers? Whatever happened to government agencies whose responsibility is to monitor these activities for us, and whose salaries and perks come from our drained pockets?

Whereas, your call may vibrate at the moment, how long will it last? One or two weeks at the most? After which, we shall all go back to the usual happy days, and everything will be forgotten? No one will be punished, and no heads will roll.

Whereas, your call may seem like you were performing your duty, is to be proactive preferable than to be reactive?

Whereas, your article sounds like the manner one would hear you in radio interviews, that is, unimpressively naive for a public servant.

This recent tragic event in our beloved land is the result of the long history of abuse of its natural resources. And this is just the iceberg’s tip. More of these have happened in the past and more will happen in the future if we remain reactionary.

Of late, has the Department inspected the marine business where they poison the aquatic life? What about the mining industry?

May the Provider bless the Republic always!

Below is today’s column of seasoned journalist Mr. Teddy Benigno, for your guidance.

Sincerely,
gino510


The more it changes . . . / The ‘R’ word (2)
HERE'S THE SCORE By Teodoro C. Benigno
The Philippine Star 12/08/2004

Plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose. The more it changes, the more it remains the same thing. Hardly had the ink dried on my column published in this space Monday than when the government started talking from both sides of its mouth. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye stuck to original script, but this time with one hobbled leg. He largely echoed what President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo publicly stated, when he said: "All allegations of logging violations will be properly investigated and we assure the public that the government will be relentless and unforgiving in pinning down those found liable for violations of the law."

Allegations, sir? You must be out of your mind!

We were all witnesses. We all saw the people suffer, the nation weep, its once verdant and lush mountains and forests reduced to the bald pate of the Mad Monk of Mamamu. We saw rivers of mud going pell-mell over what was once merry hill and dale, avalanches sprawl over villages and people, killing and maiming over 1000. And you, Mr. Press Secretary, call these allegations? And you say the government will properly investigate these allegations? Dammit, nobody needs to make an allegation.

The proof is right there, nature gone berserk. And nature went berserk because top government officials connived with loggers, illegal and legal, to cut down tens of thousands of trees. And only God knows how much money exchanged hands. The most notorious of these illegal loggers have long been known to you and Malacañang. So stop pretending you don’t know who they are. But you in the government are more guilty. You opened up all the entries to our forests, primeval or not, and allowed the ghouls to desecrate and destroy the riches of our God-given nature.

It’s just like the prostitutes I see on TV now and then being hustled out of vice dens, hiding their faces, covering their naked bodies.

The police and law-enforcement agents put on a good show of enforcing the law, treating the girls like vermin. The heads of prostitution rings and syndicates - the real criminals – manage to flee or are spared all this exposure to the public. Why? Because they pay, they pay plenty on the nose to police and corrupt officials. The masterminds go scot-free, and the girls, mostly hoodwinked and kidnapped from the provinces, get the rap.

That’s exactly what is happening now. Our Rt. Hon. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye would have the public produce the illegal loggers, because so far everything is allegation. Maybe some will be charged, mostly the unknown, second and third stringers we never heard of, but the big ones, they with the golden toothpicks and huge bellies often with access to Malacanang, big contributors to GMA’s presidential campaign, will just lie low for a while. Then they’ll go back to the primrose path where the pickings are in the hundreds of millions of pesos. Right?

Ah, now let’s put you on the spot, Mr. Ex-Spice Boy.

Now DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) Secretary Mike Defensor would bludgeon to a pulp the wildfiring popular clamor to cancel all forest permits, and thereby ban illegal logging. No, he says, only very few, an exceptional few are guilty, the overwhelming majority are innocent. So you guys, he continues, are barking up the wrong tree. Hey, Mike, how the hell do you know?

Once upon a time Defensor played the role of Spice Boy, basked in the limelight as a knight of the Round Table, was mobbed by media as that rare member of the political species – homo erectus honestus et magnificus. Not a single stain could be found on his political body, not a single pimple. He was a favorite of talk-show hosts. He regaled the audiences with his boyish earnestness, his promises to flush out the rot from politics, his engaging grin, his drawn sword.

Today? The former Spice Boy is a different man.

At a press conference Monday, he is quoted as saying: "Even with a total log ban in place, our countrymen continue their illegal logging activities. We are calling on the PNP and saying that no logs should pass these checkpoints, even if they have papers because these papers are probably forged. Let us not point fingers anymore. The police should confirm what is happening at these checkpoints." Hah!

The police, sir? The Philippine National Police? You still believe in them as you believe in Santa Claus, the miracles at Tolhien and Tolbien, and the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Ilocandia? I’m sorry, some top officers of the PNP are my friends. But if ever criminals bust into my house, as they did nine years ago, almost succeeded in killing me within an inch of my life, hogtied the rest of my family and the household help, I would call everybody else for succor except the police.

I still remember what Lady Margaret Thatcher told me during her Manila visit in 1996: "If you Filipinos really want to fight crime, fight terror, the first thing you must have is an honest police force. As I understand it, your police force is in cahoots with crime and criminals."

Yes, they were and still are. And you, Mike Defensor, stop giving us homilies. You are not the Spice Boy anymore. You never were.

I’d like some add-ons to my column Monday titled The R word.

No, I’m not advocating revolution or civil war or any kind of general uprising to topple the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Or any government, for that matter. I used the word revolution or revolutionary in a generic sense. In the simplest terms, I forecast the eventual emergence of a "revolutionary government" to replace the rotten, bankrupt, utterly disgraceful and treacherous one that we have. And had for decades.

Nobody will quarrel with that.

If such a government will be revolutionary, it is in the nature of history, it is in the nature of the times. Almost all nations have gone through turbulent or bloody periods because their rulers were tyrants and oppressors who deprived them of their barest essentials – food, clothing, shelter. And all for what? For riches, for power, for the pleasure of the strong to stamp their boot on the faces of the weak.

A revolutionary government in the Philippines will be something like this. Its first task will be to extricate the majority masses from poverty. No government that is civilized or progressive and calls itself Christian can abide what is happening today – a nation in tears, a nation in rags, a nation in chains.

I am often asked: How can such a revolutionary government materialize? What is the process?

My answer invariably has been that patient as the Filipino is, meek, forbearing and subservient, all that will crack when he reaches the degrading level of starvation, he will revolt. That is why philosophers, political and social scientists, savants, educators perpetually look for ways and means to structure and flesh up a political system that can speed up economic productivity.

There are less hungry people today because science and technology succeeded and continue to succeed in producing more food for every human table, more means to upgrade health and prolong human life. Remember that line in the Declaration of Human Rights, the right of man to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

The political system implied here is a political system governed by a new elite, an educated visionary elite that has had access to the kind of advanced and sophisticated knowledge (Information Technology) available only in top colleges, universities and other institutions of learning. Again this is revolutionary. It does away with our present political system of patronage, politicians interested only in stuffing their pockets, the rich interested only in preserving their gilded life.

What will the economic system be like?

It will, in the main, be a command and control economy. Politicians are out. The levers of power, of decision-making, will be in the hands of experts, highly talented bureaucrats, who know the needs and caprices of the market, of banking, accounting and finance, international trade. . But to make sure economic programs do not go astray, top, disciplined national leaders like Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Mohammed Mahathir in Malaysia, Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand, Park Chun hee in South Korea, will crack the political whip.

They will make sure law and order will generally prevail, as will meritocracy, and that characters like Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia are caught, quartered in time, and, if necessary, dealt with by firing squads.

It is this kind of a system, for want of a better name a revolutionary government, that can create wealth with spectacular speed, reduce and eventually exterminate poverty, cut down our monster population, and yes, but oh yes, theoretically "do justice to every man."

But of course, if the present government can do the impossible, which is to reverse direction, reinvent itself, and deposit crooks and criminals at our front door by the baker’s dozen every day, starting with illegal loggers and their accomplices in government, then, by golly – welcome.

Hey, hey GMA, how many crooks did you catch today?

Paghuli sa illegal loggers pagtulungan natin

HINDI PA TAPOS Ni Sec. Mike Defensor Pilipino STAR Ngayon 12/08/2004

NAPAKALAKING problema ngayon ang illegal logging. Matagal na ang problemang ito at habang tumatagal, ang pag-aabusong ito sa ating mga kagubatan ay nagdudulot ng masamang epekto hindi lamang sa ating kapaligiran kundi pati na rin sa sarili nating kaligtasan. Kami po sa DENR ay nanawagan sa mga komunidad, lokal na pamahalaan, pulisya at AFP, mga pribadong sektor at indibidwal na pagtulungan natin ang paghuli sa mga illegal loggers. Sa kasalukuyan ang isang forest guard po ay inaatasang magbantay ng humigit kumulang 4,000 ektarya ng kagubatan. Ang mga forest guards po namin ay walang mga sasakyan upang malibot ang mga ganitong lawak ng kagubatan at ang ganitong kondisyon ay sinasamantala ng mga illegal loggers. Nakakalungkot isipin na ang illegal logging ay patuloy na nangyayari at marami sa ating mga kababayan lalo na ang mga malalapit sa mga bundok ay doon kumukuha ng ikinabubuhay. Ang pagbabantay po ng ating kalikasan at kagubatan ay hindi kakayanin ng DENR lamang. Ang mga lokal na pamahalaan at komunidad ang higit na nakakaalam ng mga gawaing ito kung kaya inuulit po namin ang aming panawagan na pagmalasakitan po natin ang ating kalikasan. Obligasyon po natin bilang mabubuting mamamayan na pangalagaan ang ating kalikasan at ipamana sa ating mga anak ang maaayos na kalagayan nito gaya ng pag-iingat na ginawa ng ating mga ninuno. Kakayanin po natin ito sa sama-samang pagkilos at pagtutulungan.