Mudslides, related loss of lives preventable, says Loren

Senator Loren Legarda warned yesterday that more lives may be lost unless Filipinos act as one people to stop all environmentally-destructive activities like irresponsible mining and massive deforestation.

Legarda issued this admonition yesterday in the aftermath of the horrible landslide that killed scores of people at the foothills of Sitio Masara, Barangay Poblacion in Maco, Compostela Valley.

"How many more lives need be lost before the government acts to stop activities that cause flash floods, loosen soil cover and cause such disasters as this most recent mudslide in Compostela Valley?"

She lamented that the cost in lives and damages to property may be preventable if only climate-change mitigation measures, such as those envisioned in her Climate Change bill (SB 1890), are immediately put into effect.

The senator said that communities in disaster-prone areas, such as those near denuded mountains, may have to be relocated to ensure their safety.

Likewise, the country's forest cover will have to be increased to stop soil erosion and flash flood, she said.

"In vulnerable areas like landslide-prone barangays, the previous experience and scientific information and projections regarding disaster and climate vulnerabilities should be seriously considered by the local government units and the concerned national agencies," said Legarda.

"We have been uttering the urgency of coming up with the basic tool to cushion the impact of unforeseen environmental disaster and identify those locations prone to disaster. And we only realize the gravity of the situation when it's already staring us in the face," she said.

"What's sad about it is that we seem to be helpless each time disaster like the Compostela tragedy strikes, when in the first place we could have avoided it have we been vigilant enough against wanton destruction of our forests," she said.

Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Sub-Committee on Climate Change, leads the environmental organization Luntiang Pilipinas, which has planted over two million trees nationwide since 1998.

"Cooperation among various agencies must be secured for a coordinated and effective enforcement of ordinances as well as closure issued for the safety of communities and for environmental sustainability," Legarda pointed out.

The Philippines, being one of the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather changes, must be ready for any eventuality with regards to accelerated sea level rise, increasing frequency and/or severity of droughts, fires, floods and storms that cause landslides and mudslides, climate-related illnesses and diseases, damage to ecosystems, and biodiversity loss.

Legarda cited one provision in the proposed law that shall "strengthen, integrate, consolidate and institutionalize government initiatives to achieve synergy in the implementation of plans and programs to address climate change in the context of sustainable development."

One needs only look at the tragedies in Marinduque and Ormoc City, places hard-hit by environmental disasters. Makulapnit-Boac river system in Marinduque is now biologically dead and has now become a testament to people's wanton destruction of the nature.

Approximately 10,000 residents of Ormoc, Leyte drowned n floods caused by three-hour torrential rains in Nov. 5, 1991.

Prior to the so-called Ormoc tragedy, loggers operating illegally stripped the mountains surrounding the affected settlement of their lush forest cover.