CLIMATE CHANGE and THE DEVELOPMENT OF BILIRAN ISLAND By Diana Bernardes-Chawdhury I have been in hiatus in this page for sometime now due to reasons of lack of time and the lack of substantial inputs related to our cause. Actually there are many but written in piecemeal scattered manner, it may just come out as mere howling in the wilderness. I now believe that indeed, if one distances herself to a situation it is thus that she finds the flaw and compare local scenarios to other situations where we glean important lessons. The lessons that I learned from my three month tour will not go wasted therefore as they will provide as benchmark for what is now the basis of a long-term plan and agenda. When this plan was conceived, we only had Supertyphoon Yolanda and the experience of many previous typhoons that left our region always kneeling and reeling with poverty and want. Supertyphoon Ruby seemed to nail down the issue that we do not have a moment to waste but act on this plan fast and furiously. The fact that this Typhoon Ruby has to lash itself almost on the whole of the archipelago makes itself so scary and therefore makes this plea and plan an urgent one. THE BILIRAN BAY DEVELOPMENT AGENDA As known to many, I have made myself busy gathering consensus and initiating a move to somehow improve the economic plight of our lowly coconut farmers in the rural areas. For one who has benefited from the toils of these men and women through the COCOFED Scholarship Program, I deemed that by paying forward in terms of volunteering our talents and skills to improve the industry, there might still be a chance to upgrade the lives not just of these people but the rest of the country’s economy as well. That this initiative has now become the SaveCoconut Foundation Inc. and is soon branching into its economic arm the Save Coconut Foundation Multipurpose Cooperative, the hope to indeed implement the ambitious plan to overturn the plight of our lowly farmers may now see the light of day. And yet, there is the huge problem as Climate Change. In the midst of planning and coming together and organizing events to implement our plans, the realities of climate disturbances have threatened every inch of concern and action that we have done for the bigger agenda of economic advancement. Will there still be coconut trees to save if every other month the whole country will be battered with typhoons strong enough to wipe out whole barangays and localities? For one who choose to carry the attitude of positivity, looking at the grim realities of Climate Change is out of character. Yes It will not change the fact that our country will be regularly visited by these calamities but accepting this as Bible truth, what we can do is adjust our plans to suit the realities of these calamitous events happening every now and then. You see, it is not right to blame each other and the baldening mountains as the reason for these calamities so it is not therefore right to fight each other to right what we see have gone wrong. If you were with me on those amazing trips to Canada and the US and even in 2005 on my travel to far away Australia, you will realize that out there, thousands and thousands of acres of land do not have a single tree nor even shrubs to protect the environment that we want so much to be established to maintain the ecological balance. Even San Francisco and the environs of the State of California with a highly thriving high class community, do not enjoy the lush of ecological heaven that we have here in Biliran. And this goes true with many other countries in the Middle East, in China, in Africa. One will be aghast seeing millions of acres of land empty of vegetation contributing therefore to the huge tilt of ecological balance to the brink of despair. So you see friends, it is not our very small island not having a few trees cut that contributes to the fierce lashing of Yolanda or Ruby or whoever future ghastly visitor that may come knocking again in a few months or so. I am not saying we let go of doing something to overturn this huge ecological imbalance. Yes, we still need to do a lot of replanting of trees and saving our mangrove forests and empowering our people that they may be able to afford building more resilient homes and find hope in the otherwise hopeless situations that they are in now. A bigger agenda as the BILIRAN BAY DEVELOPMENT AGENDA is seen as an attempt to propose the empowerment not just of the Island Province of Biliran but the neighboring towns across the Biliran Bay as well. Seeing and observing how Toronto Bay and New York and even the other smaller cities of Baltimore and San Francisco were developed, the neighboring part of its sites are always made part of the agenda. This makes sense. In Biliran for example, developing Naval alone as well as other towns of the province and leaving the towns across to mind their own business hasn’t been helping much to the development and growth of the island province. The Biliran Provincial Hospital for example is host to more than 30% of patients coming from these municipalities and bleeding its resources that are not being replenished because most often than not, these said patients belong to the indigent group of people. Other than that, it is these same people who come across to the ever growing town of Naval and get odd jobs that are easy and simple like becoming one of the messy Sikad2 drivers. Forgive my word but indeed if you analyze closely on the benefits of these said lot of workers, they could have done much better to the economy of this part of our country if provided with better skills and better opportunities. Their growing presence made easier and better by the seeming incentives given by the local government unit will not only cram our narrow roads further, it will also provide an easy way out to people who lack imagination and skills in finding more productive endeavour to help them tide their needs. In the Biliran Bay Development Agenda, all municipalities shall see the opportunity of being improved on the basis of its agricultural potential specifically the potential of developing its coconut plantation. With the CocoLevy being deliberated now in the Senate and its potential to be released to the real coconut owners and farmers, a source of this development agenda is therefore in the offing. On top of that, Biliran is fortunate to have been the focus of Republic Act No. 10409 An Act DECLARING BILIRAN AS A TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AREA passed by Congressman Rogelio Espina and approved in Congress, a law which shall provide teeth to whatever initiatives our people in Biliran will undertake to effect economic change. All we need to do I guess is adjust these plans to become weather resilient because these weather abnormalities shall stay for the rest of our lives. There is a detailed plan to this Biliran Bay Development Agenda being prepared as I write this memo. This concept paper shall be the cream of what shall then become a trail of campaign and propaganda to make our lives better in our part of this weather beaten Universe. I may see a lot of resistance and I may see some support too. But as long as I live, this is what shall make me breath and thrive. So Help me God!!
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:39:45 +0000
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