LAST Sunday, we observed the Feast of Divine Mercy. We are encouraged to appreciate the nature of and seek God's loving mercy through meditation and prayer, as we ask the Lord to put an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has brought our people so much misery and sorrow.
The pandemic has proven to be no less than an existential threat to our population, with the number of infected individuals and deaths continuing to rise even as our national and local leaders have imposed strict travel restrictions and lockdowns. With the rollout of vaccinations being slower than what we had hoped, it also highlights the need for decisive leadership and people-centered governance in times of such crisis. It also highlights our role as citizens to do our part in ensuring not only our own safety and survival but also that of our families and our neighbors.
In the same way that we look to God for mercy in these trying times, we must also look at ourselves and our communities as to how we extend His mercy and love to our brothers and sisters. We are, after all, not just put here on this earth to be recipients of healing but also to be instruments of healing. Take, for example, our relationship with nature
Here in Negros, the Panay-Guimaras-Negros (PGN) Bridges Project is currently being proposed under the Administration's Build, Build, Build Program. The rationale for the said Project is to make transportation easier for pedestrians and vehicles and to facilitate economic growth in Western Visayas. For the past weeks, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have been conducting consultations and assessments in order to start construction on this massive project.
However, among the outcomes of these consultations and assessments is the threat the PGN Bridges pose to the environment and biodiversity in its impacted areas. It was found that such areas are part of the Negros Occidental Wetlands Conservation Area (NOWCA), recognized as a Wetland of International Importance by the global scientific community. It is home to global populations of protected species such as the Irrawaddy dolphins, dugongs and globally threatened sea turtles. Constructing exit or entry points to the PGN Bridge in the Municipalities of Pulupandan and Valladolid or the City of Bago will surely destroy the habitats of such endangered species. This, aside from the immediate environmental and safety hazards such constructions would pose to the populations in that area.
In the same way that the Covid-19 pandemic poses an existential threat to our population, the PGN Bridges' construction poses an existential threat to Mother Nature and our fellow creations. In the same way that we look to God to deliver us from the pandemic, these threatened species also look to us in exercising mercy to spare them from death and extinction. In both cases, we know the importance of leaders with the heart for the people and the capacity to exercise decisive and compassionate policies. Thus, it is my prayer that in the same way, we citizens exercise our role as instruments of God's mercy in sparing the lives of these vulnerable populations in our pursuit of economic growth.
There are those who will say that in order for profit and ease to be achieved, some lives must be sacrificed. But that is not what we are called to do. We are not called for a life of profit and ease, but of mercy and stewardship. And given our history with man-made calamities and climate-related disasters, it should be clear to us that we do not only help the Environment by being good stewards, we are also ensuring our own survival.
As we seek God's mercy in the context of the pandemic, I hope we see that we can be the mercy others seek for their safety and survival: whether it is for the sake of our poorest neighbors, or for the sake of our Common Home. My hope is that in these dark times where the need for God's mercy is painfully apparent, that we also look inward and ask ourselves how we are faring in exercising God's love and mercy.