SCHOOL taught us what makes man different from other animals. He is rational and conscious of his existence and that of the rest of the external world. Beasts, wild or tame, don’t know they exist.
Man is the crown of God’s creation and master of the universe. He is on top of nature’s pecking order. He can kill, eat, or otherwise use all other creatures in the lower ranks of nature for his survival, comfort and convenience.
But there is another side to this philosophical difference. In reality man is the only animal that can kill other animals, including fellow humans, from a distance. With this ability he endangers himself and the rest of the planet.
Beasts have to grapple with the prey they kill. Only man can snuff the life out of other living creatures with a rifle from far away. He is the only animal that can destroy whole villages and forests with a missile fired with the push of a button from thousands of kilometers away. Only he can kill sea creatures, endangered or not, by dumping toxic waste into rivers, lakes and seas.
But who gets caught and punished? Three poor fishermen who speared a green turtle. How many green turtles can a poor fisherman spear and eat in a lifetime of fishing? But how many green turtles die daily, poisoned by toxic waste that irresponsible businesses dump into the sea?
Yet if Republic Act 9147 is to be obeyed, the three fishermen will be meted the punishment of “four years and a day imprisonment and/ or a fine of 50 to 100 thousand pesos” for killing an endangered species. How, you tell me, will the fishermen be ever able to afford this fine? Or while they are in prison who will feed or take care of their families?
Meanwhile, the destroyers, industrialists or businessmen, of endangered trees in our forests, of endangered animals in the wild and of endangered fishes in our ocean, etc. get to sit back and relax in air-conditioned offices, go home to luxurious residences and dine on good food with their families.
(They also get back to their expensive pet dogs that have to be the least endangered species of animals on the planet as they get more nutritious food and more professional health care from their masters than poor fisher and farm folk get from government and from civil and religious society).
Thus the more endangered animal is homo pauper, the weak, indigent, and impoverished poor. They can only survive by exercising their right as humans to kill, eat or otherwise use creatures below them in nature’s food chain. But they can’t do that without running afoul of Republic Act 9147.
We have it backwards. It’s not the green turtle that is endangered but the poor fisherman. He is so endangered he sees green turtles only as food.