EDITORIAL - Crimes we pay for later

Just recently over 700 helmet shells, known locally as “budyong” were seized by authorities.

The helmet shells were found by the Maritime Law Enforcement Team, Bantay Dagat, and the Municipal Agriculturist-Fisheries Office in dozens of sacks left abandoned by the seashore in Sitio Tabunok, Barangay Lipayran, Bantayan.

The total haul was estimated at P365,000.

Since the shells are considered endangered, we can also consider the crime as a crime against the environment.

We laud the authorities for this haul, but it also makes us wonder how many such environmental crimes may have gone unnoticed. And we aren’t just talking about endangered helmet shells, but wildlife, timber, and anything else from nature that less-than-honest people can profit from.

During this time of the pandemic when most people are focusing on certain issues and priorities can shift anytime, it might become easy for some unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of the situation.

Also, nature isn’t also one to file a complaint with authorities or call the attention of people. So in all likelihood an environmental crime cannot be detected unless authorities know specifically where, or are told where, to look.

What nature does, however, is to take revenge, often without warning. Upsetting the balance of nature will always carry a price. The same way cutting too many trees leads to massive flooding, or how harvesting too much of animal species in an area upsets the natural food chain and leads to chaos. Or how polluting an area can kill off a specific ecosystem entirely.

We may not be able to feel the effects of such crimes now. But somewhere down the road we might, and with great impact too.

As we laud the authorities for this haul we also ask them, as well as people who may know about people in this line of nefarious business, to do their best to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place.