Saving undisciplined Pinoys from themselves

Southeast Asian beaches are all alike in offering sun, sea, and sand. But the Philippines’ Boracay began to stand out of late for a new unique, if unmentionable feature: sh*t. Due to unsanitary resort owners, coliform in wading waters has risen to critical levels. Green slime marred the once alluring powdery white sand. Inept authorities, likely bribed, just looked the other way. Everyone was out making a fast buck from teeming tourists. The island paradise was fast turning into a dysentery colony. Shame on the locals, it had to take an outsider – President Rodrigo Duterte – to tell them to clean up. And because that outsider wields vast power to execute in more ways than one, his words come as a threat. Either the resorts connect to the local sewerage, or else be padlocked. Their names are about to be published – for global tourism’s scorn.

Public shaming and coercion perhaps will whip environmentally undisciplined Filipinos into line. Under past Presidents miners openly had defied pollution laws with destructive extractions. Late last year Duterte cussed and banned any new open-pit mining. The operating ones closely will be watched and fined till expiration of franchise. That was despite Congress’ rejection of his staunchly anti-mining natural resources secretary. Despite too his top economic manager and childhood friend being a big miner. Earth activists were pleased.

Starting this year noisy smoky jitneys are to be removed from the roads. Emissions henceforth are to conform with strict Euro-4 standards. Commuters would be inconvenienced by less rides until the noise and air polluters are replaced with battery-powered models. A few driver-protesters threatened to force the compliant majority into a general transport strike. Duterte warned he would meet them with rubber bullets. The public cheered as it was for their general welfare.

Every New Year’s Eve revelers strived to outdo each other with the loudest, deadliest firecrackers. News media would count explosion casualties by the thousands up to two days after. In his two New Years in office Duterte has banned unsafe, unbranded noisemakers, and limited the rest to public squares. For a change Filipinos experienced less asthmatic holidays.

Smokers too have become targets. A presidential order now limits lighting up to certain roofless pens in government facilities, far from victimized non-smokers. They’re banned from all enclosed public spaces, except their own homes and cars. Even smokers are glad to be cutting down on cancer breaks.

Duterte’s subordinates are realizing that he means business. After his tirade about the Boracay resorts’ fecal waste, environment regulators at last issued summonses to beachfront encroachers. Resort owners illegally have erected bars, massage parlors, and souvenir shops only five meters from the water’s edge, in disregard of the required 30. Officials also are now going after a resort owner who slashed down an adjoining mangrove forest to put up cabañas. That fellow has been bragging of connections in high places.

The way Duterte is at it, three other polluters and nature spoilers are likely to get it soon. First would be those events litterbugs, like the organizers and millions of devotees of the annual religious processions who leave behind truckloads of trash. It’s unfair for any one church to burden the state with cleaning up its mess. On the other hand, friars must preach that cleanliness is next to godliness.

Second would be the hundreds of provincial governors, city and municipal mayors who allow open garbage dumps. Decades ago the Solid Waste Management Act required segregation, recycling, and biodegrading of residential and commercial trash. Industrial and hazardous waste, including from hospitals, are to be handled by specialized outfits. Only three-dozen locales have complied.

Third would be the hare-brained plan to denude the lush forest on both sides of Marcos Highway going up to Baguio. Already past third reading at the House of Reps, the bill would convert the greenery into a concrete jungle of shopping malls and condos, slums and tenements. Couched as a supposed necessary resettlement of the homeless, the measure would destroy Baguio as the summer capital. Without the tree cover, temperatures would rise, while mud would cascade down the slopes into six towns of La Union province below. A Senate counterpart measure is awaiting passage. Duterte must veto the environmental damage.

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

Gotcha archives on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/Jarius%20Bondoc/GOTCHA