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Sunday, July 01, 2002
EDITORIAL: Influence peddling
City Administrator Dominador Dumalag Jr. hit the nail right up when he said that with the influence of the Regional Development Council, the multi-million peso fast ferry and reclamation project may be a foregone conclusion.
Reading between the lines of his cryptic remarks, it is easy to understand that the RDC will prevail on the Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to issue an environmental compliance certificate to the Philippine Ports Authority to pursue its environmentally critical project at the Dumaguete pier.
It is not what Dumalag said that makes the project a foregone conclusion. It is what he did not say that makes obvious what the city is hell-bent on pursuing.
If indeed, as the city administrator says, the RDC endorsement is to be reckoned with, then there is no hope for Silliman University and those against the reclamation project to protect what they and international environment experts believe needs to be protected.
Dumaguete City Mayor Agustin Perdices and his minions have often labeled the anti-reclamation groups as a minority. And that their supporters represent the majority. But no one has the monopoly to what is right and what is wrong.
The issue is not a question of number. It goes deeper than that. It is beyond the temporal nature of development. It is protecting the environment for countless generations yet unborn.
Apparently, the reclamation issue has become a matter of who has greater influence, elevated as it is to the level of the titans. And who can question the gods? Who can question the DENR if it caves in to RDC pressure? When the mighty sneezes, the lowly trembles.
The issue now is not about protecting the environment, but who will yield to pressure.
Will the DENR succumb? |
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