Illegal loggers are mass murderers
Illegal loggers are mass murderers
Updated 10:56pm (Mla time) Dec 02, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the December 3, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AS still photographs and video footage of flood-ravaged areas clearly show, illegal logging is the culprit behind the landslides and flash floods. The pictures show millions of cut logs everywhere -- on the beaches, in the rivers, in the fields and villages -- deposited there by rampaging floodwaters from the mountains where they had been cut. Logging is supposed to be totally banned in Aurora, which was among the worst hit by the landslides and had a lot of fatalities. So where did all those logs that now litter it come from?
It is clear that nobody paid attention to the logging ban and that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been remiss in enforcing forest laws. As usual, the excuse is that there are not enough forest rangers and funds. But even if there were enough of both, if the quality of forest rangers remained the same, illegal logging would continue. For some rangers are in cahoots with the loggers. Some local government officials are into illegal logging themselves and even have their own sawmills. And some soldiers finance and sell the charcoal made by forest poachers.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has formed an "anti-illegal logging unit" -- after many “barangay” [villages] have been wiped off the map by landslides and more than 500 persons perished. Big deal. That is like closing the barn after the horses have escaped.
There was the same reaction after the Ormoc flood and landslide where 5,000 people died. There were the same gnashing of teeth and finger-pointing after similar tragedies caused by storms. But after the dead were buried and the waters receded, everything was forgotten.
Until we make illegal logging a capital offense punishable by lethal injection, we will never be able to stop it. For there is so much money in logging, so much corruption and very little risk (have you ever heard of an illegal logger sent to jail?) that they serve as incentives to the greedy. Considering the number of fatalities caused by illegal loggers, their crime is mass murder and they should therefore be punished as mass murderers.
* * *
(Continued from last Wednesday)
With all the sorrow around us, we need some good news. Here's one: The Philippine National Railways (PNR) announced that its South Line, the 480-kilometer railroad from Makati to Legazpi, Albay, will be rehabilitated beginning next year at a cost of $1 billion. The money will come from a $50-million loan from the South Korean Export-Import Bank and another $900 million from the Chinese government.
Now for the bad news: Squatters living along the railroad tracks in Bulacan and Pampanga have formed a "caravan" to block the government from ejecting them to give way to the NorthRail, to whom the rail tracks belong in the first place. The NorthRail will revive railroad service from Caloocan to Malolos, then to Clark and Subic, and eventually to San Fernando, La Union. The squatters want the government to abandon the project so they won't be disturbed from the railroad tracks that they have appropriated for themselves.
Only in the Philippines will you find lawbreakers telling the government what to do. Only in the Philippines will you find the government paying a fortune to squatters who don't pay any taxes at all. And only in the Philippines will you find politicians who coddle lawbreakers.
What these squatters don't realize is that the NorthRail -- as well as the South Line -- is the best thing that can happen to them. For the railroad will provide them fast and cheap transportation to and from where they will be relocated to wherever they want to go. Even if they are relocated in Pampanga or Bulacan, they can go to Metro Manila or to wherever in Luzon in a matter of minutes, at a fraction of what they would pay in bus and jeepney fares.
They can live in well-planned housing projects in the countryside where there is plenty of space and fresh air and still commute quickly to their places of work. No more "home along the riles" where they live in squalor and are exposed to danger at all times. In the relocation sites, they will own their lots and homes and nobody can drive them away from there.
These squatters also don't realize that under existing laws, they don't have to be relocated or given P50,000 each as disturbance fee. The law mandates that squatters in the right of way of government infrastructure projects, such as streets and railroads, are not entitled to relocation. The government can throw them out anytime. So the government is really bending over backward by offering to relocate them.
* * *
Politicians opposing the NorthRail say it is too expensive, that it would cost P1 billion per kilometer.
Wrong. Since the total project cost is $503.04 million, the distance from Caloocan to Malolos is 32.2 km, and the exchange rate is P56 to $1, they took out their calculators and came out with a cost of P875 million (almost P1 billion) per kilometer.
Wrong again. This is a double-track railroad, so the rail length is actually double -- 64.4 km -- and thus its cost is really only P248.39 million per kilometer of track.
Besides, the total cost includes the rolling stock (the locomotives and coaches: $87.79 million for 21 units), whereas highway projects do not include the cost of the vehicles that use them. Highway construction also does not include maintenance facilities for the vehicles, whereas a railways system requires a depot and maintenance yard ($14.53 million). Also, the capacity of a highway in terms of moving people and goods is very much less than that of a railroad.
Updated 10:56pm (Mla time) Dec 02, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the December 3, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AS still photographs and video footage of flood-ravaged areas clearly show, illegal logging is the culprit behind the landslides and flash floods. The pictures show millions of cut logs everywhere -- on the beaches, in the rivers, in the fields and villages -- deposited there by rampaging floodwaters from the mountains where they had been cut. Logging is supposed to be totally banned in Aurora, which was among the worst hit by the landslides and had a lot of fatalities. So where did all those logs that now litter it come from?
It is clear that nobody paid attention to the logging ban and that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been remiss in enforcing forest laws. As usual, the excuse is that there are not enough forest rangers and funds. But even if there were enough of both, if the quality of forest rangers remained the same, illegal logging would continue. For some rangers are in cahoots with the loggers. Some local government officials are into illegal logging themselves and even have their own sawmills. And some soldiers finance and sell the charcoal made by forest poachers.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has formed an "anti-illegal logging unit" -- after many “barangay” [villages] have been wiped off the map by landslides and more than 500 persons perished. Big deal. That is like closing the barn after the horses have escaped.
There was the same reaction after the Ormoc flood and landslide where 5,000 people died. There were the same gnashing of teeth and finger-pointing after similar tragedies caused by storms. But after the dead were buried and the waters receded, everything was forgotten.
Until we make illegal logging a capital offense punishable by lethal injection, we will never be able to stop it. For there is so much money in logging, so much corruption and very little risk (have you ever heard of an illegal logger sent to jail?) that they serve as incentives to the greedy. Considering the number of fatalities caused by illegal loggers, their crime is mass murder and they should therefore be punished as mass murderers.
* * *
(Continued from last Wednesday)
With all the sorrow around us, we need some good news. Here's one: The Philippine National Railways (PNR) announced that its South Line, the 480-kilometer railroad from Makati to Legazpi, Albay, will be rehabilitated beginning next year at a cost of $1 billion. The money will come from a $50-million loan from the South Korean Export-Import Bank and another $900 million from the Chinese government.
Now for the bad news: Squatters living along the railroad tracks in Bulacan and Pampanga have formed a "caravan" to block the government from ejecting them to give way to the NorthRail, to whom the rail tracks belong in the first place. The NorthRail will revive railroad service from Caloocan to Malolos, then to Clark and Subic, and eventually to San Fernando, La Union. The squatters want the government to abandon the project so they won't be disturbed from the railroad tracks that they have appropriated for themselves.
Only in the Philippines will you find lawbreakers telling the government what to do. Only in the Philippines will you find the government paying a fortune to squatters who don't pay any taxes at all. And only in the Philippines will you find politicians who coddle lawbreakers.
What these squatters don't realize is that the NorthRail -- as well as the South Line -- is the best thing that can happen to them. For the railroad will provide them fast and cheap transportation to and from where they will be relocated to wherever they want to go. Even if they are relocated in Pampanga or Bulacan, they can go to Metro Manila or to wherever in Luzon in a matter of minutes, at a fraction of what they would pay in bus and jeepney fares.
They can live in well-planned housing projects in the countryside where there is plenty of space and fresh air and still commute quickly to their places of work. No more "home along the riles" where they live in squalor and are exposed to danger at all times. In the relocation sites, they will own their lots and homes and nobody can drive them away from there.
These squatters also don't realize that under existing laws, they don't have to be relocated or given P50,000 each as disturbance fee. The law mandates that squatters in the right of way of government infrastructure projects, such as streets and railroads, are not entitled to relocation. The government can throw them out anytime. So the government is really bending over backward by offering to relocate them.
* * *
Politicians opposing the NorthRail say it is too expensive, that it would cost P1 billion per kilometer.
Wrong. Since the total project cost is $503.04 million, the distance from Caloocan to Malolos is 32.2 km, and the exchange rate is P56 to $1, they took out their calculators and came out with a cost of P875 million (almost P1 billion) per kilometer.
Wrong again. This is a double-track railroad, so the rail length is actually double -- 64.4 km -- and thus its cost is really only P248.39 million per kilometer of track.
Besides, the total cost includes the rolling stock (the locomotives and coaches: $87.79 million for 21 units), whereas highway projects do not include the cost of the vehicles that use them. Highway construction also does not include maintenance facilities for the vehicles, whereas a railways system requires a depot and maintenance yard ($14.53 million). Also, the capacity of a highway in terms of moving people and goods is very much less than that of a railroad.
posted by Dante at 7:54 PM
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