Cleaning up Manila Bay is serious business!

I salute my good friend and fellow Cebuano, Environmental lawyer Atty. Antonio Oposa (he’s an up and coming Ramon Magsaysay Awardee) for his no-holds-barred commitment to clean up the environment, especially with regards that landmark case when the Supreme Court last December 2008 ordered the Philippine Government to clean up the polluted Manila Bay. It seems that this Supreme Court order wasn’t given any serious thought by the government. Now the entire nation is watching this case!

We have read numerous newspaper articles and watched many TV talk shows about how Metro Manilans have turned their once fabulous Manila Bay into the world’s largest floating dumpsite! Yet, we only hear lip service from government officials when they talk about cleaning up Manila Bay. Last May as we arrived by SuperFerry to the Manila North Harbor, one gets a ringside view of Manila’s filth in a form of a flotsam that greets the ferry passengers as the vessel docks in near Manila Hotel. It’s no wonder, why those fabulous cruise ships do not call on the Port of Manila as the Manila Bay fails miserably as the nation’s doormat for international ships or vessels.

Now the big question is, will the Supreme Court cite in contempt, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap or Health Secretary Francisco Duque III? If the Supreme Court is truly an independent branch of the Philippine government, then we can expect them to do what they ought to do and cite these officials in contempt for their utter neglect in even giving information to the high court as to what their plans are regarding the clean up of Manila Bay.

Mind you, while he is a Cebuano, the group of Atty. Oposa has also become a thorn on the side of many local government officials in Cebu for they too are playing lip service to cleaning up the environment. Of course, we must accept the fact that the government is only part of the problem as far as the pollution of Manila Bay is concerned. The root of the problem really lies upon the residents of Metro Manila who never cared to solve their garbage problems, opting to throw their waste into rivers and esteros along the Pasig River which drains into the Manila Bay. So will the Supreme Court really get serious in our fight against pollution? Abangan!

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I have been reading with interest the news report about the M/V Captain Ufuk, a Panamanian registered vessel which was seized last Thursday morning by the Coast Guard and Customs officials. This vessel carried some 50 Galil assault rifles in five wooden crates complete with magazines and 15 empty wooden crates suspected of bearing some 150 high-powered rifles brought to the Port of Batangas is clear proof that gun running syndicates have come and gone into our ports virtually undetected.

As Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales reported, a 103-ton yacht the M/Y Mou Man Tai which is registered in the name of a Dave Smith of Cebu Tranquila Realty, Inc. was sighted close to the Panamanian vessel, which Customs suspect was used to unload the contraband from the M/V Captain Ufuk. I have never heard of a Cebu Tranquila Realty, Inc. so quite possibly this is just a corporate name that the owners used. But what we would like to know is, who ordered these firearms and for what purpose?

We know too well that the New People’s Army (NPA) or the various Moro liberation fronts do not use Galils as they are weapons made by Israel. So could it be that someone is preparing for a coup, arming their soldiers with state-of-the art weapons? Who knows, with so many interested groups who want to sow chaos in this country, especially as we move towards the election season, those firearms could very well be used by destabilizers.

This incident reminds me of a similar incident 37 years ago when in the summer of 1972, the fishing trawler M/V Karagatan ran aground off the coast of Northern Luzon. This was a few months before Martial Law was declared by Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos and he pointed out that this vessel had some 3,500 M-15 rifles, 30-rocket launchers and 160,000 rounds of ammunition to supply to the New People’s Army (NPA). We read about this in the newspapers, but only very much later uncovered the truth behind this.

In 1988, Sir Max Soliven gifted me with a copy of the book entitled The Marcos Dynasty authored by his friend Sterling Seagrave. It was only then that I learned from reading that book that the M/V Karagatan was only involved in cigarette smuggling and was used by Pres. Marcos to scare our people about the threat of the Communists and triggered his declaration of Martial Law. This is why we’re very interested in the M/V Captain Ufuk.

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