My Thoughts on the Missing Environmental Stewardship in the Philippines (07-20-2018)

During the first month of my stay here in the University, learning about globalization and world-systems theories and whatnot in our Contemporary World subject, I have come to realize that there indeed isn’t a strong solidarity that bonds the Filipinos, the government, and its subordinates. For many years now, seeing the nightly news in the television is enough to be settled with that conclusion. However, my further study and learning of the business and economy of the Philippines solidify the idea in my mind.

The first point I want to talk about is the exploitation of our natural resources. In our Contemporary World subject, I have learned that according to the world-system theories, the countries of the economic system (basically all) are distributed in a hierarchy. The core—the powerful and superior, the periphery—the subordinates and colonized, and the semi-periphery—the once powerful that moved down the hierarchy. Now the Philippines, obviously is a semi-periphery country, in that we have been colonized by Spain in the early 1500’s and are under the influence of Europe. The reaches and extent of the colonizing effect of Spain have lasted up to now, with the establishment of the Catholic faith, trading, and business practices. Further, the nation-state, or the Philippine government, is the authority that manages the trades and the investments that are coming into the country. They are the governing body that is responsible in taking steps for improving the economy of the country, while thinking of the welfare of the nation itself and of its people.

However, the issue I see here is that I think that the Philippine government has only been looking at the horizon presented by “a developed economy” and have seem to forget the welfare of the nation, its environment, and its responsibility as the protector of the people—being the Filipino stewards. The issue here is that we have open our trade gates too wide that there isn’t protection or care left for our environment anymore. What I am specifically talking about here is the exploitation of foreign companies in the Philippine mountains. Big mining corporations have invested in the Philippines millions of wealth, taking back our natural resources—our gold, our nickel, our zinc—and leaving our land broken—sediments toughly handled, rivers reddened, and communities in the lowlands flooded. The worst thing about all of this is that the government is letting it all happen.

It may seem so that the government isn’t one with the people in terms of environmental preservation. I mean, yes, indeed there are actions done to protect our forests, our oceans, and nature. But in a context where there is wealth involved, the government just forgets all about it. The question I am posing is if the government does not care (even if they try to show hard that they do), how can we not expect our fellowmen to do the same? The Philippine environment is as much vulnerable as the marginalized people in the country. If it is destroyed, not one sector lives. Therefore, we must take actions and see our environment clearly and with more compassion.