Saturday, December 22, 2007 Nalzaro: Protecting the environment vs. development By Bobby Nalzaro Saksi
DEVELOPMENT and science and technology researches have a price. One of the consequences is the displacement of people. The underprivileged sectors are usually the victims. Nature and the environment are also destroyed.
Among the casualties are creatures like birds, sea mammals and trees.
But just because we are for development and for the advancement of science and technology does not mean we will allow these undertakings to destroy what God has given us. We should strike a balance between development and protecting the environment. An example is the ongoing oil exploration in Tañon Strait by the Japan Petroleum and Exploration Co. (Japex).
Oil exploration is the search for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earth's surface. It is an expensive, high risk operation. Once oil is found, oil wells may be put up either on land or under water. In North America some wells are in the shallow parts of oceans, like in the Gulf of Mexico.
Many initial searches for oil are carried out mostly by geologists, using techniques like landform studies and seismic analyses. Where oil is thought likely, test wells are drilled. Experts are projecting Tañon Strait to be source of oil.
But militant organizations and members the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-National Environment Action Team (IBP-Neat) are opposing the ongoing oil drilling in the waters off the towns of Pinamungajan and Aloguinsan.
Militant groups, as usual, are expressing concerns about the economic effects of the oil drilling, as it displaced hundreds of fisher folks in the area. Fisher folks, they claimed, have been deprived of their livelihood because they can no longer fish in the explored area.
So-called environmentalists, meanwhile, made known their concern over the destruction of marine lives and the ecosystem brought about by the drilling.
Where is Japex dumping the waste materials, they asked. They filed a petition with the Supreme Court to stop the drilling. But are they really for environmental protection or do they have a hidden agenda?
As to the first concern, I think government and Japex are addressing it by giving displaced fisher folk financial assistance. Besides, fisher folk can still go fishing somewhere else. Pagkalapad anang dagat. Abot man gani na sa Bohol. And that drilling activity will not take long.
As to environmental impact, I think it has also been remedied. Before the Philippine government approved the project through the Department of Energy and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, safety measures have already been adopted. Experts are handling this aspect.
I hope organizations and personalities opposed to the oil exploration have no other agenda and that theirs is really an honest to goodness crusade. But why can't we allow this activity to push through? We should view the project at the macro level.
What if oil will be found in Tañon Strait? I'm sure that will benefit the great majority of Filipinos and the country. It will generate economic activity and we will be less dependent on imported oil. Por la patria.
