Editorial: Voices of dissent

Sunstar Davao

COOL down, the Mindanao Development Authority (Meda) said of dissenting voices to the proposed coal-fired power plant. Meda chief Luwalhati Antonino then went on to describe what they saw at the Steag coal plant in Misamis Oriental. Well, and good.

But without the dissenting voices, we would have been in worst conditions these days. There have been dissenting voices against mining and logging, but the big businesses and government refused to heed these. The dissenting voices were called anti-development, and the multi-million investments were drummed up.

But one thing about these dissenting voices, they are not saying no just because they do not like an idea, as Ms. Antonino pictures them to be when she said, "Let us not just say "ayoko yan, masama yan". As an advocate of ecological balance we should all know the chemical effects of the coal-fired power plant, nakadamage ba ng soil natin yan? Nakakadamage ba talaga ng lungs natin yan, we have to ask questions and not just rally against it."

Yes, Ms. Antonino, they have already asked these questions and that is the very reason why they are dissenting. Theirs is not the voice of unreason, theirs is a portent of things to come.

Just like when the floods and landslides came a decade or two after the countrysides have been given out to those who have logging and mining interests, and national government is now seriously looking into a logging ban, while local government units are having second thoughts about mining.

Had those espousing mining and logging been allowed to run roughshod over the country's mountains, we would have been worst off and there would not have been anything to have second thoughts about. But the dissenters--the anti-development, the communists, and yes, the regular environmentalist concerned for the future--were there to say, slow down, don't take our mountains away, and so there are still some forests and mountains worth saving.

In the 1980s, when integrated forest management agreements and special land use projects were the "in" thing, and in the 1990s to 2000s, when mining was the national government's battle cry for development, government and the so-called big investors never admitted big floods could come from their practice of harvesting full-grown trees just to plant teeny-weeny seedlings and call this compliance to an Ifma. Nor did they even hint that landslides would eat up the homes and farmlands of those who live downstream the mines. Only the dissenters did.

Now that the mountains are rolling down the plains and the rivers are wiping out settlements, no single investor is owning up the destruction and government prefers to wash its hands off any responsibility. Ban logging, government is even saying; the same call that the dissenters have been raising two decades ago.

Cool down, Meda says of the dissenters to the coal-fired power plant because Steag in Misamis Oriental is not destroying the environment. But how long has Steag in Misamis Oriental existed in the first place? Definitely not two decades. How will it be two decades from now? Where will they be throwing their residues after they realize the sales pitch about these being very good material for road construction just doesn't sell because there will always be more residues than concrete roads?

Which brings us to the issue of residues. Yes, there are clean smokestacks, but anything burned will have residues. Why is it that no one is showing the public where all these are going? And don't forget the carbon expelled in all forms.
Let us all ask these questions and demand clear, graphic forward-looking answers because we do not want the dire consequences to come crashing down on us a decade or two from now. A decade or two from now, the present movers will be too old to run for their lives and today's children will be all grown up and will have their own children to nurture, if not rescue.