(miravera2010@gmail.com)
From the descriptions of Bayug Island in the papers, one of the hardest hit by Sendong, a typhoon which rendered countless hundreds of families homeless and thousands dead in many other parts of Mindanao, I could almost imagine an idyllic place before the disaster. The people before could have enjoyed the beautiful views of the sun rising at dawn and then the sunset by the sea at eventide. They had an unpolluted atmosphere, in fact plain sea air which must have strengthened their lungs and stamina so much that many had actually survived the onslaught of Sendong very easily just by embracing a banana stalk, or by floating on wood.
Bayug Island could have been another Boracay Island in the south except that it does not look habitable at the moment because of the heavy siltation brought about by the rampaging waters from the mountains made bald by illegal loggers. Thus it must really be very hard not only physically but emotionally and mentally for the inhabitants of Bayug Island to have lost their habitat so easily due to the typhoon.
The situation really makes us question now, how do we really define development? We see in the case of Bayug island that the people had homes, and means of livelihood there, yet it looked like the local officials only saw the physical aspects in a narrow way. Beyond Bayug Island were hordes of opportunists taking advantage of the naivete of the people by raping the forests and ignoring the consequences of their illegal activities. Then, the local officials who had the authority to say "No!" might have just looked the other way while their hands were stuffing their pockets with lots of grease money.
Any disrespect of Mother Nature to my mind is a sign of lack of moral governance, or of viewing development from a spiritual and moral viewpoint. Instead governance is viewed as a given -- after winning the elections, the officials merely serve to show to the people how they spend the budget of the locality, regardless of whether their projects were truly beneficial to the people on a holistic level or not. And the people, sorely distant from the stronger seats of power in MetroManila are held captive by these local officials whose view of development could be just a matter of material benefits, a matter of statistics, instead of a humane undertaking that looks at development of the people from womb to tomb and of the environment as one which will be able to sustain several generations.
I think that is what is lacking in the common view of development -- that it is not just a matter of figures but rather of existence of the people and the environment. Questions about development must go like these: Am I undertaking this development project considering the history and its environmental consequences? Am I showing respect for God's creations -- human beings and Mother Nature when undertaking this project? Will this project benefit the people for many, many years and not just for a year or two? Will the people be happy with this project?
The two big factors to consider, therefore when undertaking any development are: the moral motive of the developer in terms of promoting, preserving, protecting, shaping and improving (synonymnous with development) the lives of the people and their happiness.
Akin to moral motive is that of being spiritual. Why moral and spiritual, we ask? In turn I ask, why not? When we talk of moral motive, we are asking if the development project is considering the positive and the negative consequences, the good and evil that can result from it. We ask if there is respect of the people's rights and protection of the sustainability of the environment, for without the latter, the people will not be able to exist humanely.
Why spiritual? I believe that every living thing has a soul, that which propels it to exist on earth. Even a plant, as it exhales oxygen, is capable of feeling if it is hurt or tenderly touched by a gardener. One example is what happened to the trees in front and at the back of our house. To be continued.
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