The Condition of the Philippine Environment

The Republic of the Philippines is an archipelago of some 7,100 islands and islets, majestic in their splendor. The numerous islands support a broad range of highly productive ecosystems, tropical forests and mountains, mangrove swamps and coral reefs.

Ours is a developing country with a population of almost 85 million Filipinos. The Philippines is a paradise for those who love the sun, beach, surfing and the exotic life at a very low cost. But even in paradise, we endure problems caused by a high incidence of poverty, by industrial expansion, and by rapid population growth. There is considerable abuse of our natural resources -- the destruction of coral reefs, poison and dynamite fishing, slash and burn farming on our mountains, and the pollution of our lakes and rivers. We have been involved in the effort to diminish four major problems of the Philippine environment, the problems of deforestation, air pollution, water pollution, urban waste and garbage.

Deforestation.

At the start of the 20th century the forested area of the Philippines was some 21 million hectares or almost 70 percent of the country's total land area of 30 million hectares. Today our remaining forest cover is below one million hectares. Moreover, on the average, our rate of deforestation was 203,905 hectares annually while our rate of reforestation was only 9,398 hectares. This means that for every tree planted, 21 are cut down. The effects of deforestation have been tragic and devastating. Some 6.5 million tribal Filipinos have lost rich hunting and inland fishing grounds. Species of flora and fauna have been lost forever. Biological diversity has been greatly diminished and there are periodic erosion and floods everywhere.

We responded to this problem in two ways. One was a proposed legislation which will ban commercial logging for 25 years, and this legislation is now being carefully deliberated. Our second response was to introduce "Luntiang Pilipinas" or Greening the Philippines Movement. The goal of this movement is to create a tree park in every city and town plaza with at least 100 trees of forest varieties. Each tree park serves as "lungs" of the community, beautifying the plaza and raising community consciousness about the environment at the same time. The movement has created forest parks in over 1,800 towns and cities, and the number is rising each month.

Smog and Air Pollution

High levels of industrial emission and the increasing number of motor vehicles on our roads have seriously degraded air quality in urban areas. The consequences are rising levels of respiratory and lung ailments in our population, fatigue and poor concentration among adults, and nervous disorders in children.

Our response was the sponsorship of legislation which became the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1998. Among other things, this law provides an air quality management fund, imposes new vehicle emission standards, and provides incentives for pollution abatement and prevention.

Water Pollution.

Forty-eight percent of our water pollution is caused by household wastes, compounded by the lack of an adequate sewerage system. At present, only 7 percent of the settlers in Metro Manila are connected to a sewer system. Sixteen of the Philippines’ major rivers, including five in Metro Manila, are biologically dead during the summer months. The World Bank estimates that in the Philippines, the economic losses caused by water pollution are about $1.3 billion or P62 billion per year.

In this regard, we came up with the Water Crisis Act of 1995 that stipulated the creation of a commission to undertake nationwide consultations on water crisis and recommend measures that will ensure continuous monitoring of water supply and distribution.

As of 2003, 86% of the total population has access to an improved water source, with 79% and 91% access in urban and rural areas, respectively. Citing the World Bank Philippines Environment Monitor 2004, access to sanitation is rising slowly and urban access to piped sewerage in Metro Manila is about 8%.

Waste and Garbage.

Solid waste disposal remains problematic with only 9 of 117 cities and 46 of 1,500 municipalities in the Philippines have solid management programs. In Metropolitan Manila, where some 15 million people work and live, some 6,000 tons of garbage is generated daily. An estimated 24 percent is illegally dumped in vacant lands or thrown into our rivers or waterways. This exacerbates the flooding of streets during the rainy season and the poor sanitation conditions of many communities. In addition, the capacity of garbage landfills has long been exceeded, and there is a need to develop new landfill sites. The annual waste generation is expected to grow by 40% by 2010.

Our response was to author a bill which was enacted as the Integrated Solid Waste Management Act of 2001, the first legislation signed into law by our present President, Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. This law created a structure to provide technology, research, organization and facilities to alleviate the waste problem and reduce health hazards.

The Philippine Agenda 21

Philippine Agenda 21 is part of the country's response to fulfill its commitments in the historic Earth Summit in 1992, where government and key sectors of society agreed to implement an action agenda for sustainable development, known as the Agenda 21.

The Philippine Agenda 21's concept of development is grounded on both an image and a shared vision of the Filipino society. It recognizes the key actors in sustainable development as the government, business and civil society and the functional differentiation of modern society into three realms--economy (where the key actor is business), polity (where the key actor is government) and culture (where the key actor is civil society). The three realms are interacting, dynamic and complementary components of an integral whole.

Philippine Agenda 21 advocates a fundamental shift in development thinking and approach. It departs from traditional conceptual frameworks that emphasize sector based and macro-concerns.

Philippine Agenda 21 promotes harmony and achieves sustainability by emphasizing:

• a scale of intervention that is primarily area-based; the national and global policy environment builds upon and support area-based initiatives;

• integrated island development approaches where applicable; this recognizes the archipelagic character of the Philippines which includes many small island provinces;

• people and the integrity of nature at the center of development initiatives; this implies the strengthening of roles, relationships and interactions between stakeholders in government, civil society, labor and business; basic sectors have an important role to play in achieving equity and in managing the ecosystems that sustain life.

Philippine Agenda 21 does not duplicate but builds on existing and ongoing initiatives related to sustainable development. Hence, sustainable development in the Philippines is the accumulation of conceptual and operational breakthroughs generated by the Philippine Strategy for Sustainable Development, Social Reform Agenda, Human and Ecological Security, among others. Sustainable development is also a product of the process itself, of engaging various stakeholders and of working in global national and local arenas.

The persistence of serious natural resource depletion and environmental degradation years into the Philippine Agenda 21 means that much remains to be done. The continuing problems are not just due to the delay of the program but due to the fact that environmental problems are resilient and take time to contain. Our government can more effectively implement Philippine Agenda 21 by way of addressing the various issues still at hand.