Garbage in Metro Manila / Water in Mt. Pinatubo

While the whole attention of the nation is focused on the Senate investigation being conducted on the alleged misdeeds of former General Panfilo Lacson, there are pressing problems that deserve our attention. First is the garbage problem in Metro Manila. It is getting worse everyday and the rains that we have been getting could easily trigger an outbreak of water-borne diseases like cholera, dysentery, hepatitis B and C and typhoid. So far we have been lucky. But all the conditions for a possible epidemic of several diseases are all there.

The next emergency problem is the water accumulating on Pinatubo’s crater lake. The water has to be drained somewhere. What the volcanologists are trying to do is to drain about 25 percent of the lake’s 200 million cubic meters into Bucao River. If this is not done, the walls of the crater lake will collapse and cause very serious damage below.

At the moment, no less than 40,000 villagers from 18 different barangays have been forced to evacuate. The public schools in the town of Iba have been converted to evacuation centers.

It would be much better if the public’s attention were on these two real problems than the current investigations of Ping Lacson and the Abu Sayyaf’s asserted collusion with the armed forces, but ever since the impeachment trial of President Estrada, government investigations have taken the place of even the popular Mexican telenovelas.

We believe in the government’s policy to fight poverty. What we need is to see that there is, first, a definite program to help people help themselves; second, that said program is indeed being implemented. Otherwise, the current government’s fight against poverty will be simply a repeat of Estrada’s Erap para sa mahirap. We have always maintained that the first priority in the government’s efforts to alleviate the plight of the poor should be the street children. And this should be a joint effort between the national, provincial and the municipalities concerned.

Both investigations being conducted are in aid of legislation. The way we see things, what we need are not more laws, but the implementation of existing laws. All crimes committed in the country are violations of existing laws. The great thing about the current investigations is that it is exposing the people in government who have used their positions not to serve the country or the interest of the people but to enrich themselves in office. We don’t need more laws to stop them. What we need is law enforcement.