LUMALAKAS ang isang kilusan sa ating bansa para sa sustainable development sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng proteksiyon sa kalikasan sa pangunguna ng Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI).
Nagkakampanya ang PMPI sa pagtataguyod ng mga batas para sa makakalikasang pagkilos tulad ng “Rights of Nature” bill na nakapadron sa gina-wa sa mga bansang Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, India, New Zealand, at Australia.
Isang halimbawa ang ginawa ng Ecuador at Bolivia na pagbabawal sa single-use plastic at paggamit ng mga natutunaw na bagay tulad ng mga dahon at papel na kayang gawin ng mga Filipino.
“Dapat na talagang ipagbawal na ang paggamit na plastik sa ating bansa lalo ang straw at sisidlan ng mga softdrinks dahil daantaon bago ito matun-aw lalo kapag nasadlak sa ating mga karagatan,” ayon kay Jerico Catalla, information chief ng PMPI na nagsusulong sa People’s Congress on the Rights of Nature sa 18th Congress.
“If corporations were given rights by our legal system, why not give rights to the ecosystem? Corporations did not exist naturally; they were created by humans. Unlike corporations, environment and human persons are of the same stature, both human and nature came from the same source. They exist and co-exist to fulfill their roles in the whole web of life. It is just but fitting to accord rights to nature too, just like humans,” sabi naman ni PMPI na-tional coordinator Yolanda R. Esguerra.
Sa nasabing panukalang batas, magkakaroon ng bagong proteksiyon sa kasalukuyang ecosystems sa ating bansa tulad ng karagatan, kagubatan, ka-bundukan, at mga ilog na sinasamantala ng malalaking korporasyon at ng sangkatauhan.
“The recognition of the Rights of Nature is at the core of the call for ecological conversion, as Pope Francis emphasized in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. There he suggested that a true ‘right of the environment’ does exist because we human beings are part of the environment. We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect. Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity,” sabi naman ng matinding social justice advocate na si Archbishop Antonio Ledesma ng Cagayan de Oro City. ARIEL BORLONGAN
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