During my three-week visit here, I have been asked time and again whether I think the ailing rivers of Negros Oriental can be restored back to health. My answer to this question is definitely maybe.
I was invited to the Philippines by the people at Foundation University to assess the state of the rivers that flow through the Province, and hopefully, help develop sound river management practices for the region.
It is clear to me that deforestation, unsustainable agricultural techniques, and urban sprawl are all contributing to the degradation of local streams. The rivers here are in a very critical state.
However, I believe that the destruction can be mitigated and possibly reversed. So the answer to the question is, yes, the rivers can be saved — but the job will be difficult, and may take a sustained effort over many years. And maybe Filipinos just are not up to the task.
The social, economical, and political environments of Philippine culture appear to present obstacles to solving even the smallest problems facing the people who populate the sprawling archipelago.
It makes me question whether Filipinos feel any pride in their country at all, and whether the limited nationalistic feelings that do exist are exacerbating the problem.
According to David Joel Steinberg, author of The Philippines: A Singular and a Plural Place, two cultural traits underlie most Filipinos’ social interactions and transactions. These traits, admirable on their face, include pakikisama (go along to get along), and utang na loob (inner debt of gratitude).
Steinberg notes that these cultural mores have mutated into undesirable values in the crucible of corruption, greed, and unadulterated self-interest that exists in the Philippines. It appears that Filipinos go along to get along, even if the means and ends, as well as ultimate goals, are negative.
Steinberg also notes that the debt of gratitude can be generational. “Debt” and the perceived necessity to “go along” can last for decades, even if the rationale and result of these actions are faulty and unwanted.
Thus, in this scenario, nationalism can be terribly misguided and downright wrong.
In his research, Steinberg also posits a severe and historical lack of accountability in Philippine society.
It is rare that anyone is ever called out for misdeeds, either great or small, and ranging from utter disregard for simple road traffic rules to unimaginable grabs for money and power.
These factors combined have resulted in a grave leadership deficit, and a repulsive and almost unrecognizable form of “nationalism.”
The evidence of the Philippines’ decline as a leading democracy in Southeast Asia is evident. Filipinos have rolled with the punches for so long that they have become dysfunctional — and their world, dystopian.
In short, Philippine nationalism is weak, and pride is false. In geopolitical circles, the Philippines is often referred to as “The Sick Man of Asia”.
In light of tremendous corruption, ineptitude. and inaction, as well as the utter lack of accountability, is it any wonder that many facets of the environment, from mountains to rivers to coral reefs, are on the verge of complete collapse?
I have seen this decline myself. Since I last visited only four years ago, the state of the Banica River has gotten much worse. Every time it rains, people are in a panic about whether the type of destruction experienced during Typhoon Sendong is going to happen again.
Just about every river I’ve seen turns into a raging flow of mud, even with the slightest downpour. Without any attempt to address the problem correctly, the situation will become ever more dire.
In virtually every aspect, the local environment is sick, including the air, rivers, mangrove swamps, and coral reefs.
The natural treasures of Negros Oriental are disappearing faster than the piles of garbage that are heedlessly tossed into the streams or burned in open fires.
The seas are so degraded that fishermen must travel great distances to haul in the kind of large game that once was so abundant just offshore.
Last week, I checked in on the fishing fleet of Bayawan to gauge the state of the local industry. I happened upon a crew happily unloading large tuna, tangigue, and maya-maya fish, and got a glimpse of a huge blue marlin being pulled from a boat hold.
The vessel’s captain, a small but sturdy man, said the fish was caught just this side of the border between the Philippines and Malaysia — an expedition that covered about a thousand kilometers of open sea there and back.
I looked at their makeshift boat, which many Western fishermen would consider no more than a large, motorized and unseaworthy outrigger, and thought these men to be either very brave, very foolish, or both.
In reality, it was probably necessity that forced their hand. Why would you risk so much danger unless you absolutely had to?
I factored in the sickly condition of the local environment, and concluded that maybe, there aren’t such big fish in Philippine waters any more.
In fact, according to a recent newspaper article, no more than five percent of the archipelago’s coral reefs and mangrove swamps are considered to be in good condition. The rest are largely gone, and we are talking about the primary breeding grounds for marine life.
Perhaps pakikisama and utang na loob allow Filipinos to stand passively by as the environment undergoes extreme duress, because no one appears to be coming to its aid.
Environmental laws exist on the books but for whatever reason, enforcement is nearly non-existent.
What and who is to blame? Corruption? Greed? Apathy? It matters because, in the end, the result can only be an environmental dead zone of damaged and depleted natural resources. Is anyone in the Philippines ever held accountable for the rape of Mother Nature? From here, it sure doesn’t seem like it.
The question remains. Can the rivers of Negros Oriental be saved and restored?
Definitely maybe, if we shower environmental proponents with pakikisama, and extend utang na loob to the land and sea that ensures our survival.
We need action now, before all is rendered barren, and uninhabitable, and all Filipinos are left with only memories of an ancestral paradise.
Dennis J. Welter
Corporate Member, Foundation University
