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2017

Shooting Stars and Dancing Fish: A Walk to theWorld We WantTony Oposa
School of the SEA, Bantayan, Cebu, Philippines, tonyoposa1024@gmail.com

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a walk to the world we want

tony oposa

Shooting Stars and Dancing Fish
A Walk to the World We Want
Antonio A. Oposa, Jr.
Copyright © 2017 by Antonio A. Oposa, Jr.
School of the SEABarangay OK-oy! Sta. Fe
Bantayan Island, Cebu
The Philippineswww.oposa.ph
tonyoposa1024@gmail.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, for profit,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by:

35 Lopez Jaena Street
Cebu City 6000 The Philippines
Tel/Fax: (63 32) 411-1700 / 343-1700
www.rafi.org.ph
ISBN: 978-971-95996-7-8
Editor: Eileen G. Mangubat
Project Managers:
Ron Jacob A. Calumpang
Rianne C. Tecson
Illustrator: Radel D. Paredes
Designer: Happy Garaje
All paintings by the Author
Printed in Cebu City, The Philippines
by Lim Tong Press, Inc.
This book is printed on recycled paper.

To the children of today
And those yet unborn:
May you,
And the children of the world
Still fill the Earth with
LaughterShooting Stars and Dancing Fish
In a city ablaze with light
Making day of a dark night,
A shooting star I do not see,And the world becomes all
About me.
I forget I am but a grain of sandOf a rich and living land.
I forget that my kind must care,
For Life-Sources needing great repair.
Hurry, hurry, dear friends,
Make haste to make amends.
The Seas, so ‘lovely, dark and deep,’
If we only dare to care and keep,
The fish will feed us all a-plenty
And will even dance for you and me.

Seascape in Acrylic

FOREWORD

Painting Stories of Our Future
Since the beginning of time, human knowledge and culture have been passed down through stories.
Short stories, songs, prayers, poems, even paintings can stick in your mind forever. These have always
been the most powerful ways we learn and remember.
Tony is not only one of the world’s greatest lawyers, he is also one of the world’s greatest storytellers.
This book, in which he generously shares his experiences, his scars, and most importantly his humanity,
is Tony’s gift to generations to come.
But he does not entrust us with his life stories for entertainment. These stories have a purpose.
As Tony reminds us all, the time for taking is over. And the time for talking is over. These stories area call to action.
Through humor, beauty and sometimes fear, Tony brilliantly demonstrates how we can and we should‘paint our future.’ He opens our minds to the possibilities for brighter surroundings.
Concepts like creative justice and the law of life, are simple yet brilliant examples of how we must
learn to interact with the world around us.
This is not a textbook meant just for lawyers, policymakers or scientists. Rather it distills concepts likelaw, diplomacy and observation to show where we need to go and how we can get there.
Whether it be writing, singing or painting, Tony has always had a gift for storytelling. This is astorybook for the future, and we are lucky to have Tony showing all of us the way.
Durwood Zaelke

President
Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development
Washington, DC

“This book paints a picture of the good life for all, everyone who is trying to decide how
we will power, design and run our communities.”						– Kristin Casper, Climate Litigation Counsel						 Greenpeace International“Imaginative, relentless and always good-humored, Tony sees possibilities that nobody
else can. His activities in the Philippines change the conversation all over the world.
Reading this little book is like hearing him speak – an unforgettable experience.”						– Silver Donald Cameron, Author and Filmmaker						 Canada“In this wonderful little book, Tony Oposa – part lawyer, part firebrand and all storyteller– has woven together many lessons learned from waging environmental battles in his
country. His optimism in the face of seemingly impossible odds helps us carry on in darktimes. His wisdom, if applied, would make the odds all the better.”						– Michael B. Gerrard, Professor and Director						
						

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Columbia Law School, New York“It is a spiritual journey through Environmental Law.”											– Claire Kiss, Law Student

University of Oregon, USA“The stakes have never been higher as they are now. Tony speaks to us in an honest
voice, softly musing, funny, but exciting the reader with the urgency of action.”						– Loren Legarda, Senator						
Republic of the Philippines

“Tony Oposa is an extraordinary individual and a true representative of global citizens,
be they already on this earth, those yet unborn or those not able to defend themselves.
He has almost single-handedly defended them all in many public interest litigations. He
has won landmark judgments in environmental jurisprudence. These decisions haveestablished precedents that are cited and emulated by courts everywhere in the world.
Tony’s commitment for the welfare of the people and the planet needs to be cherishedand replicated by all of us.”						– Elizabeth Mrema, Director						
Environmental Law and Conventions						
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),						 Nairobi, Kenya“Tony challenges us to rethink wasteful consumption and shift to the Economics ofConservation, Protection and Restoration (CPR) – the cardio-pulmonary resuscitation of thevital organs of Life on Earth. We need to heed the advice of this sage of our times.”						– Brian Preston, Chief Justice						
Land and Environment Court						 Australia“Stories like these pave the way; they fill the poisoned poor with hope. You help set thestage for a time when placing carbon in the Earth’s air and leaching known poisons into soil
and water will be contrary to our love for one another and the Earth.”            						– Michael Wilson, Justice						

Supreme Court of Hawaii“Shooting Stars and Dancing Fish is a beautifully rendered reminder of the wonders of thenatural world and of the human heart, and how they are inextricably intertwined. Throughpaintings, poems, pearls and prophecy, this book is at bottom a love story that propels
the imagination and sustains the soul. It guides us as we wend our way through time andspace in life’s grand expedition for beauty, grace, meaning and peace.”            						– James May, Professor of Environmental Law						

Widener University, Delaware, U.S.A.

Tony Oposa lives outside Metro Manila with wife, Greely,
and their children. In Cavite province, he finds more time
to paint, write and cultivate bamboo in a forest of native
trees. The Sea calls him home to Bantayan Island at a
moment’s notice.
Books by the Author
Environmental Law in the Philippines (co-author), 1992
A Legal Arsenal for the Philippine Environment, 2002
The Laws of Nature and Other Stories, 2003
Shooting Stars and Dancing Fish, 2017

CONTENTS
Preface: Shooting Stars and Dancing Fish
Foreword: Durwood Zaelke

1 Paintings on Cave Walls
2 World of Words
3 Rethinking Our Role
4 Story of a Mariner
5 Economics as Tuberculosis
6 Perlas Del Mar
7 War Stories

7.1 Children and Forests
7.2 Battle for Manila Bay
Thank you, Tita Odette
7.3 Other (Mis) Adventures
Forest Lines
Reclamation of Manila Bay
Laguna Lake
Bangus Fry Versus a Power Barge
Beach Protection
Imus River
Action for Forest Protection
Solid Waste Management Enforcement
Rain Gardens
Bantayan Island Sea Camp
Visayan Sea Squadron

15
21
27
31
41
49
53
54
62
65
66
66
68
71
76
78
80
82
87
88
89
91

8 Ex-Con Arsonist
9 Climate In Crisis
10 CPR for the Vital Organs of Life
11 Stories of CPR Economics

95
101
109
117

LAND
Soil and Water Conservation
Rice Terraces of the Philippines
Turmeric Turnaround - Meghalaya, India

118
119
119
121

URBAN LIVINGCity With No Traffic - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Redesigning the City for People
Green Roofs

122
122
123
124

RESTORING URBAN VITALITY
Car-free Day - Bogotá, Colombia
Paris, France
Smart Villages - Malaysia
No to Food Waste

125
125
126
126
127

ENERGY CONSERVATION AND SOFT ENERGYPower Saving - Japan
LED Traffic Signals - Chicago, U.S.A.
Floating Solar Panels - Japan
Renewable Energy - Freiburg, Germany
Green-Powered Island - Eigg, Scotland
Cooling from the Deep - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Electric Car Sharing Program - Malaysia

129
129
129
130
130
131
132
132

URBAN DESIGN TO PROMOTE SOCIAL CONNECTIONSSuperblocks - Barcelona, Spain

133
133

RESTORING CONNECTIONS TO NATURE
AND TO EACH OTHER
Cheonggyecheon - Seoul, South Korea
Are Cars Necessary? - Discovery Bay, Hong Kong

134
134
136

RESTORING THE WATERS
Sagay Marine Reserve - Negros Island, Philippines
Beach Forests and Mangroves
Iloilo River Esplanade

137
137
138
139

RESTORING THE EXPERIENCE OF HAPPINESS
Gross National Happiness - Kingdom of Bhutan

142
142

12 Finding Happiness12.1 Goal of Governance12.2 Principle, Pathway and Practice

145
150
156

13.1 Edible Landscapes and Rain Gardens
13.2 Road Sharing Movement
13.2 Ruse of Roads
13.3 Legal Marketing

167
173
180
181
206

13 The Time for Talk is Over

14 Climate Justice for Future Generations
Declaration of Commitment

15 Earth, Heart and Art
16 Painting Our Future
Acknowledgment
Glossary
End Notes

213
222
225
231
237
252
256

•

"•

1
PAINTINGS ON
CAVE WALLS

Once upon a time …
There was a group of islands
so rich and beautiful
it was called the
Perlas del Mar de Oriente,
Pearl of the Orient Seas.
The land and the sea were
teeming with the ‘birds and the bees,
the flowers and the trees.’
The air was clean and healthy,
and the waters fit to drink and plenty.

The island people of Pearl – the Perlas –were happy.
Money they hardly had any.
Their only currency was harmony
with friends and family.
They worked only a few hours a day, andspent the rest of their moments at playwith fellow creatures of the planet,singing, laughing.
Under the care of Mother Nature
they all knew the human need to nurture.

15

In sum, they did not forget themeaning of life.
It is all about moments:
Moments of peace, of friendship,of meaning,of the joy of being free
and feeling happy.

Before long, the water and the air
became dirty,
unfit to drink and breathefor both man and beast.
The life-giving soil could be planted no more,
so everyone had to buy food fromthe store.

Invasion of the Mind

‘That is progress,’said these men from foreign lands to thenatives of Perlas:‘This is the source of your happiness.
It is called development and progress.
‘It means taking more and more
and more and more,even if it makes your home a bore.
‘Even if it drills a hole into your head
So that you all end up dead.’

One day, pale men from faraway lands
came in big boats,in clothes and weapons of steel,carrying the cross of a different god.
And with both brought us to kneel.
They cut down the trees for wood,trees that gave air, shade and food.
They fished the sea empty,
dumped their junk and made it dirty.
Not content,
they scraped the life off the soil
for black water they called oil,
Then threw out all the land as dirt
into the river,
all for a few pieces of shiny silver.
And then they called it progress.
16

That is called progress.
One man was so disheartenedby the decay and destruction,
all in the name of progress.
He declared:‘I must leave, alone I shall live,
for my sorrows
I have the company of sparrows.’

17

So up the mountain he wentand entered a cave
until it later became his grave.
Years later, children went mountaincamping.
They discovered the cave of thehermit’s painting.
On the left wall of the cavethe children were delighted to see
magnificent pictures of sun,sand and sea.
GDP
In the interior of the cavewhere it was dark and dirty,
there, pictures of the present were so ugly.
But this is what progress calls pretty:
GDP Great Disaster for the Planet.
On the right side of the cave walls,
near its mouth where there was light
There, sketches, outlines andunfinished drawings weredepicting and predicting,perhaps hoping for a future paintingof what tomorrow would be …
18

GREAT
DISASTERFOR THEPLANETMy friends, we have seen the past.
Today we see the present.
If the future is what it is today
It would not be one of beauty,
a place we’d want our children to be.

We cannot tell the future.
No one can, and no one will.
We only know that we cannot paint the futureusing the worn-out paintbrushes
that we used to paint the pastand the present.
Thoughts are human paintbrushes,
Words are our medium,our lives are the canvassof the Art of Life.

‘Watch your thoughts...
they become actions.’- Lao Tzu

A wise man once said,‘Watch your thoughts,
they become words.
Watch your words,
they become actions...
Watch your character
it becomes your destiny.’
Our destiny of past and present
and that of tomorrow
Are all the makingof our thinking.
But thoughts are unseen.
They show themselves only in
the World of Words.

19

20

2
WORLD
OF WORDS
Six people are in a room. We ask each one
a question: What is the ‘environment’?

The sixth one says: “This is getting more
confusing.”

The first one says it is about ‘oursurroundings.’

Six different people will have six different
answers. Each one is right, but none fully
embraces the meaning of the word.

The second says ‘natural resources.’
The third says it is about ‘the animals andthe plants around us.’
The fourth says ‘ecosystems.’
The fifth one says, “Oh, it’s the interaction
between living and nonliving things,
between plants and animals, andeverything around us.”That is the problem with the word
‘environment.’ It is in English, a tongue foreign
to the inhabitants of Perlas and to many
peoples of the world. It is thus difficult tograsp with our mind and even more difficult tounderstand with our heart.
In fact, it is not even an English word. The word
‘environment’ comes from another country thathas words difficult to pronounce – France.
21

The French pronounce it envee-ro-nuhmungh. This is from the word ‘virer’ or to turnaround. ‘In viron’ means to encircle.
If you are having a problem with that, don’t
worry. Everyone else does. The concept generally relates to our surroundings but thismeaning is too shallow.
Sometimes at the start of a talk, I would ask
the audience: “Are you an environmentalist?”
Very few, if any, would dare raise their hands.
They are stumped by this word of many syllables. And to claim to be an environmentalist
is almost like admitting to being a hippie.
Is the environment about the birds and thebees, the flowers and the trees? Or it is about
Life, and the sources of Life in this single planet called Earth?

22

If the age of the Earth is 24 hours, humans in
our shape and form came only in the last ten
seconds. But we consider modern man thewisest, pretending to be doubly wise – Homosapiens sapiens.
That is a claim that must yet be proven. Why
are we the only animals that poison or destroy
the land, air and water that give us Life?

Earth and the Human Body
Let us compare the Earth to the human body.
The trees and forests are the heart and thelungs of the Earth without which we have no
air to breathe.

Yes, it is about precious sources of Land, Air
and Water, easier to remember as LAW,
the LAW of Life.

The land and the soil are the skin and fleshof the Earth from whence we get our food.
What did you have for breakfast? Bread, eggs,
rice, fruits. Did they grow in the grocery? Or
did they come from the land and the soil, andfrom the interplay of the LAW of Life?

Where do we humans come in? We are oneof the millions of life-forms – along with otherplants and animals – that survive because of
the sources of Life.

The sea, lakes and rivers are the blood andbloodstreams of Life. Water makes up threefourths of the human body and three-fourthsof the Earth. Our blood, sweat and tears arethe salt of the human body as the sea is thesalt of the Earth.

The Rule of Threes
If you don’t breathe for three minutes,
the heart stops.
If you don’t drink for three days,
the organs quiver.

If you don’t eat for 30 days,
the body will wither.
And collapse forever.
Then you are no more.
Put poison in any of the indivisible three – inthe land, air or water. Then it is only a matterof time before the poison enters our bodies
and the curse of cancer eats away the life of
many.
23

So, my friend, may I ask again: “Do you andyour children want to breathe poisoned air?
Drink dirty water? Eat poisoned food?”
If the answer is ‘yes,’ then it is time to bid you
a very good night, sweet dreams and safe
24

travels to another star.
If the answer is a vehement ‘no’ then we havemore to talk about.
Everyone therefore is an avid environmentalist.

What does that mean? Like every living being,
we all want to live and thrive.
So are humans really the most intelligent animals? We are among the tens of millions oflife-forms from bacteria to buffaloes, the house
fly to the flamingo. We are one of a kind – thethinking part of Nature.

Can I drink my money?
In the art of argument and debate, this is theplay where an adversary’s position is reduced
to absurdity – reductio ad absurdum.

Who are we, Homo sapiens? Are we a beast of
the biggest burden – the burden of wisdom?
(Sapiens is a Latin word meaning ‘wise.’)If so, let us prove our wisdom.

EconomyThe world is crazy about the economy, chasing
after economic growth and progress, headstrong and reckless.
What does that mean? Let us play a little
game.
Imagine that I owned all the water, but sold it
all to you. All that is left of the water is in yourhands. I, on the other hand, am rich with five
hundred billion dollars in the bank.
25

26

3
RETHINKINGOUR ROLE
What are we?
Who are we?
Why are we here?
If the Earth has a lifetime of 24 hours,
our kind – Homo sapiens –the Thinking Animal only arrived
in the last few seconds.
Are we here to plunder the Earth?
Or are we, as wise animals,
caretakers and guardians of Life?

27

The Wedding Feast
Let me tell you another story.
In the island of Perlas, for one whole year
a family prepared for a wedding feast.
Special rice was planted and ripened as grain,
to feed the body and the brain.
Fruits and veggies did growgreen and healthy for all to glow.
One week before the wedding,preparations began in earnest.
Everyone was getting dressed in their finest
and behavior was at its best.
Days before the wedding,they began the finest cooking.

28

Family and friends in love and laughter
wished them happiness forever after.
Together they all sang and danced
to celebrate man and woman’s romance.
The guests are called to take their seats
to partake of the wonderful food.
Then one man comes in.
He had too much to drink.
The drunk goes to the table, kicks it over,and food falls to the ground,
unfit for guests and goats.
The drunk then pulls out a knife,stabs the bride and the groom dead,as guests scamper off in dread.
Is the wedding party like the storyof Life on Earth?
The life of those here before our birth?

Then came the wedding day.
Everyone came, the young and the gray.

Who is the drunk?

Man and bride arrived in horse and carriage
to be joined in the sacred rite of marriage.

Did he come from the world of aliens?
Or is he the Homo sapiens?

29

30

4
STORY OFA MARINER
Do you know this good-looking gentleman in
the photo? Is he an actor? A military officer?
Neither.
He was my grandfather, a hardworking
merchant mariner who later became a harborpilot in a major seaport.
When he passed away at the age of 82, I wasa young man in second year law school. A few
days after his funeral, his lawyer called me tohis office. There, he told me that since I was afavorite grandson, my rich grandfather had leftme an inheritance of 10 million dollars.
Stunned, I received the money and deposited
it in the bank. The day after, I withdrew one

million dollars and brought my friends to thecasino, where we got drunk and gambled all
the money away. The next day, we repeatedthe spending spree.
Five days later, I realized that I only had$100,000 left. What my grandfather had saved
up all his life, I squandered in one week.
To cover my tracks, I told my accountant torecord all my gambling losses as income. I also
directed him to report that I was making good
progress in my life.
Is that correct accounting? Of course not. Any
accountant who did that would bring his client to financial ruin. He would be stripped of31his professional license for gross and utter
ignorance.
But is that not what the economists of theworld are doing to the Earth?
The Earth took four and a half billion years to
become what it is now – a ball of wondrous
Life and life-forms, all made possible by thedelicate balance of land, air and water.
Human beings, in our present shape andform, only came into being in the last
few seconds of the Earth’s clock. Like any
animal, we have lived off Nature’s bounty.
We started as food gatherers, then became
hunters and farmers.
The Industrial Revolution happened only
about 200 years ago. This started an era
where people, the latest of the Earth’s
transient animals, used sources of life – Land,
Air and Water – faster than these could be
replenished.
In less than 200 years, we cut down almost
all of the trees that took all of time to grow. We
removed life-giving soil and disemboweled
the Earth. We threw away the water that got
32

in the way, only to take out a few pieces of
shiny metal.

CPR Economics

We took out most of the fish from the seas
and rivers, then dumped poison into bodies
of water.

Albert Einstein, one of the great thinkers of
the last century, said that we cannot solve a
problem using the same kind of thinking thatcreated the problem.

And called this economic progress.

If so, what is a different way of thinking?

Plunder
The mind-set of human economics is to takeout as fast and as much as possible the life
sources and life-forms from the Earth. We
use them up quickly, and then throw what’s
left away.

The opposite of extraction and consumption
is Conservation, Protection and Restoration(CPR).1 A 180-degree turnaround of Ex-Con
Economics is CPR Economics.
CPR also means Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation of the vital organs of life – Land, Air andWater – the LAW of Life.

This is the mind-set of extraction andconsumption or ex-con economics. (Ex-con
also stands for ex-convict.) With its impact
on the Earth, this economic thinking hereby
stands charged and declared guilty of thecrime of ‘planetary plunder.’How do we get out of this? We think the
opposite way.

33

Fact, Fiction and Fantasy
Oh, the story of my grandfather?
It is said that the best stories blend fact, fiction
and fantasy.
The fact is that my grandfather was really amerchant mariner and a harbor pilot. The
fiction is that he was very rich. The fantasy
is that I inherited ten million dollars andsquandered it in one week.

34

But is that not the fantasy world we live intoday?
The Earth took 4.5 billion years to become
what it is.
In the last few seconds, our kind comes instone drunk and kills off everything in sight.
We also poison the Land, Air and Waters thatmake life possible.
Then we celebrate it as ‘economic progress.’

True Story
The real story is that my grandfather – Captain
Canuto Oposa (Papa Oto to us) – was a
harbor pilot in a major seaport of Cebu islandin central Perlas.
As an infant barely a month old, I was given
to his and my grandmother’s care. My parents
had to go abroad to seek medical care for mymother who had throat cancer while I was inher womb.
In his job, Papa Oto would guide big boats
in and out of the harbor, especially foreign
vessels unfamiliar with the local depths andtides. He would take me along to ride small
tugboats that would meet or send off the big
boats. Perhaps, that was when I first touched
the sea. Or was it the sea that touched me?

even a marketplace. It is quite far and even
until today the travel is quite taxing. To getthere, one has to cross an unpredictable andsometimes rough sea for over an hour.
No, I did not receive ten million dollars. I
inherited much more. It was not money, it was
something more precious – a love for the sea
and the value of thrift.
Papa Oto did not tolerate any waste of water.
A leaking faucet would irritate him. Once, he
asked me to tighten a dripping faucet.
I said, “That’s OK, Papa, that’s only a few
drops.”“Yes,” he said, “those are only a few drops
now, but after the whole night, that will fill abucket. If you waste water, one day you will
have to buy it.”Papa Oto owned some properties. When hedied, he left me a small coconut farm in the
remote island of Bantayan. The land faces out
to the fabled Visayan Sea, the heart of therichest marine waters on Earth.

To a boy of 7, the loss was no big deal. There
was a lot of water. Or so I thought. The idea ofbuying water was like buying air – impossible
and funny.

At that time, it was a useless piece of land.
There was no running water, no electricity, notIgnoring this warning about water waste got
us where we are today – we have to buy clean
35

Bantayan School of the SEA

water to drink. Is buying clean air not far
behind? Perhaps the childhood lesson of thrift
was the seed planted by Papa Oto that grew to
become the tree called ‘conservation.’
What does that word mean? It means ‘notwasting anything.’
36

Song of the Sea
The narrow beach strip where Papa Oto had asmall cottage has since multiplied in area andvalue. Despite several offers to buy the land
for incredible amounts, it is kept free of manmade structures. More than 99 percent of thearea is left in a state of wonderful wilderness.

Neighbors and agents have called me a foolfor not cashing in on the real estate bonanza.
But why shouldn’t it stay in a state of raw beauty? Maybe it would make a difference in how
people view the open sea in full splendor.
Maybe it would inspire them to take bettercare of the Perlas del Mar de Oriente.
Today, that long stretch of white sand andblue-green water are a rare sight. No seawall, no commercial structure or resort, and no
tourist traffic – just open space. When people come by, they pause, stunned by Nature’s
pure beauty.
“Wow, it doesn’t look like any other part ofPerlas,” says the visitor.

This is the location of the School of the SEA(Sea and Earth Advocates) in Perlas. In the nofrills beach camp, one experiences and learns
how to live in harmony with the Earth.
People who come – by invitation only – haveto fetch their bathwater from an old-fashioned
well in the compound. After carrying pails backand forth, they understand how precious fresh
water is and will not waste it. For meals, they
have to harvest vegetables. And before theyleave, they have to plant. This will impress allwith the truth that we can take from the Earth,but must give back.
In the seaside camp, there is no solid waste. All
used materials are separated as ‘wet’ and ‘dry’
to be turned into compost or reused or recycled.

“No,” I reply, “this is what Perlas is like if weonly take care of it.”

SEA CAMP
At sunrise, gentle waves touch the shores, andthe sky is ablaze with the colors of dawn. Birds
wake you up with their tweet and song. The
wind caresses skin and soul.

At the SEA Camp, volunteers make ‘fish condominiums’ out oflimestone and cement on bamboo frames. Drop these in the sea
and they become friendly shelters for fish.
37

Plastic is shredded and mixed with concrete to
make marine buoys and fish ‘condominiums’ tobe dropped into the sea as fish shelters.
Classes can quickly move from indoors to thegarden, and then hop onto a glass-bottomed
boat to behold the beauty of life underwater.
Since the sea in front was turned into a marine
sanctuary, the fish are plenty.
At night, after dinnertime, we turn off all thelights to enjoy the splendor of the stars. We
sit under the canopy of the heavens and arehumbled by the immensity of the universe. In
the darkness we are able to see shooting stars,
something we no longer find in the nightscapeof a city ablaze with lights.
When the tide is high, we go to the beach for aone-of-a-kind show. In the darkness, we beam a
powerful flashlight on the water that teems withfish, and see them jump out in different shapes
and directions. It is a sight to behold. I call thisthe ‘Dancing Fish Extravaganza.’
With volunteers and friends, the beach camp has
shown thousands of young people, schoolchildren, fishermen, teachers, government people
and ordinary citizens how to live in ‘a balanced
38

and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm
and harmony of Nature.’2

A Step Back
The sea in front of the beach camp was declareda marine sanctuary in 2004. After years of patient and vigilant caretaking as a no-take zone,
it was beginning to blossom with multi-coloredcorals and a wide array of marine life.
Then came Typhoon Haiyan (local name
Yolanda) on Nov. 8, 2013. It was the world’s mostpowerful typhoon to make landfall.
Shortly after, concerned friends asked me,“What happened to the School of the SEA?
Was it damaged?”“No,” I answered. “It was erased.”
It took more than a year, with help from friends,
to rise from the disaster. Vegetation recovered,and the birds are back in the nearby wetlands.
Of the nine structures in the compound, only
one withstood the 320-kilometer-per-hour winds– a Climate Change House built on concrete
stilts and set back from the beach line by about
100 meters.3 It has since been repurposed into
an Art Center for the Earth.

The School of the SEA is taking on new life as
the SEA CAMP – a program for Sea and Earth
Advocates of Culture, Arts and Music for thePlanet.
In the summer of 2016, a crack team ofenvironmental lawyers and actionists (I avoid
the word ‘activist’) underwent a 3-day training
there. It took more than one generation to put
this team together, and turn a dream into action.
On Earth Day, April 22, we also closed off several hectares of freshwater wetlands to be protected as a bird park.

Postscript
Little did Papa Oto know how he ignited
adventures for a boy who later used a careerin law to defend non-paying clients – trees andbirds, flowers and fish.
The experience of sea camping must have also
inspired the next generation. My eldest son
Juan Antonio, a lawyer, focuses on renewableenergy law. My only daughter Anna has takenon the idea of the SEA CAMP. As ‘Chief
Mermaid’ of the Save Philippine Seas movement, she holds trainings for young people all

Part of the wetlands in Sta. Fe, Bantayan is set
aside for a bird park.

over the country. Third son Uli takes care ofa wildlife refuge. As assistant manager of anisland resort hotel, he has done wonders to
reduce solid wastes disposed through excellent waste segregation. My youngest teenage
son Kiano is an animal lover and has taken
an interest in the bird park.
Indeed, Papa Oto and Mama Ing left me an
inheritance worth more than $10 million –much more.

39

40

5
ECONOMICS AS
TUBERCULOSISAre the United Kingdom, United States andJapan examples of developed economies?
Yes, of course. Why? Because they consume
more energy and materials.
Consumption is the measure and modelof ‘economic development’ for the world.
Economic progress is measured according to
the mythical level of per capita income andcorresponding levels of consumption. What is
a synonym of the word ‘consume’? Waste.

Let us define ‘economics.’ In one textbook
definition, it is ‘the efficient use of scarce
resources.’
Why are some countries called ‘developed’ or‘developing’?
Answer: Because the developed countries
consume more energy and materials. Thishas two dangerous underlying meanings.
First, that developed countries are superior to41

developing countries. Second, that developed
countries are a model to be copied bycountries that should consume as much, if not
more, energy and materials in order to catchup.

DISCUSSION AND ARGUMENT
Argument One:Are developed countries superior?
Excuse me. So-called developing countries like

42

Perlas already had highly developed societies
when people in ‘developed’ countries werestill killing each other. They killed their own
people and then they killed each other andtheir neighbors in never-ending wars. They
did so for power and control, and in ways sovile and brutal the stories cannot be told overfamily dinner.
By the way, who started the two world wars
in the 20th century which led to the deathsof more than 100 million people? Was it thedeveloping countries?

Argument Two: One EarthIf developing nations aspire to progress,
should it follow the model of consumption andwaste by the ‘developed countries’?
One study by environmental scientists
estimated that if all seven billion people on
Earth were to copy the lifestyles and wastefulways of ‘developed countries,’ we would need
the resources of ten Earths.1
The last time you looked, how many Earths do
we have?

The word ‘consumption’ has two othermeanings. To consume is not only ‘to use’but to ‘use up.’ A synonym or another word
meaning for consume is ‘waste.’In
medicalterms,‘consumption’isTuberculosis. It is a serious and life-threatening
disease caused by the bacteria Tubercle
Bacilli which eats up and wastes away thelungs and heart, and then other life-givingorgans of the human body.

The oneand only
LivingEarth

43

‘ I don’t understand whywhen we destroy something
created by man we call it vandalism,
but when we destroy something
created by nature, we call it progress.’				- Ed Begley Jr.

Remember how the Earth can be compared tothe human body? The trees and forests are
the heart and lungs of the Earth.
Who is the bacteriathat is eating away and wasting the forests?
Who is poisoning the air that we breathe?
Who is poisoning the water?
And who is scraping off the lifeof the soil for a few drops of oil?
What is the bacteria that causes the disease?
We must search for it pronto!
Ahora mismo!
There it is. The supposedly thinking animal,
human beings.
44

They act like a bacteria eating away
at the vital organs of the Earth,
the land, air and waters upon which
all Life depends.
The bacteria is called
Tubercle homo-cilli.
This bacteria must be
given some thought.
It is in its nature to think.
If not, we end up
with nothing to drink.

An Oxymoron
Is waste ‘good’ economics?
To repeat, economics means the most efficientuse of scarce resources. That makes today’s
standard of a developed economy an oxymoron
or a contradiction of terms. The economist
who still dares to call a waste-driven country a‘developed’ economy is an oxygen-deprived
moron.

From now on, let us call out the culprit.
Let us stop calling wasteful countries‘developed’ economies.
From now on, let us call themOver-Consuming or OC countries.
OC also stands for obsessive-compulsive,a psychological disorder, whose symptoms
include excessive desire for control
and an excessive hoarding of material things.
We in the islands of Perlas belong to
the Low-Consuming or LC countries.
OCs should copy LCs.
Instead of taking and taking
from scarce and limited resources,
LCs will teach OCs
the art of giving, of sharing
and of living.
Another meaning of LC is
Loving and Caring.

A Call to Action
My friend, I call upon you to take action.
From now on,
If you hear anyone call countries

45‘developed’ or ‘developing’please raise your right hand
like you would in the classroom
and then declarelike a top-caliber lawyer in acourt of law,
“Objection, your Honor, misleading!”
Then, you may say:
“I respectfully beg your pardon, Mr. Speaker.
I do not mean to disrupt the discussion.
But I must disrupt the kind of thinking
that is causing today’s great miseries.”
And then you can read excerpts from
Argument One and Two.
They are your weapons of choice,words and meanings to changethoughts and actions.

If Ex-Con Economics – progress anddevelopment measured in today’s reckless
extraction and mindless consumption – is bad
news, what is the good news?
Conservation, Protection and Restoration(CPR), the Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation of
the vital organs and sources of Life on this one
Earth is the good news. We can also call it
Restoration Economics, the kind of economics
that seeks to restore:

1

The Land, Air and Waters – the LAW
of Life2

The lost connection between man andNature3
4

The threads in the fabric of humansociety
The common sense goal of Life – theexperience of happiness.

On this, a story will be told better, a bit later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we change words, we change meanings.
When we change meanings, in the end, we change the mind.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------46

47

48

6
PERLAS
DEL MAR
Somewhere in the great ocean there is a groupof islands so rich and so beautiful it is like
Pearls of the Sea – Perlas del Mar. The nameof the country is like the name of its people:
Perlas.
While small in land area, it is one of a handfulof countries in the world that holds almost allof the life-forms – true biological wealth – on
Earth.
We learn about Charles Darwin in grade
school biology. He studied life in a group ofislands called the Galapagos off the coast of
Ecuador in South America. The islands are so
Sardine Run in Moalboal, Cebu

“Megadiversity: Earth’s Biologically Wealthiest Nations”
published in 1997 describes 18 countries that holdalmost all species of plant and animal life. The clown
fish in the book’s front cover represents marine life in the
Perlas group of islands.

49

rich in the variety of plants and animals thatDarwin developed the theory of the evolutionof life-forms on Earth in his book Origin of theSpecies.
How does Perlas compare to the Galapagos
Islands? Is it 10 percent? Is it half as rich?
Maybe equally rich as the Galapagos Islands?
Not quite.
The variety is ‘tenfold.’ The person boasting
about the wealth of Perlas is not from thatcountry. He is an American professor of amuseum of natural history of one of the world’s
most prestigious universities.1 In ten hectaresof forests in the Philippines, here known as
Perlas, there are more species of trees foundin these tropical islands than in the entire
continent of North America.

The Sea
If the land is rich, the sea is even richer. A
2005 international study showed that thecentral Philippine seas is the richest marine
waters. Dr. Kent Carpenter described the50

area as the ‘center of the center of marine
biodiversity on Earth.’2
In just ten hectares of the Perlas seas, there
are more species of corals and fish found in its
waters than in the entire Caribbean Sea, an
area of more than 300 million hectares.
But this incredible wealth is little known tothe people of Perlas. Sadly, they have done
everything to destroy their coral reefs andmarine wealth – all in the name of economic
progress and development.

Wildlife in Cebu:(From top left)
Cebu Hawk Owl
Cebu Frill-Winged Damselfly
Pied Triller
Emerald DoveGreen Sea Turtle (Pawikan)
Whale Shark‘As a gauge of biological diversity, it is reasonable to think of
the Philippines as the Galapagos Islands multiplied tenfold.’- 1998 study by the Field Museum of Chicago
51

52

7
WAR STORIES
We cannot have peace on Earth
Unless we have peace with the Earth.

53

7.1 Children and Forests
In less than 100 years, Perlas’ forests were gone.
In the 1980s, there was much debate on the
deforestation of the Philippines. I uprooted myfamily from Cebu City in central Perlas in 1988
and moved to Manila to explore the still-unknown field of Environmental Law.
These were the stark facts1:
1.

The land area of Perlas is 30 million
hectares.

2.

Barely 50 years earlier, there were 16
million hectares of virgin rainforests –more than half of the land area.

Maps of forest cover by the Institute of Environmental
Science for Social Change, Ateneo de Manila University.

be devoted to forest cover to prevent
erosion. The other half may be for otherland uses, e.g., agricultural, residential,
comercial, etc.

In the year 1900, forest cover was
estimated at 21 million hectares,
covering 70 percent of total land area.
3.

54

Based on government policy and theslope of the land, at least half of the total
land area or 15 million hectares must

4.

In 1988, there were only 800,000 hectaresof virgin forests left.

5.

Because of an outdated government
policy, logging was done only in virginforests.

6.

Forests were being cut down at the rateof 120,000 hectares per year.

7.

At least 92 logging companies were
given permits to operate in 3.9 million
hectares.

I was alarmed. In less than eight years, wewould practically wipe out the remaining oldgrowth forests of the country. My concern
grew after I spoke with the holder of a logging
permit. He said there were no more forestsin their concession area. So they would go toother areas to cut down trees and just pay off
government authorities.
Something had to be done. If we left things
like this, I wondered about what would beleft for the next generation. I thought of mychildren – toddlers aged 3 and 2, and a
9-month-old infant.
In Congress, the debate on logging washeated. Many members of the House ofRepresentatives were holders of timber license

agreements (TLA) or logging concessions. The
issue was untouchable. In the Senate, twowell-meaning senators debated on whether
to ban logging totally or selectively.
Environmentalist-friends
andco-workers
lobbied in the media for a stop to logging.
It was the classic debate between priority forthe environment versus the economy. One
side argued for business-as-usual for the jobs
and revenue for the economy. On the otherside, were the environmentalists, a tiny minority who worried about flooding and caredabout preserving what remained of old-growthforests. They were looked upon as slightly
better than hippies. No resolution was in sight.

Telling a Story
Soon after I became a lawyer, I realized that I
wasn’t cut out for the life of a legal luminary.
Deep inside, I knew that I could only be astoryteller.
Words are my paintbrushes, the Law is amedium, and the Court can be the canvass of
the art of storytelling.

55

Lake Danao in Leyte, Perlas

56

I decided to file a case to cancel all logging
concessions in the country. I argued that at
the rate we were cutting down forests, there
would be nothing left for my children to see,and other children of their generation andthose yet unborn.

One night, I was with three friends – a forester,
an artist and a layman. The forester said that
there was a clear and present danger. The
lawsuit must be filed. The artist said, “Goahead.” How? ‘Bahala na si Batman (Leave it
all to Batman)!’2

Where could I find legal basis for it? I asked
my lawyer friends. They all said it could not be
done.

Risky, ridiculous, insane, yes. But it was a story
that had to be told so I filed a taxpayers case in a

trial court in 1990. The plaintiffs in the class suit
were all minors represented by their parents.
A dozen lawyers joined me in filing thepetition.
The case was later dismissed without ahearing. The court granted the motion todismiss of the National Government for‘failure to state a cause of action.’ In otherwords, I did not have a case.

Failure is an Orphan
When the case was dismissed, the other lawyers disappeared. Even my own shadow leftme. Yes, failure is lonely.
It was a difficult decision. Will I move on withother cases in my fledgling law practice orshould I continue a ‘useless’ case that no one
was interested in and was costing a lot of timeand money?
But I was not happy about not being able
to present evidence in court about what was
happening to our forests. According to
the State, the people (and the children) had

no right to sue the government. In legal
language, the petitioners
had no legal
personality to sue or standing to take thisaction.
I was a young lawyer with a young family
struggling to make ends meet. The cost of
going forward with an appeal to the Supreme
Court was daunting. I was alone and ashamed
to say I had lost. The lawyers I earlier consulted
would only say: “I told you so.”But the story needed to be told. So I went
ahead and filed an appeal with the Supreme
Court. I did not even know how. If I had beensmarter, I would have known that one cannot
go directly to the Supreme Court and mustfirst go to the Court of Appeals.
In the words of Mark Twain, in order to dare
do something, one must be ignorant andconfident. I was both, a perfect combination
for disaster.
It look two years for the Court to decide on aquestion that was simple to me: If we wipedout our forests, what would be left for the
future? It seemed common sense. But the
Law is hardheaded.
57

The Decision
After several motions for extension to filecomment by the Government’s lawyer (theOffice of the Solicitor General), the Supreme Court finally decided that yes, thechildren-petitioners had the right to sue.
When I received a copy of the decision, I only
looked at the last part, the summary and theaction point called the ‘dispositive portion.’
It said that I should go back to the trial court
and implead all holders of Timber License
Agreements (TLAs).
Go up alone against 92 logging companies
with their battery of top-notch, highly paid
lawyers? No way, I told myself.
I knew beforehand that would be mission
impossible. Now here was the Supreme Court
ordering me to include all logging companies
as defendants in the case, and start all overagain.
I was so disappointed that I did not botherto read the full decision. I just glanced at
the concurring opinion written by Justice58

Florentino Feliciano, who later became a judgeof the Appellate Court of the World Trade
Organization (WTO). He said this was ‘oneof the most important cases decided by thisCourt in the last few years.’ He said the‘seminal principles in the decision are likely to
influence profoundly the direction and courseof the protection and management of theenvironment…’
I was amused. What was so ‘seminal’ about
having to do the case all over again andimplead an impossible number of defendants?
It was time to cut my losses and move on.
Only much later, when I read the wholedecision, did I realize that it was quite bold.
The High Court set aside the trial judge’s
earlier order dismissing our class suit. The
ponente or writer of the 1993 decision was
Justice Hilario Davide Jr.
Perhaps it was the case of a seed landing on
good soil. Davide, a Cebuano, is the son ofrural schoolteachers and has a heart for the
Earth. He was a member of the commissionthat framed the 1987 Philippine Constitution
and its provision on the environment.

Thus, Davide wrote from the heart. He was
eventually appointed Chief Justice of theSupreme Court.
Under Article II of the 1987 Constitution, “TheState shall protect and advance the right of thepeople to a balanced and healthful ecology
in accord with the rhythm and harmony of
nature.”Legal Standing
The question of legal standing was placed
front and center in the case before theSupreme Court. I had insisted that thechildren-petitioners and children yet unborn
had legal personality to sue.
I argued that in the Rules of Court, the ‘real
parties in interest’ in a legal dispute are those
who stand to suffer irreparable damage andirreversible injury. In my view, this applied to
my clients. If we depleted the forests now,
wasn’t that irreparable damage to them?
This to me was common sense. It was only after
I had lost the case in the trial court and while
it was on appeal before the Supreme Court

that I came across the work of the eminent law
professor Edith Brown-Weiss of Georgetown
University Law School. She had already written
the book In Fairness to Future Generations inwhich she coined the term ‘inter-generational
responsibility.’On the standing of children, the Supreme
Court in its en banc decision said this was ‘aspecial and novel element’ in the case:“Their personality to sue in behalf of thesucceeding generations can only be basedon the concept of inter-generational
responsibility insofar as the right to a balanced
and healthful ecology is concerned. Such aright, as hereinafter expounded, considers the‘rhythm and harmony of nature.’”The High Court said the rights to a balanced
environment were ‘assumed to exist from theinception of mankind’ and do not have to belaid down in the Charter.
Nevertheless, these rights are explicitly
mentioned in the Constitution because“unless they are mandated … the day would
not be too far when all else would be lost, notonly for the present generation but also for59those to come – generations which stand toinherit nothing but parched earth incapable ofsustaining life.”3
The stirring lines of the Supreme Court’s
decision have since resonated in many
countries. I am slightly embarrassed every
time the case is mentioned because it was acase that was actually lost.
Maybe the message of the case reachedmany because of its simplicity: If we use up
everything today, nothing will be left for ourchildren and others still to come.
But I guess that is the difference between the
obscure and the obvious. ‘The obscure isfigured out sooner or later. It is the obviousthat takes a lot longer.’

Logging Ban
The Secretary of
the Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources at thetime was Fulgencio Factoran Jr., a brilliant
lawyer, human rights activist and a law
graduate of the University of the Philippines
with a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School.
60

He was named defendant in the case becauseof his position. But he actually supported theobjective of the case.
I think he was the best Environment
Secretary ever. He used the case as leveragefor dramatic reform.
While the case was pending in the trial court,
Mr. Factoran ordered a ban on logging. He
issued Department Administrative Order No.
24, series of 1991 which said that effective
January 1992, all logging in the remaining
virgin or old-growth forests would beprohibited. The outmoded policy of allowing
logging only in virgin forests was a carryoverfrom the time when the country was still full offorests. Now there were only 800,000 hectares
left.
The short-term goal of my petition was tocancel all logging permits in the country andprotect the few remaining old-growth forests.
With DAO 24, logging could only be donein second-growth forests. With thatadministrative action, therefore, the objectiveof the case was already achieved.

Court, a landmark piece of legislation was
passed in June 1992, the National Integrated
Protected Areas System Act. Under this law,
the remaining virgin forests would fall under
the category of protected areas of Perlas.

The Next Generation
It took another 20 years – one generation –for all logging to be stopped. In 2012, thePresident of Perlas banned all logging in
natural growth forests. As this book was
being written, an El Niño was sweeping thewhole of Perlas, escalating heat and a droughtin the summer of 2016. We see the prophetic
words of the Court unfolding: ‘a parched earth
incapable of sustaining life.’
But yes, the tide is shifting. The reforestation
program that Secretary Factoran started in thelate ‘90s blossomed into a multi-billion-peso
National Greening Program being pursued
today. More people now dare to care for trees
and forests.
Lesson learned: Do what you must with a little
brains but with all your heart. Sometimes,
when you least expect it, the stars will align.

While I was battling my case in the Supreme61

7.2 Battle for Manila Bay
In the waters of Perlas is found the ‘center ofthe center of marine biodiversity on Earth.’Look at the map: The red portion has the mostabundant variety of marine life in the world.
At the apex of that red area is Manila Bay, acrown jewel.
Yet what have we done with it? In the late
1990s, I discovered that all the raw sewage ofMetro Manila – about 16 million liters a day –was being dumped in the Bay. Nine out of theten things found by fishermen in the natural
harbor were just garbage like plastic, rubberslippers, Styrofoam, etc. Manila Bay was being
used as a garbage can and toilet bowl.

The seas of the Philippines hold great wealth as
the epicenter of marine biodiversity on Earth.

It was time to tell another story.
To avoid the use of my name as a petitioner(like the children’s case for the protectionof denuded forests), I suggested to my law
students in the University of the Philippines tostand as petitioners. They agreed. The casewas titled Concerned Residents of Manila
62

Bay represented by lead petitioner Divina Ilas
joined by some of the bay’s marine residents– tahong (mussels) and talaba (oysters).
We proposed a new theory of inter-species
responsibility. This theory states that because
humans are supposedly the most intelligent

animals on Earth, we must take care of theanimals of lesser intelligence, such as mussels
and oysters.
The legal basis for this cause of action toclean up Manila Bay was straightforward. The
Environment Code, a decree issued by thenPresident Ferdinand Marcos in 1977, clearlystates that where a body of water is dirty, theconcerned government agencies must clean
it up.4
We included as many government agencies
as we could. It was a logistical challenge since
this was another pro bono case and self-fundedadventure in 1990. We had to serve notices toall 11 agencies.
The case went through the judicial mill from theRegional Trial Court, to the Court of Appeals,
all the way to the Supreme Court. Special
thanks goes to top-caliber lawyers Sigfrid
Fortun and Beda Fajardo. Sig, who happens tobe my brother-in-law, and his associates helped
a lot with the day-to-day management of thecase in filing motions and pleadings. I was oftenout of town and the student-petitioners had all
graduated, become lawyers and had careersof their own.
63

In the hearing of the case in the Supreme
Court, I was assisted by other top-notchlawyers. By coincidence, my soul brother,
the legendary environmental lawyer Mahesh
Chander (MC) Mehta of India, happened
to be in Perlas while the case was up for
resolution. He played an important role inenlightening the Court on the idea of a‘continuing mandamus.’Was that a win or a loss?

After almost ten years of litigation fromJanuary 1999 to December 2008,
theSupreme Court ordered all the defendant
government agencies to clean up Manila Bay.
They were also required to submit a timebound Action Plan and report their progressdirectly to the Supreme Court every 90 days.5

Is Manila Bay cleaner? I cannot say so with
scientific certainty. But it is heartwarming
to see people casting fishing lines off the
breakwaters near the Cultural Center of thePhilippines. They actually catch fish (though I
wouldn’t dare eat it.) If this is any indicationof cleaner waters and some restored marine
life, maybe the government agencies are
actually doing something.

Had this been a case for a paying client, I
would have earned enough to pay for mychildren’s college education. But then fish do
not pay attorney’s fees.
So what was achieved after ten years of handto-hand legal combat? We got an order
stating that the Government must do what itshould have done 30 years ago.

64

I really do not know.
I do know thatgovernment agencies have been submitting
their quarterly reports. Maybe 90 percent of
the report is hot air. Then again maybe 10
percent is true. Otherwise, the agencies
could be held in contempt for submitting a
falsehood to a court of law.

Whether it is enough to make the Bay safe
for swimming in the next generation remains
to be seen. I did my share and told a story.
Perhaps that is enough for now.
Citizens can still step up and sustain the
momentum.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------‘A lawyer who defends the Earthhas God for a client.’- Odette Alcantara----------------------------------------------------------------------LESSONS LEARNED

1

Telling a story in a court of law can andwill spark some action.
Awareness without action is like a bow
without an arrow.

2

3

The journey is its own reward.

Thank you, Tita Odette
During the ninth year of the Manila Bay case, I was
feeling burned out. So much effort, with absolutely no reward, not even psychic income. I was tired
and broke. I had given up my commercial (andrevenue-earning) law practice to focus on my passion,a decision I made in Sept. 8, 1998, four months
before I filed the Manila Bay case. Every motion,
every hearing, every pleading that was filed cost a
few thousand pesos that I did not have.

Whatever happens in the end – sooner
or later, win or lose, one way or another– is a bonus.

One day when I was very weary, I called up a moresenior friend, Odette Alcantara, who was Mother
Nature personified. We fondly called her Tita (Auntie).
She was a writer, artist and environmentalist.

Nothing that is worth doing can beachieved in one’s lifetime.

I asked, “Tita Odette, what am I doing? I’m a lawyer, agraduate of this and that school, recipient of this andthat award, and here I am, battling a case for almost
ten years, with hardly any end in sight and with noreward whatsoever. Am I doing right?”
To that she said, “Don’t worry, Tony, a lawyer who
defends the Earth has God for a client.”
Tita Odette, you are in some star now, smiling at
us and at your niño favorito (favorite child) as we
struggle with our foibles, and with the stupidity andbeauty of earthly life. For your words that inspired
me to go on, and which I have shared with many
since, daghang salamat!
(Thank you so much!)65

7.3 Other (Mis) Adventures
FOREST LINES

We wouldn’t know unless we tried to find out.

How can we protect something if we don’tknow where it is?

The issue had to reach the attention ofconcerned parties like the Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources (DENR)
and Congress.

This question nagged me about the remaining
forests in the country. The framers of the 1987
Philippine Constitution saw this as well.
So the Charter says that “The Congress
shall, as soon as possible, determine
by law, the specific limits of forest lands
and national parks, marking clearly theirboundaries on the ground.”6
In 2004, after 17 years, Congress had not done
this.
If pro is the opposite of con,
Is progress the opposite of congress?
If Congress has not done its job, can it becompelled to act by a court order for
mandamus?

66

In other words, the story must be told in acourt of law.
To test the idea, I filed another petition in 2005
to force Congress to define the boundaries of
the country’s parks and forests. The national
lawyers’ association wanted to join the
petition. I declined, knowing this was a riskycase. I thanked the president, who was myfriend, for his interest. If the case failed, I knew
I would be blamed by the whole organization.
Within 24 hours from filing, the Supreme Court
took action: Case dismissed!

67

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disasterand treat those two impostors just the same…”
wrote Rudyard Kipling. I laughed and moved
on. It was enough that the message was sent:
We cannot protect something if we do notknow where it is.
It was for DENR and other agencies to takeaction. What happens after, well, as the songgoes: Que sera, sera (What will be, will be).
To my surprise, seven years later, I read in thenewspaper that the DENR had completed
the delineation of boundary lines of forestsand protected areas of the country, a total of
79,245 kilometers.7
Thank you.
LESSONS LEARNED1

Do not be afraid to tell a story.

2

Win or lose, laugh!

3

68

Throw a pebble into a pond.
You never know how far
the ripples will go.

RECLAMATION OF MANILA BAY
In the early 1990s, there was a frenzy to build
flyovers in a mistaken effort to address traffic.
One massive vehicle overpass was planned forthe junction of the boulevard that runs along
the Manila Bay.
The flyover was just a prelude to opening up theremaining portion of the bay for reclamation.
Part of the sea would be covered with fillingmaterials and ‘developed.’ This got the goatof the Tourist Belt Businessmen’s Associationthat was headed by a feisty lady. They asked
me for help.
Bulldozers were coming in. The protestors
circled the trees in a human chain to protect
the trees from being uprooted. There wereclaims that an anomaly marred the award of
the contract. I told the group that I didn’tknow much about bidding and contracts.
Instead I asked if the project had an
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
What’s that?
In the past administration, then President
Marcos issued a decree requiring all major

Sunset over Manila Bay

government and private projects to prepare
an EIA and secure an Environmental
Compliance Certificate. Nobody had bothered
to implement this 15-year-old law. But it
was there in the law books, languishingin the sickbed of non-compliance.

piece of one-man legislation.

We filed a petition in court based on theviolation of the EIA Law. The project lacked an
Environmental Impact Assessment study andthe corresponding ECC issued by the Government. This was the first time the requirement
was sought in a court of law. The government
lawyers and the judge weren’t familiar with thisThis short stretch of sea can be seen along
Roxas Boulevard behind the United States
Embassy and the Cultural Center of Perlas.
Each time I pass that road, I remember the
feisty lady leader and her friends who dared tostand up to developers to stop an infrastructure monster even against overwhelming odds.

A restraining order was issued. After backroom
negotiations with government officials and ourside, the reclamation project was quietly
shelved.

69

I also bless the judge who issued therestraining order. It was a good wake-up callfor all. The environment department of Perlas
has since been proactive in requiring an
Environmental Impact Statement.
The battle for Manila Bay is not yet over. Many
‘developers’ covet the sea as a source of great
profit from land reclamation. Except for that
1.5 kilometer stretch where one can view theopen sea from the boulevard, the rest of thecoast has been pretty much ‘reclaimed.’That’s a funny word. To reclaim means to‘claim again.’ It means the area was owned bysomeone, was lost , so needs to be recovered.
What came first – the sea, which is millions ofyears old, or humans who appeared 100,000
years ago? How can anyone claim the sea,
which will be around long after people aregone?
The better word perhaps is not to ‘reclaim’
but to ‘claim.’ This way a project proponent
who wants to fill up the sea with rocks and soil
is actually claiming the sea as his alone.
Will that be allowed by Government?
70

There is yet another move to fill up hundreds ofhectares of part of Manila Bay. A lady senatoropposing it was advised not to directly tangle
with the developer. That’s messy. Instead she
can train her sights on the government agency
in charge of reclamation. She only needs to
ask the agency a few key questions:
1. Do you know about climate change?
2. Do you know about sea level rise?
3. Do you know about storm surges?
Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013devastated Tacloban city in Central Perlas
with 5-meter-high waves from storm surges.
4. Why would you still encourage reclamations
along the coastlines?
The madness of flyovers as a Band-Aid
solution to traffic congestion is still ongoing.
In Cebu City which has very narrow roads,
there’s a plan to build a dozen flyovers.
LESSONS LEARNED

1

Legal action is often necessary to force
parties to come to the table and find apolitical solution.

Illegal fish pens in Laguna Bay

2

3

4

Law and legal action have been usedmostly for playing a defensive role tostop this or block that. How can the Law
be more proactive and enable goodenvironmental conduct?
After one generation, despite the clear
and present perils of climate change
and worsening traffic, we are stuck ina mind-set of shortsightedness, greed
and Band-Aid solutions.
What can we do? Laugh! Laughter is
how the rational mind reacts to pathos.

LAGUNA LAKE
Ecosystem Theory of GovernanceCan a large body of water be managed as one
resource by each of the local governments
surrounding the lake? Or must the lake bemanaged as a single ecosystem?
One lake in Perlas is so large it is bigger thanthe entire Metro Manila, bigger even thanSingapore. Its waters are fed by both saltwaterand freshwater, making it unique. The lake isconnected by the 27-kilometer Pasig River to71the sea with its outlet in Manila Bay.
Because of its size, the lake was the target ofmany local governments that wanted to issue
their own permits for fishing and setting up
fish pens. Under the 1990 Local Government
Code of Perlas, they had the power to do
this. The situation threatened to suffocate theentire lake.
Under a previous law creating the Laguna
Lake Development Authority (LLDA), the body
had special powers to manage the entire lakewaters. Who was really in charge?
The question reached the Supreme Court. I
had the privilege of cooperating with LLDA
counsels to develop the theory of the case. We
introduced the ecosystem approach of governance over a natural resource. I was out of
the country when the case was heard in oral
argument. But it was heartwarming to see thetheory find its way into Philippine
jurisprudence.
“Laguna Lake and (its watershed)
constitute one integrated, delicate natural
ecosystem that needs to be protectedwith a uniform set of policies. This is an72

exhaustible natural resource – a very
limited one – which requires judicious
management … to preserve its ecologicalintegrity and balance.
“Laguna Lake cannot be subjected toa fragmented concept of management
policies where lakeshore local government units exercise exclusive dominion over specific portions of the lakewater. The garbage thrown or sewage
discharged into the lake, (taking) water
there from or construction of a fish pen …
affect not only that specific portion but
the entire 900 square kilometers of lakewater.
“Managing lake resources would mean
implementation of a national policy
gearedtowardtheprotection,conservation and balanced growth andsustainable development of the region
with due regard to the inter-generationaluse …”The High Court ruled that:
The court decision recognized the authority of
the LLDA to remove fish pens in Laguna Lake.8
But did the organization have the political will
to carry it out? Mother Nature intervened.
Shortly after the case was decided, a powerful
typhoon swept Laguna Lake and demolishedthe fish pens.

With reclamation efforts in Laguna Bay, will these birds still come to feed?

Postscript
To this day, illegal fish pens continue polluting
Laguna Lake. They are owned by powerful andpolitically connected persons. About 50 years
ago, the average depth of this beautiful lake
was about 21 feet. Today, silt and garbage have
reduced it to about seven feet. As a result,flooding regularly happens in lakeshore towns
and cities.

Some local officials tried to invite developers
to dredge and reclaim the shores of Laguna
Lake. The plan was to fill up the western partof the lake and allow the developer to sell theland in consideration for dredging part of thelakebed. It would have cost billions of pesos.
The project would have also resulted in massive
flooding on the unfilled eastern side and other73portions. Fortunately, the bidding failed
because there were no takers for the project.
Every crisis presents a wonderful opportunity.
The Government could buy and operate its
own dredging machines. The lakebed could
be dredged and the excavated material used
to elevate the length of the lakeshore andbe turned into open spaces. These spaces
could also be planted with bamboo and trees,transformed into parks and serve as dikes/
levees to protect communities from theincessant flooding that occurs every rainyseason.

LESSONS LEARNED1

The solution to the world’s problems
sits right under our noses. We just have toopen eyes that are blinded by power andmoney.

2

Again, Law and legal action played
defense. How can the Law be used tobring about true development for humanwell-being?

Bamboo not only has multiple uses for housing,construction (ply-boo or bamboo plywood),
furniture, paper, etc., it is also an effective
carbon capture mechanism. One hectare offorest trees absorbs 15 tons of carbon dioxide,
while a bamboo grove of that size captures
62 tons. Bamboo, the tallest grass, also
releases 35 percent more oxygen than trees andcontrols soil erosion.
Transformed into a recreational area, Laguna
Lake could be a great source of humanwell-being, food and other economic
opportunities.
74

Bamboo, the tallest grass, captures carbon dioxide more
effectively and releases more
oxygen than a forest of trees.

75

BANGUS FRY VERSUS A POWER BARGE
The beach in the province of Mindoro is not
only beautiful, it is also the breeding andnursery grounds of milkfish (bangus).
Why would anyone want to put up adiesel-fueled power barge here?
In the late 1990s, I had the chance to represent76

a group of bangus fry fisherfolk in their fightto stop the setting up of a power barge in its
coastline.
Puerto Galera, the resort town where the powerbarge was to be put up, was then suffering
massive power outages. I knew the caselacked political support because consumers
were crying for electricity. The local economy
was crumbling because of unreliable power

service. The barge was supposed to be astopgap measure. The governor of theprovince was solidly behind it. Everyone was.
We filed the petition in the trial court to stop
the project anyway. We lost the case from start
to finish.9
I still laugh about the experience. What madeit fun was the opportunity to introduce in court
the theory of ‘inter-species responsibility’and argue that since human beings aresupposedly more intelligent than lesser lifeforms, it is our duty to take care of the fish fry.
As their guardians, we could take legal actionin their behalf.

LESSONS LEARNED12
3

Law is a function of politics.
Losing a battle does not mean losing
the war.
Law and legal action again played
defense. How can it be more proactive?

We lost the case all the way from the trial court
to the Supreme Court.
But we won the respect of the Mindoro
governor. After six months, he called me to ask
for help and to represent him against a proposed mining project in a protected mountain.
And we won the bigger war. The power bargethat was temporarily placed in the area wasequipped with state-of-the-art environmental
safeguards.
77

BEACH PROTECTION		

						
Somewhere in the central region of Perlas isa group of islands so beautiful it defies easy
description.

into the sea. No one listened. Many simply
scoffed at me.

In the early 1990s, when electricity cameto the Bantayan Island, foreigners settled
there and started to buy up land to build
tourist resorts. Eager for more revenue andforeign investments, the local government
welcomed them with arms wide open.

Instead of suing the resorts, I decided to target
the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) as the agency in charge of
implementing the law. The environment office
was sympathetic and knew it had thepower to remove these structures. But its
officials were afraid of being sued left
and right for civil damages and even foradministrative and criminal liability. But if I
would sue the DENR, and the court ordered
the removal of the seawalls and otherstructures, the agency would have no choice
but to comply with the Court’s order.

The foreigners did not stop at building resorts.
They started to encroach and build on the
coastline in front of lots that they supposedlybought. They fenced off the shoreline for their
exclusive use, preventing fishermen and people from docking there or even from passing
through.

It was again time to tell a story in a court of law.

And so it happened.
The practice was outright illegal under thecountry’s Water Code.10 But then again, in
Perlas, laws are often taken as mere suggestions.
For many years, I talked to the local government, the foreigners and resort owners about
the structures encroaching the seashore and78

The court issued a demolition order. Witha sledge hammer and a drill, DENR
representatives took down concrete fences
and kiosks extending to the beach in full viewof news photographers.11
After the operation, a friend was on his way

to the sea at 3 a.m. to go fishing. He later
reported that two men on a motorcycle werelooking for me. The men asked if I was athome in Bantayan. Suspecting ill-motives, myfriend said I was out of the country.
My police contacts told me similar feedback
about two motorcycle-riding men asking where
I lived in the city. Two men riding a motorbike

in tandem is a common modus operandi of
local assassins.
Early the next day, I quickly packed up and left
Bantayan Island. My policeman friend, armed
with an Armalite and rocket launcher, met meat the port and escorted me to the city. There
I took refuge in the house of a friend, and left
for Manila the next day.
Despite the scary scrapes, I am still alive andcausing mischief. As the Spanish say, mala yerba
nunca muere (Bad grass is not easy to kill).
Yes, I live an exciting life.

Postscript
While the encroaching structures were
removed in 2010, at great cost to thegovernment, the resort owners got away
scot-free. They were not sued for damages or
criminal violation of the Water Code.
Some resort owners complied with the court
order, while others are starting to creep backon the beach again with the implicit consent
or negligence of government officials. After79

typhoon Haiyan in 2013, newspaper photos
showed the rise of new structures built on the
shoreline. Some local youths wrote to town
officials to ask if these structures have building
permits. The story is still unfolding.
I can only do so much. I can start a fire, but
I cannot stoke the flames forever. When thetime is ripe, maybe the young people whohave started acts of enlightened citizenshipwill one day become political leaders of thetown. They will, hopefully, know what is theright thing to do.
Or maybe one day, Nature will come to therescue with a bigger storm surge and wash out
all the illegal structures. Good riddance!
LESSONS LEARNED

1
2

80

Government officials really want to do
the right thing. They just need the
support of citizens.
Greed knows no bounds. It is thefunction of the Law to temper thisgreed.

3

Legal action can be done by one man
determined to do what is right. It
comes at great cost of time, money,
effort and sometimes of life. But thetorch must pass to the young. They will
inherit the mess we are leaving behind.

IMUS RIVER
In 1989, I relocated my family to the town ofImus in Cavite province where we put up achicken farm.
The Imus River which crosses the town was
polluted. Together with public officials andleading residents of four towns along thewater, we started a campaign to clean up theriver. We even had a small boat to patrol theriver and keep an eye out for waste dumping.
This was my first try at cleaning up a river.
In less than one year, with the help of acommitted town mayor, we were able toconsiderably clean up the Imus side of theriver. The river runs through four towns,
including Dasmariñas, Bacoor and Kawit. I
was so happy to learn that fish andshrimp-like creatures were being seen again.
This was proof of how quickly the water quality
can be improved with minimal human help.
Then the rainy season came. All the garbage
from upstream Dasmariñas town – a relocationsite of urban poor settlers of Metro Manila –flowed down in torrents to Imus River and out
to Manila Bay.
We appealed in vain to the local governments.
Soon after, it was election time and the mayors
were too busy to pay attention to non-voting
rivers.
This frustrating experience made me realize
it was not enough to rely on governments
to take on multi-year projects to addressenvironment concerns. Political leaders comeand go too fast and too soon. Mayors serve forthree years a term or about 1,000 days. There
must be a way of sustaining political will to dowhat is necessary.
If we cannot rely on local or national
government to clean up a waterway, what can
we do? Where political will is lacking, canlegal will be an answer?

After heavy rains, trash is back in parts ofImus River.

This question became one of the seeds thatlater sprouted and guided us in the Manila Bay
case.

81

ACTION FOR FOREST PROTECTION
In the early 1990s, I focused my work on the
campaign against rampant illegal logging.
This was my first hard-knocks adventure in law
enforcement. I had the chance to design andhelp carry out a World Bank project with the
DENR that had sufficient resources to do what
needed to be done.
A true-blue environment advocate andworld-renowned marine biologist, Angel
Alcala, was appointed Environment Secretary.
He had just received the Asian equivalent of
the Nobel Peace Prize – the Ramon Magsaysay
Award. I knew him as a man of integrity andcompetence. When Alcala asked me to join
him in government, I respectfully declined andoffered to work with him in my private capacity.
This was my introduction to international
consultancy. I was engaged mainly to conduct
trainings. I partnered with friends and myformer law professor Myrna Feliciano,
then director of the Institute of Judicial
Administration of the University of thePhilippines. Together we conducted training
sessions for the police, prosecutors, judges
82

and government staff in all hotspot regions
where illegal logging went on or had a market
for lumber.
That was just the takeoff point.
The
enforcement phase was called Oplan(Operation Plan) Jericho and involved several
agencies.
With the support of Secretary Alcala, we wereable to:1. Organize a lean-and-mean strike force ofmen of integrity, determination andcompetence from the Department ofJustice, the National Bureau of Investigation, the national police and the DENR.
2. Stage raids against illegal lumber mills.
The task force went after illegal loggers in
Region 2 (Isabela and Cagayan provinces),
Region 4 (Quezon Province and Palawan),
Region 10 and 11 in Mindanao (Agusan/
Davao/Sarangani).
3. Guide the first and most extensive
enforcement raids against illegal logging
hotspots.

4. Use a then-untested method in natural
resources law enforcement of putting
people in jail immediately upon arrest using
the summary but perfectly legal inquest
proceedings.
5. Arrest and prosecute bigtime illegal logging
operators, including mayors and Army
officials. A total of 360 cases were filed with
285 convictions, according to the NBI tally.12
6. Form the first specialized courts to handle
illegal logging violations in 1994 with thesupport of the Chief Justice, the Deputy
Court Administrator and my dear professor.
The 92 courts were the forerunners oftoday’s Environment Courts in Perlas.13
7. Conduct air, land and sea enforcement
operations using helicopters, boats andland assets of the armed forces. In his
book Taking Back Eden: Eight
Environmental Cases that Changed theWorld, Oliver Houck describes one of theaction-packed operations. It
was so effective that upon arraignment, theaccused simply pleaded guilty.

83

8. Learn how to speed up the flow of illegal
logging cases. In less than 1,000 days, theconviction rate of illegal logging cases
soared from zero to 185. Not bad.
Many cases are dismissed or shelved in thearchive because there is no clear ‘victim’in environment offenses. Witnesses also
disappear. They are bought off or simply do
not care to attend hearings because of lack oftransportation and other logistical support.
To address this, I proposed a small top-level
team to monitor the cases. The team had
representatives from the Supreme Court, the
DENR and the Department of Justice. We

Campo 7 forest in south Cebu
84

went to the area where cases were delayed,
examined each one, asked agencies to
explain the status and took action. The
logjams had several causes – no transportation
for witnesses, a judge sitting on a case, lackof a transcript of court proceedings, etc. One
case collapsed after the witness, a dedicatedgovernment forester, was murdered in front of
his house.
We had to outmaneuver illegal loggers who
would use the law to recover trucks that wereseized by authorities for transporting illegal
forest products.
Vehicle owners filed cases against govern-ment personnel through an action of replevin,a civil remedy for recovering personal property
in the illegal custody of another. The caseusually included a claim for money damages
that ran to the hundreds of thousands ofpesos. The tactic demoralized forestry andlaw enforcers who were left to face thedamage suits with meager resources andwithout legal support from the government.
Some judges, sometimes for a hundred
thousand reasons, would issue the order ofreplevin directing the Government to returnthe trucks even though they were the objectof valid confiscation by the Government.
Working with the Government’s counsel, we
helped put together legal arguments thatclarified and eventually settled the rule.
It was simple. If the truck or boat carrying
contraband forest products is seized bylaw enforcers, the action is presumed to be
regular in the course of official functions. As
such, the thing cannot be the object of areplevin action and is beyond the reach ofcourts (Paat vs. Court of Appeals).14 In 2010,
this rule was institutionalized by the Rules of
Court for Environmental Cases.15

From Frustration to Vacation
I was so burned out from battles with illegal
logging that I decided to take a yearlong breakin 1996. Instead of a holiday, I went to school
near the Charles River in Boston, USA.
The school that offered a Master of Laws musthave committed a serious typographical error
because it accepted an academic bum like me.
There, for the first time, and away from thepressure of work, I was able to spend a lot oftime with my family, who traveled with me.
While attending academic classes in Environmental Law, I also took classes in sailing.
Seeing my classmates so focused on schoolwork and their grades, I organized fun parties.
Everyone was asked to dress up in theirnational costume and bring a national
dish for potluck dinner. Those who could
perform did so on the piano, guitar, fluteor just sing. I hear that they have since
institutionalized the International Dinner Party.
My classmates must have had so much fun thatthey chose me to be the Graduate Students’commencement speaker at the graduation of
the Harvard Law School on June 5, 1997.
On the same day, in another part of the world, I
was given (so unexpectedly) the highest United
Nations Award for the Environment and waslisted in the UNEP Global Roll of Honor.
85

Some Productive Moments
While I didn’t worry a lot about grades, mytime in Harvard was productive. I finished therequired academic papers in a few weeks(instead of months) because I wanted to go
sailing in the Boston Harbor and spend timewith my family.
One paper I wrote Charting the Course for
Citizens Suits included a section on harassment
suits. My professor was concerned that I tackled
two major topics.
Both topics were personal to me. The year
before I left for Boston, I was facing a libel case.
My pro bono client, an old lady, had complained
against a man who dumped used oil, a toxic
waste, into the sewer beside her house. To getback at her and at me, the man sued us both forthe crime of libel. It was a stressful time. The
libel case was dismissed shortly before I left for
the U.S. So dealing with a harassment suit was
was very real to me.
Instead of writing an academic mumbo-jumbo
paper, I went the extra mile and finished thepaper in two-and-a-half weeks. In the annex
were two draft provisions of how a citizen suitand an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against
Public Participation) action could look like in myhome country, Perlas.
One year after I returned home, Congress wasdeliberating on the Clean Air Act. When I was
86

asked for input, I sent the annex. This found its
way word for word into sections of the new law.
These provisions were carried over to the Solid
Waste Management Act, and are now part of
the Rules of Court for Environmental Cases.
These rules empower ordinary citizens toinitiate legal actions to enforce Environmental
Laws, and shield them and government officers
from harassment suits.
Another paper submitted as schoolwork
became the seed of what is now a plan toinitiate a global legal action to address theclimate crisis – Climate Justice for Future
Generations.

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ENFORCEMENT

In July 10, 2000, an avalanche of garbage inthe main dumpsite of Metro Manila buried
more than 230 people under tons of trash.
This tragedy hastened the passage of the
Solid Waste Management Law in Perlas.
It is a wise and effective law. However, as
is often the case in Perlas, laws are only
suggestions.
I was convinced by a friend to head theenvironment committee of a national group oflawyers. I do not like the word ‘committee.’
It has been loosely defined as ‘a group of theunwilling, picked from the unfit, to do theunnecessary.’
I renamed it the National Environmental
Action Team (NEAT) and made the Solid Waste
Management Law the focus of action. Aboutthat time, a schoolmate in the college oflaw was appointed to the Office of the
Ombudsman.
We
thenformedan
Environmental Team of the Ombudsman, a first of its kind. I was excited. I

arranged for the team to be trained in our
Bantayan Island Sea Camp.
We were off and running. Together with someaction-oriented lawyers, we went to work.
With the help of environment officials, we sent
notices to sue to the mayors. The aim was not
to send people to jail but to send a message toofficials in Metro Cebu: How can mayors talk ofbillion-peso projects without handling a basic
service like proper garbage management?
Just when it was starting to gain speed, top
officials of the government and the lawyers
organization were changed, not necessarily forthe better. Talk about continuity.
LESSONS LEARNED

1
2

Never rely on Government and big
organizations for sustained action andcontinuity.
There are three R’s in solid waste
management – Reduce, Reuse andRecycle. We need to add one more R.
Remove the word ‘waste’ from ourmental and working vocabulary. To
87paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, ‘there isenough for everyone to use, but neverenough for anyone to waste.’

3

The seed that you plant today may die.
One day, it may just spring back to life.

RAIN GARDENS
Why is there flooding? After a heavy rain,
excess water has nowhere to go.
Lakes, ponds and wetlands are supposed tofill this need but clever humans, in need or ingreed, cover up the waterways, build houses
and structures on riverbanks. And then people
complain of flooding.
Republic Act 6716 actually requires the
Department of Public Works and Highways(DPWH) to put up rainwater collectors but thislaw passed in 1989 was never carried out. Can
we use legal action to compel compliance?
So we told another story. A legal action for
mandamus was filed in the Supreme Court as atest case. New rules of court for environmental
cases had just been passed by the High Court
88

in April 2010. I filed the case one week before
the Rules were passed.
It ended quickly with the signing of an agreement by Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to
implement the law. This included an action
plan with a timeline.
Over time, I realized there was a better term
for rainwater collector. The phrase is too long,
has too many syllables and is not quickly
understood. Calling it ‘rain garden’ sounds
more fun!

BANTAYAN ISLAND SEA CAMP
After making a long sea trip in 2001 for anunderwater survey of the Visayan Marine
Triangle, I shifted focus. With two old sea dogs
– Captain Rudy and Commodore Dodong –we decided to spend time teaching young
people in Bantayan Island how to care for theenvironment.
This gave birth to the Bantayan Island Sea
Camp in Nov. 30, 2002. Earlier that year,
we cleared the beachfront, resulting in a
spectacular view of the blue-green water.
With other friends, we would camp out on
weekends in a white two-story wooden
cottage. We gave lessons about coral reefs,
how to plant vegetables and recycle garbage.
We took kids out to sea for snorkeling. For
many, it was their first time to view theunderwater world that way.
It was a lot of fun. It cost less than a hundred
dollars (about 4,000 pesos) to put together
the time and talent of volunteers – a doctor,
scuba diving instructor, architect, mariner,
lawyers and some teachers. It was magic forthe children.

Sea Camp lessons were interrupted by hardcore law enforcement in raids and arrests by
the Visayas Sea Squadron.
After my partner Jojo de la Victoria was murdered in 2006, and my life was under threat,a dear friend and mentor, Nick Robinson, sentme some funds to protect my family and to
pursue the rule of law. I used it instead as aseed fund to put up the School of the SEA in
my beach place in Sta. Fe town in Bantayan
island. This also became a memorial for Jojo,
who had paid the highest price for our advocacy. The seafront was designated a marine
sanctuary in his name. I wanted to firmly set
up the education program for youths, an effort
that we, among them Jojo, started with theidea of the first Sea Camp.
The vision was finally born. It would be aschool for young people to learn to become
Sea and Earth Advocates (SEA).
The School of the SEA was launched in May
2007. Top-caliber people from different
fields of studies and passions were there –environment education, marine science,
economics, community organizing, ecotourism, law and medicine. It was a happy and89most hopeful occasion.
‘Man proposes and Nature disposes.’ The
school’s main house was made of native
materials – bamboo frames and a thatchedroof of palm leaves. It looked beautiful.
But the climate had other ideas in mind. In June
2008, barely one year after we inaugurated
the School of the SEA a powerful typhoon
struck Bantayan. Not a single structure withthatched roofs was left standing in the wholeisland. All poultry farms that housed thousandsof chickens were destroyed.
A few years later, with the help of anotherfriend, we built a concrete structure thatwould be eco-friendly, climate-resilient andtyphoon-resistant. We called it the Climate
Change House.
In 2013, when Supertyphoon Haiyan (local
name Yolanda) swept through Bantayan withmore than 300-kilometer-per-hour winds, theconcrete house on stilts was the only one
left standing and virtually undamaged in theseaside compound.
With eight of the school’s 10 structures90

destroyed, we renamed the place SEA CAMP,
this time with a fuller meaning: Sea and Earth
Advocates of Culture, Music and Arts for thePlanet.
I promised that from the ruins will rise something stronger and better than ever. The SEA
CAMP now has an Art Center for the Earthwhich we inaugurated on April 22, 2016.

VISAYAN SEA SQUADRONIn 2003 to 2004, while holding weekend
training camps for children in the Sea Campof Bantayan, we noticed that rampant illegal
fishing was going on. Dynamite fishing andcommercial fishing intrusions into prohibitedcoastal zones went on unchecked.
Something had to be done. Thus was born the
Visayan Sea Squadron. I organized the strike
team with crack enforcers from the National
Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Navy, fishermen,
sea watch volunteers, lawyers, law students
and even a few foreigners.
The target was not small fishermen but crime
syndicates and operators behind the sale ofblasting caps and dynamite powder. Seizuresand raids followed.
Operations must have been so effective thatword went out that Jojo de la Victoria, thefearless Bantay Dagat (Sea Watch) chief ofCebu City, and I were targets of assassination.
We both laughed off the threat.
A local daily reported an interview with Jojo
who revealed an intelligence report that angry
91

illegal fishing operators had put up a
one-million-peso bounty for him and me.
Barely 48 hours later, a hired gunman shot
Jojo just outside his house in Cebu City in theafternoon of April 12, 2006.
Jojo’s life was not in vain. Immediately after
his funeral, the core team met for dinner toregroup. The tide of illegal fishing started
to turn. Exploits of the Visayan Sea Squadron– and the courage and synergy of themen and women who made it happen– will one day be written in detail.

Four years after Jojo died, the stars began toalign.
The co-founder of the Visayan Sea Squadron,
Alfredo Marañon, was elected governor of
Negros Occidental, one of the surrounding
provinces. He gathered the other three
governors in the region to begin a restorativeplan for the Visayan Sea, an area of more than
one million hectares. The governors passed
a landmark joint resolution to work for thedeclaration of the entire Visayan Sea as amarine reserve.

‘De La Victoria
earlier told
reporters that
he received
information that
there was a onemillion-peso reward
for the person who
could assassinate
him and Oposa.’
92With the May 2016 elections in Perlas over,efforts will step up to request Congress andthe President to protect this wealthy fishingground as a national marine reserve and keep
it off-limits to commercial operators. It is acrown jewel of the natural treasures of Perlas
as well as a common heritage of humankind.

If this happens, it would be the largest
marine reserve in the archipelago.

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8
EX-CONARSONIST
Using the Law as my fire extinguisher, I fought
many forest fires. I battled illegal logging,illegal fishing, illegal projects and government
neglect. Instead of being put out, the fire justgot fiercer and bigger.
I realized threeimportantlessons:
LESSONSLEARNED

1
2
3

Play
Life and living is not a battle.
Nor is it a fight to protect the Earth.
It is all a game!
Seeds
We are only planting seeds.
We have been engaged in the
Economics of Arson.

A GameI have been stuck in battles and working too
hard. Enough of fighting and enough of work.
Let us look at all this as play. Treating it as abattle to protect the LAW of Life only causes
unnecessary stress, anxiety, tension andunhappiness.
This attitude of fighting isunhealthy and does not bring forth humancreativity.
In battle mode, we forget what life is all about.
This is what the Western model of success wantsof us – to work, work, work. If we work too hard,
we end up stressed, angry and anxious about95the end-result. In the process, we become too
focused, obsessed and in a hurry to reach … ourcommon end.
But if we treat it as play, we can think like anartist and begin to have fun. Life is not azero-sum game, where for one to win, the othermust lose. No, if our species must survive andthrive, we must all win.

Seeds
We are planting seeds of ideas, inspiration andaction. Often the seeds fall on rocks and hard
96

soil, and will not see the light of day. Some seeds
fall on good soil and sprout to life. We nurturethem till they begin to grow. Then a wind comesalong and blows it away. Or worse, when theseed has grown and borne fruits, a man with anaxe comes along, picks all the fruits for himself,
and then chops down the tree.
But that is not the end of the story. Some seeds
become mighty trees that give shade, oxygenand fruits, sweet and many for all to eat. While noone is watching, bats and birds come along,eat the fruits and drop the seeds in other lands,
there to grow and become another tree.

We may not see the fruitsof our planted seeds in a lifetime.
But always, let us savor the moments
when our hands and hearts touch
the Land, the Air and the Waters.
And then by the wave of the wandof the Great Magician,mere mortals that we are
become fellow givers of Life on Earth.
So let us go on
with a heart full of joy
in the spirit of caring and giving,and having fun along the way.
Let us go ahead planting
seeds of hope.

DOUBLE WORK
I realized that while we were fighting fires withwater, an Ex-Con Arsonist was also pouring
gasoline. No wonder the flames only got bigger.

This is today’s economic model. We take out asmuch as we can from the Earth, use it briefly andthen throw it away. We are the only species ofanimal that does that.
Practitioners of extraction and consumption
economics – the Ex-Con Economists -– call this‘progress and development.’
They poison the Water that we drink,
the Air that we breathe,
and the Land from where we get our food.
They look at the forests –trees that took hundreds of years
to become what they are,and want to mow them down
to increase the numbers in a ledger.
And call it ‘progress and development.’
They see the fish in the sea,
and want to take as much and as fast as
they can.
In their wake, the sea, once teeming with life,
is left bare and barren.

Ex-con refers to the way we have been treating
the Earth – ‘Ex’-traction and ‘Con’-sumption.

97

They find shiny rocks
hidden in the bowels of the Earth.
But life-giving soil and water get in the way,
So they throw it all away in a single day.
Water becomes ‘waste water,’
all for a few pieces of silver.
The things taken from the Earthare used for a very short while,then thrown away,
all in the name of style.
This is called ‘progress and development.’
Amused by their game of numbers, they sit backto behold with great delight the burning of the98

Earth. They are happy to see the numbers growand crow about the growth of GDP.
Remember the true meaning of GDP? GreatDisaster for the Planet.
As we have seen, this kind of ex-con economics
has resulted in the destruction, devastationand poisoning of the very Life Sources andLife-Forms on Earth, including that pesky animal
species to which Ex-Con Economists belong.
By the way, ‘ex-con’ also means ‘ex-convict.’
Based on evidence of global destruction by
the ex-con economists, they hereby standcharged, tried and convicted of the crime of …
Planetary Plunder.

LAW AND LAWYERS
The oldest profession in the world is practisedby lawyers.
The Law and lawyers have been enablers of
the capital crime of plunder. We have beenaccomplices in rape, and pimps in the prostitutionof our own Mother Earth. This enslavement of
the Earth in the later part of the 20th century
gave birth to the field of Environmental Law.
Over the last four decades, we sometimes succeeded in stopping destruction, blocking harmful projects, and on rare occasions, punishing
the offenders. Lamenting how little has beenachieved, Justice Antonio Benjamin, world-renowned environmental jurist of the Supreme
Court of Brazil, said, “Perhaps, without Environmental Law, it could have been much worse.”
But then, is that all we can do?
In the previous section, I shared with you
my adventures (and misadventures) in
Environmental Law. I worked hard and paid ahigh price for the battles that I fought – stress,
tension, anxiety, sleepless nights, loss of revenue,
murdered comrades, assassination attempts anddeath threats, harassment cases, and time awayfrom family and friends.
Today, I sit back to compare the input of work
vis-a-vis the results, and cannot help but behumbled by how little I have accomplished.
This overwhelming hindsight made me see that:
1. This is all a game.
2. In our lifetime, we can only try to plant seedsof hope.
3. Environmental Law must stop being just a
policeman of bad behavior.
Can the Law instead be a promoter and an
enabler for the evolution of caring and nurturing
human beings?
That could be the game of Legal Marketing, theart of selling the ‘good’ that the Law seeks tofulfill.
Ordinary marketing sells a product or service.
The Law can sell a model of conduct.

99

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9
CLIMATEIN CRISIS‘In the Laws of Nature,
there is no right or wrong,
there are no rewards
or punishments.
There are only consequences.’- Francis Bacon

When we violate the laws of man, we can getaway with paying a fine or going to jail, or
simply walk away after paying a bribe. But
when we violate the Laws of Nature, there will
be consequences. Many of these we do notsee or feel right away. Unlike the hot taste
from the bite of a chili, the impact of violating
the Laws of Nature often takes years,
sometimes even generations before we begin
to feel the heat.

Here’s one of the Laws of Nature:
Matter cannot be destroyed; we can onlychange its form.
When we light a matchstick, out comes fireand smoke. A few seconds after, the fire andsmoke are gone, and all that’s left is a charredpiece of wood.

101

And so it happened to the Earth. In the last
200 years, we burned wood, coal, oil and gas –fossil fuels of different forms – to make fire. By
our burning, we released a lot of smoke. We
thought that by some magic, all that smoke
would simply vanish into thin air. After all, outof sight is out of mind. Right?
Wrong. Matter cannot be destroyed. When weburned coal and oil, we only changed its form
from one state (solid and liquid) to another –gas.
All that massive burning happened in the last
200 years, a blink of the eye for Mother Natureand Father Time.

If the fever stays up, or worse, continues torise, the anti-bodies cannot cope with theinvasion. In time, the human organism will loseout and expire.

The Human Body

This is what is happening to the Earth – ithas a fever and the fever is rising. In the last
100 years, the Earth’s temperature rose by 1
degree Centigrade, permanently. Despite thisseemingly small number, we are seeing more
and more climate-related organ malfunctions– flooding, typhoons, rising sea levels, etc.
The adaptive mechanisms of the Earth, its
anti-bodies, are trying to fight back but they
are overwhelmed.

Think of the human body. What happens whenbody heat cannot be released? We develop afever.

What worries scientists is that this fever is
not going down. It is permanent and, worse,
it is rising faster and getting hotter! If we go

But the smoke did not disappear. It got stored
in the upper layers of the Air. It became likea roof over the Earth that kept the heat inside
our atmosphere, instead of escaping into
outer space.

102

But instead of a temporary fever, thetemperature of the Earth is permanently
heating up. Look again at the humanbody. The average body temperature is 37
degrees Celsius. What happens if it suddenly
rises to 38 degrees? The person has a fever.
The immune system and the anti-bodies will
try to fight the fever to bring it down.

on with today’s pyromaniacal ways, the temperature can rise by 4 degrees to 6 degrees
Celsius. Again, what would happen to thehuman body if instead of having a normal

temperature of 37 degrees, the temperature
would rise to 41 or 43 degrees?

Perlas

-1.8

2.1

6.0

9.9

13.9

17.8

21.7

25.6

29.5

Sea Surface Heat Map of the Earth
The hottest temperature is indicated by the color red. Notice which part of the sea is reddest?
The western part of the Pacific Ocean, east of Perlas, is the hottest. This is where powerful
typhoons are formed.


Map Source: National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States

103

ORGAN MALFUNCTION
The Earth’s fever is causing multiple organ
malfunction:
1.
Heat in the surface of the sea is thefuel of typhoons and hurricanes. So storms
have become stronger and stronger and more
erratic.
2.
The water cycle is going haywire. Withhotter water bodies, there is more evaporationthat results in greater volume of water vapor in
the clouds. What goes up must come down.
All that water will fall back to the Earth as
torrential rain or snow. Fatal floods andblizzards are happening more often.

104

creeping into the coastlines faster than everseen in human history. Scientists tell us that in
the next 100 years, the sea level can be 1 to 3
meters higher than it is now.
Imagine what will happen to the water supply,
to the farmlands, and to our homes that areusually at sea level. This is not a prediction of
the future. As we speak, it is already happening
at a speed we never imagined.
Sea level rise is not scientific abracadabra tome. When I built my house near the beach in1994 along the seashore of Bantayan island incentral Perlas, the edge of the sea at high tide
was 45 meters away. Today, in 2017, the wateris barely 20 meters away. Scientists tell usthat this is only two inches of sea level rise.

3.
In some parts of the Earth, the land isgetting hotter. Fires break out, and extended
dry spells and droughts become morecommon. Some call it the new normal.

In the next hundred years, when it rises by one
to three meters (120 to 360 inches), what will
happen?

4.
The water flowing from melting glaciersin the colder regions of the Earth has to go
somewhere. It goes to the sea. This and theheated sea surface expand the volume ofthe sea and cause the sea level to rise. It is

Seawater is becoming more acidic from5.
carbon dioxide. This is playing nasty tricks
under the sea – on marine life, coral reefs andother life-forms. They are all suffering fromhigh fever.

In sum, we are in a state of crisis. Land will
be flooded or will become bone-dry. Water
will be a major problem – either too much ofit or too little. Extreme weather events liketyphoons, floods, droughts, and the resulting
diseases, famine and wars, will become morecommon. So, what do we do?
Let us break for a while from this gloomy
scenario. Let me tell you a little story.

A SICK MAN
A man had been smoking two packs ofcigarettes a day for 20 years. Today he iscoughing, sneezing and suffers from a highfever. His wife calls for an ambulance andtakes him to the emergency room. He ends up
in the intensive care unit.
After one week, he wakes up. When he consults
the doctor, he’s told the diagnosis: He has
severe emphysema and has Stage 3, lungcancer.

The obvious answer is simple. He must stop
the cause of the disease – smoke. In the studyof climate change, that is called ‘mitigation’ –to reduce the source of the smoke.
What else must our patient do? He must
learn to accept his weakened state and do
everything in his power to adjust to thechanges. In the science of climate change, thatis called ‘adaptation’ – to adjust and adapt tothe changes that are happening.

THE CRISIS
Yes, we are in a state of crisis. The sooner we
accept that, the sooner we embrace it, thesooner we can turn it to our advantage.
The Chinese write in picture words that tella story. Their word ‘crisis’ is made up of two
characters – Wei and Ji.

So what must he do? Will he run to the nearest
store to buy another carton of cigarettes andgo on smoking two packs a day?

105

Wei means ‘danger,’ Ji means ‘opportunity.’
If humans are truly wise as we claim to be,
we must see the danger, accept its reality,
and then do everything in our power to avoid
getting killed in the process.
Remember our game with words? Let us stop
calling it ‘climate change.’ That is too milda name to describe what is happening. The
climate changes from hour to hour and fromday to day. It does not aptly describe thesense of urgency that we face today.
From now on, let us call it the ‘climate crisis.’
We must also see the other side of the word‘crisis’ – opportunity. Only then will we better
survive and thrive.
But how?
It all begins with a question. Asking thatquestion will begin our journey to the world ofopportunity.

106

107

108

10
CPR FOR THE
VITAL ORGANSOF LIFE

If extraction and consumption got us into
trouble, how can we get out of it?

To get out of one mind-set, think of the exact
opposite.

Remember what Lao Tzu said in the story of
the cave walls:

The opposite of consumption or waste
conservation.

‘Watch your thoughts,
they become words.
Watch your words,
they become actions...’is

The opposite of plunder and pillage is
protection and preservation.
The opposite of removing is restoring.
109

So, the opposite of the economics ofExtraction and Consumption (Ex-Con) is
Conservation, Protection and Restoration(CPR).
CPR also refers to the emergency medical
procedure applied to the heart and lungsof a human body that is about to expire:
Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation. With thesame urgency, we need to rescue the vitalorgans of the Earth – Land, Air and Waters.
With the great damage already done to theseresources, there is so much to do. As Winston Churchill once said, “We are faced withinsurmountable opportunities.”
This new kind of economics is called many
names – Sustainable Development, Climate
Capitalism,
New
Economics,
NatureCapitalism, Ecological Economics, etc.
They are all very good and intelligent words.
They capture the essence of what we must do.
But many of us are not native English speakers and need translation before understanding
these terms. Also, foreign words that need110

The Cebu Flowerpecker is found only in theisland of Cebu. This elusive species has neverbeen photographed, only illustrated.

long (and often complex) explanations do noteasily resonate with my heart.
I like to use the phrase ‘CPR Economics’
because the word itself – CPR – describes what
we must do.

RESTORATION ECONOMICS
We can also call the new model Restoration
Economics because it seeks to restore the:1. Life-giving forces of the Land, Air and Waters
2. Lost connection between man and nature
3. Torn fabric of human society
4. Common sense goal of life – theexperience of happiness

1. Restoring the LAW of Life
With all the damage already done to the Land,
Air and Waters, there is so much to do and solittle time. The window of opportunity is fastclosing.
But human beings are very intelligent animals.
If we decide to do something, we have thewill and find the resources to do it. In the early
1960s, a world leader promised to put a manon the moon before the end of the decade.
In 1969, Apollo 11 completed its mission; thefirst man stepped on the moon.

This would include:
a. Cleaning and reviving the water quality ofriversb. Revitalizing marine resources e.g. putting
up marine sanctuaries
c. Restoring sanity in roads with clean andefficient transportation systems with afocus on non-motorized mobility
d. Relentless energy conservatione. A total shift to clean and energy-efficientsystems
f. Massive mountain revegetation
g. Soil and water conservation in farmlands
h. Water conservation and recycling systems
i. Reducing, reuse and recycling of materials
j. Opening parks and public spaces for leisureand wholesome family activities
k. Sustainable and organic agriculture.
And many more. The sky is not even the limit.

Yes, if we decide to do it, it can be done.
CPR Economics can be a new frontier ofindustry, economic activities and livelihood.

The nature of business must be
the business of Nature.

111

2. Lost Connection Between Man andNatureThe most serious problem of modern man is
his alienation from Nature.

112

In a city ablaze with light
Making day of a dark night,
A shooting star I do not see,And the world becomes all about me.
I forget that I am but a grain of sandOf a rich and living land…

In a world paved with concrete, humans are
disconnected from the sources of life. In thedigital world, trees and animals appear only
as images on a screen.
We forget that innate in every human being is
the love for life and a yearning for the natural
world.
The climate crisis is the most powerful
symptom of this Nature-Deficit Disorder(NDD). We have burned down everything,and call this progress. We are only starting tounderstand that by burning the Earth, we areburning ourselves.
The innate love of humans for Nature is calledbiophilia. We must once again touch the soil
and feel its life-giving force. By doing so wewill better understand that our food comesfrom a nourished land. We must again walkin the company of birds and butterflies. Only
then will we feel again in our hearts our truerole as caretakers of the Earth.
We must again touch the cloud
As Mother Earth sings clear and loud.
We must again touch the starlight,
And feel magic of unspeakable delight.

3. Reconnecting Humans
In the single-minded pursuit of material things,
the game became all about competing for
who had the most – the biggest house, theflashiest car, the fattest bank account. This is a
symptom of the fraying fabric of society.
But humans are social animals, hardwired tocooperate with one another. That is why theworst punishment for a convict is to isolate himfrom human contact.
We need to restore the spirit of cooperationand vitality of community life. It is in being
with friends, family and neighbors, and incooperating with one another that we findgreat joy and collective fulfillment.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I forget that I am but a grain of sandof a rich and living land...
-------------------------------------------------------------

113

4. Return to Happiness
A worldwide survey by an Oxford psychologist
asked the question: What are the three sourcesof genuine happiness? The results:
1. Social relations with family and friends
2, Work satisfaction
3. Leisure
Nowhere is money mentioned. Studies showthat generally, after people reach a level ofincome stability and security, they seek thefulfillment of greater, non-material goals.

‘All animals, except man,		know that the		
principal business of life		is to enjoy it.’				
- Samuel Butler, novelistjPeople value the experience of happiness, notits pursuit. Being in the moment – savoringeach day, being with family and friends, doing
something we really enjoy, relishing the sightof a bird in flight. Is this not what human life
is all about?
114

These visions of happiness may sound
Pollyannaish and kumbaya. The challenge –and the fun – is how to structure a system of
economics and governance that will promotethese values and aspirations.
Life is a lot like music.
It is a series of moments,
Of shifting sound and silence
All leading to a point of rest.
But today lets us laugh,No, now,
For moments hence our laughter
Will be but the distant sound of
a happy memory.
Let us reaffirm this moment
That life is worth living,With laughter unbridled by inhibition,‘And then howl at the ceiling,
For the sheer pleasure of living.’

115

116

11
STORIESOF CPRECONOMICS

How do we learn? By example and imitation.
The new economic mindset seeks to conserve,
protect and restore (CPR) the sources oflife on Earth. We also called it Restoration
Economics, a field of study that restores:
1. Land, Air and Waters
2. Our lost connection to Nature
3. Our lost connection to each other
4. The experience of happiness.

To think of this new world, we cannot rely on
stock knowledge. Knowledge is stagnant. We
must use the power of imagination. As
Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more
powerful than knowledge.”
The only thing that obstructs is the mind,
our ability to think of a new model andmanner of living. To make it easier for themind to open, let us look at living examples.

117

The heart constructs,
the mind obstructs.
Never mind
the mind.
It only follows the heart.
If you change the mind,
it can change tomorrow.
If you change the heart,
it is forever.

While there is no perfect society, there areexcellent examples of CPR Economics alreadyin play. Inspiration is the most powerful formof leadership. And learning by imitating
is easier than reinventing the wheel.
There are countless examples happeningaround the world. May I reach out to you, dearfriends reading this, to be on the lookout for
more. Feel free to send them our way to add
to this list. Post them at www.oposa.ph.
May they inspire us to create a brave newworld of daring and caring.
118

LAND
Consider land as the living carpet from where
we get our food.
Plant growth is an intricate and delicate
process. Soil is not merely dirt. One teaspoonof soil contains tiny living beings – 20 million
fungi and 5 billion bacteria – that makethe soil alive.
With water and sunlight in the process called
photosynthesis, plants grow and become ourfood. They can be eaten directly as fruits andvegetables, or indirectly through the animals
we eat.
The topsoil that makes plant life possible
is very thin, a few inches at best. Because
we do not see the soil move, we take it for
granted that it will be there forever. But wehave stripped the soil of its skin of green,
exposing billions of living bacteria and fungi tosunlight. These tiny living creatures dry up andthen die. The land becomes a desert, a process called ’desertification.’ Often, the topsoil is washed away by the rains. This is called‘erosion.’In the ways of modern civilization, chemical
poisons have been, and are being, pumped
into the soil. Every time we try to kill insects
that also feed on plants, we also poison theland. Whenever we use chemical insecticide,
only a small portion actually goes to the plants.
Much of the poison drips and poisons the soil.
In the new world of CPR Economics, theemphasis will shift from taking to restoring.
Instead of trying to take out as much fromthe soil as possible, emphasis will be placedon making sure that the land retains its
capacity to produce food.

If the land already suffers desertification,
erosion and contamination, we must strive
to restore the soil to its healthy andproductive condition.

SOIL AND WATERCONSERVATIONRICE TERRACES OF THE PHILIPPINES
The most spectacular rice terraces in theworld are located in the northern highlandsof the Philippines.

119Built 2,000 years ago, the Ifugao Rice Terracesof the Cordillera mountain range follow thecontours of the mountains. If the steps were
to be put end to end, the terraces would
circle half of the globe.
At the top of the mountains, the forest ispreserved and serves as Nature’s ‘watertank.’ Through simple gravity, excess waterflows gently downstream. The gently flowing
water irrigates the terraces carved out of mud
and stone. The terraces prevent the erosion of
the topsoil during rains.
UNESCO declared the Ifugao Rice Terraces
a World Heritage Site and described it as a‘living cultural landscape’ of ‘great beauty
that expresses the harmony between
humankind and the environment.’
The intimate knowledge of Philippine
ancestors about the interplay of the life-forces
between trees and forests, and soil and water
was handed down from generation to
generation.
For the marvel of its engineering, the riceterraces made by the Ifugao ethnic groupis sometimes called the eighth man-made120

wonder of the World in the league of theGreat Wall of China and the Pyramids of
Egypt.
This monument is also special because it
was not made by slave labor. It was carved
by the hand of small-scale farmers working
together as a community.
From this spirit of community and cooperation,
the Filipino value of bayanihan may havebeen born. The word comes from two
beautiful Filipino words: bayan – communityand cooperation – and bayani – hero.
Bayanihan means ‘cooperative heroism.’
In recent times, the soil and water
conservation technique of the Ifugao Rice
Terraces became more scientific. It is now
known as Sloping Agricultural Land
Technology (SALT). This simple technology
uses an A-frame to define the contours andslope of the hilly lands.

TURMERIC TURNAROUND
Meghalaya, India

Turmeric produces a deep yellow color sought
after in the pharmaceutical industry. It isalso used in cosmetics, dye-food coloring
and beverages.
Researchers continue to be surprised by thewide-ranging health benefits of turmericas an anti-inflammatory agent, support for
detoxification and an anti-oxidant that
decreases the risk of cancer.

When the government banned coal mining
in April 2014, hundreds of rural families in
Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills region in northeast
India were thrown out of work.
They switched to planting turmeric for theirlivelihood. Cultivation of the herb, a spiceused in curry and many Asian dishes aside
from being valued for its medicinal properties,
has proven to be a game changer.

India is the top world producer of turmeric.
The state of Meghalaya produces over 8,000
metric tons a year. Most of it is grown bysmall and marginal rural farmers in the Jaintia
Hills and Garo Hills region because of thefavorable climate and soil conditions.

The district produces some of the finest
turmeric in the world with its Lakadong(curcuma longa) variety, whose curcurmin-richcontent is higher than what is available in themarket. Instead of engaging in rat-hole coalmining, which resulted in holes dug up allover the villages, residents now grow asustainable crop.
121

URBAN LIVING
More than half of the world’s population now
live in urban areas. But almost all cities today
are anything but livable. Cities are paved overwith concrete, roads are clogged with motor
vehicles, the air is foul, the waterways arepolluted and people are in a hurry to get
to nowhere.
Are humans destined to be urban zombies?

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte rides to work in
The Hague on a bicycle.

Traffic is the most visible challenge in urban
living. Can there be a city without traffic
congestion? Yes.

Young and old, rich and poor, the powerful
and the powerless, rain or shine, summer
or winter, people walk or ride bicycles.

CITY WITH NO TRAFFIC

No wonder they have enough disposable
income; they don’t burn their money ingas tanks.

The Netherlands

Is it possible for a city packed with people
enjoying high per capita income to avoid
traffic congestion?
Amsterdam is one such city. It has very narrow roads and a lot of people. Early on,understanding the space limitations of theircity, the government invested in bike lanes,
wide sidewalks and a good tram system.
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Today the Netherlands boasts of 22,000 milesof cycle paths. In Amsterdam, 38 percent of
all trips are made by bicycle. All major Dutch
cities have designated ‘bicycle civil servants’tasked to maintain and improve the network.
A photo of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte
riding a bicycle to his office in The Hague,
a familiar sight to locals, went viral when itappeared side by side with the news photoof a helicopter transporting the president of
the United States who arrived for a Nuclear
Security Meeting in The Hague in March 2014.

It is all about not
wasting precious
road space.

REDESIGNING THE CITY FOR PEOPLE
Curitiba, Brazil

Curitiba was like any other city of a ‘third world
country’ – crowded, traffic-congested andpeppered with slum areas. Using common
sense planning techniques, its transportation
system saw the upgrade of its bus system,
turned selected streets into pedestrian walkways, and created a car-free central city zone.
It also put up bikeways. With these measures,

Elevated platform of a Bus Rapid Transit terminal in Curitiba, Brazil
123

fuel consumption and air pollution reduced
significantly, the lowest in Brazil.
Architect Jaime Lerner, who took office as
mayor in 1971, introduced the world’s first Bus
Rapid Transit (BRT) network.
The city also increased its green areas andrecreational facilities, including parks andbicycle paths. Curitiba also created natural drainage systems where river and rainwater flooding is held in the lakes and parks
surrounding the lakes.
The cost of building parks and relocatingslum dwellers was estimated at five times
lower than the cost of building concrete
canals. Instead of hiring mowers, the city
keeps sheep in the parks to eat grass andprovide natural fertilizer.

cool, catch rainwater, improve air quality andprovide tenants an oasis in the middle of anurban jungle.
Green roofs are already popular in Germany andAustralia, as well as Canada’s city of Toronto.
In France, a law was passed in 2015 mandatingthat all new buildings that are built incommercial zones must be partially covered ineither plants or solar panels.
Green roofs have an isolating effect whichhelps to reduce the amount of energy needed
to heat a building during the winter or cool itin the summer.

GREEN ROOFS
Rooftop gardens do more than beautify.
A green roof or living roof of a building ispartially or completely covered withvegetation. This design can keep the building
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Acros building in Fukuoka, Japan

San Francisco became the first U.S. city in 2016
to require that most new buildings be madewith green roofs or solar panels or a blendof both. Cordoba became the first city inArgentina to require green roofs in July.
In 2009, Toronto mandated green roofs on
all new industrial and residential buildings.
Germany’s green roof industry has beenlegislated and supported by the government
in various ways since the 1970s.
Some benefits of this eco-friendly design:
1. It adds natural beauty and major
aesthetic improvement to buildings.
This increases their investment potential.

RESTORING URBAN VITALITY
CAR-FREE DAYS
Bogotá, Colombia
In February 2000, Bogotá Mayor Enrique
Peñalosa organized the city’s first car-freeday. This action was later approved in a public referendum and became an annual event.
In 2014 Bogotá expanded the day to an entire
week of no car usage in main routes. In thecity of nearly seven million people, roughly
600,000 cars were not used.
The air was cleaner, the streets quieter. Morepeople engaged in physical exercise, people
spent less money on gas, and more time wasreclaimed due to not having to sit in traffic.

2. The plants capture airborne pollutants andfilter noxious gasses.
3. Green roofs assist with storm water
management by absorbing rainwater andact as natural filters for the water that does
run off. This eases stress on sewer systems.
4. They open new areas for community
gardens, commercial and recreational
space in busy cities where space is limited.
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Compare that with its former lifestyle whereresidents lost roughly 22 days per year sitting
in traffic.
Bogotá inspired the practice of regular trafficbans with its weekly Sunday Ciclovia
event running since 1974. Each Sunday
and public holiday from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m.
certain main streets are blocked off forrunners, pedestrians and bicyclists.
Mexico City also closes city center streetsto cars every Sunday.

Paris, France
In Paris, the first Sunday of the month is a
car-free day.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo supported thecampaign which started in March in response
to increased air pollution in the City ofLights. Traffic is cleared on eight lanes of theworld-famous Champs Elysées and surrounding streets, and the city is pushing plans topedestrianize the busy road along the Seine
River.
126

To mark World Car-Free Day on Sept. 22, 2016
the French capital closed 400 miles of streetsor almost half the city center to cars over the
weekend.

SMART VILLAGES
Malaysia
High-tech ‘smart villages’ in Malaysia arecreating incomes for rural families while
promoting environmental sustainability. Eachcommunity has about 100 homes and a sustainable farm system that provides villagers
with both food and employment. This system
has tripled the average monthly income of residents in the smart villages to about US$475.

Each home is built on 1,000 square feet using
mostly post-consumer materials that would
normally go to a waste disposal facility. Eachhome is constructed in just 10 days at a costof under $20,000. The smart villages are
powered by solar, biomass and mini-hydroelectricity.

NO TO FOOD WASTE

Residents use aquaponics to culture fish. The
filtered fish tank wastewater is then used toirrigate vegetables, plants and fruits. The plantpots have a smart valve that automaticallydetects moisture levels and releases water
as necessary. Worms and other insects fromthe plants are fed to free-range chickens. Thissystem optimizes nutrient absorption, minimizes waste, empowers anyone to farm andenables crops to be grown on previously
non-arable land.

Waste comes in many forms. For example,
restaurants in the U.S. serve massive portions
that is too much to eat. Then whatever is noteaten is dumped as garbage at the end ofeach day. In other over-consuming societies,
people buy many grocery items which are onsale and look cheaper by the bulk. Then they
forget about it, or take only little, and the restis thrown away.

One-third of all the food produced for humans
worldwide is lost or wasted. This is enough tofeed three billion people or almost half theworld’s population according to the UN Foodand Agriculture Organization (FAO).

To counter this trend, some restaurants now
offer smaller portions. U.S. colleges haveremoved trays from their cafeterias, thereby
reducing the temptation to take out more foodon the tray. This subtle shift alone reduced by
one-third the amount of food students takeand waste in the U.S.
An American family of four throws away about$1,500 worth of food a year. Food waste – with127

its carbon footprint and release of methane –is also a main source of hot gases heating up
the atmosphere of the Earth.
Vendors want vegetables and fruits to ‘look
good’ in order to fetch a high price. For thisreason, farm produce with holes, bruises ordiscoloration are rejected by supermarkets.
However, these standards do not affect the
food’s safety or taste, and are based solely
on appearance. Perfect-looking fruits andvegetables are laden with chemical
insecticides that try to kill off the bugs, bees,
and butterflies that visit the farms.

128

In Lisbon, Portugal, a cooperative called
Fruta Feia (Ugly Fruit) takes rejected produce
and sells it at a cheaper price. Registeredcustomers receive a weekly food crate ofeight pounds of fruits and vegetables for lessthan $5.
Fruta Feia has tried to change the notion that
only perfect-looking farm produce is worth
buying.

ENERGY CONSERVATION
AND SOFT ENERGY
POWER SAVINGJapan
On March 11, 2011, the Tohoku earthquake
triggered a tsunami that hit the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which had to be
shut down. To cope with decreased energy
supply, Japan started a campaign for
setsuden (power saving).
The campaign helped increase publicawareness of energy use and efficiency. Large
companies in Japan now run high-profile
efficiency programs.
With the cooperation of its citizens, Japan
was able to replace half of its missing nuclear
power capacity through energy efficiency

and conservation measures. In 2013, Japan
experienced the fastest investment growthin the world, increasing 80 percent up toalmost $29 billion. Japan turned a crisis into
an opportunity.

LED TRAFFIC SIGNALS
Chicago, USA
In 2004, Chicago started replacing its traffic signal lights withlight-emitting diodes(LED) which use almost
85 percent less energy.
The switch resulted inenergy savings for thecity of $2.55 million ayear and $100,000 annually in materials.
Chicago aims to reduce its carbon footprint by
30 percent by 2020. The LED program makes
up 15 percent of this target.
LEDs are brighter and emit light more evenly,
making them more visible in foggy conditions.
The LED traffic lights last for 100,000 hours
129

compared to 8,000 hours for incandescentbulbs. Fewer burnt-out traffic lights mean lesstime spent replacing bulbs and more safety inintersections.

FLOATING SOLAR PANELSJapan
If you have limited space on land, go to thesea.
That is what Japan did by building floating
solar islands as an innovative solution in
exploring renewable energy. The solar panels
are designed to be waterproof. Since solar
modules function better when they are cooler,
placing them near water actually helps theirperformance.
Japan has a 70-megawatt (MW) solar islandand plans to add two more to form a networkof thirty 2-MW stations adding another
60-MWs of solar capacity.
In June 2014, Japan unveiled the first offshore
floating wind turbine in Asia. Plans are afootto develop more commercial offshore wind130

projects to produce another 350-MW of poweras Japan moves away from reliance on nuclear
power.

RENEWABLE ENERGY
Freiburg, Germany
After Freiburg was destroyed in World War II,
the city was rebuilt for people rather than forcars. Pedestrian-friendly streets, bike lanes
and trams were given more importance.
Almost half of the city remains protected asparks, forest or landscapes. With this standardof land use planning, three out of four of its
residents walk, bike or take public transportation. Freiburg has more than 300 miles of bikepaths. Seventy percent of the city’s population
live within half a kilometer from a tram stop.

Freiburg is known as Europe’s ‘solar city’ forinstalling more solar photovoltaic panels thanany other German city. The city also heavily
relies on biomass to power residences andbusinesses. Under its recycling program,discards from kitchens and gardens arecollected to make into compost.
In a district of Freiburg called Vauban, there
are no cars. People’s houses face each otherand without parked cars blocking the roads
and their views to one another, more friendly
interaction happens. In case anyone reallyneeds a car, there is a communal garage
nearby one can use a car and just pay anominal fee for the use.

GREEN-POWERED ISLAND
Eigg, Scotland
			The Scottish Island of Eigg is one of theworld’s first islands to power itself exclusively
with renewable energy.
Using a mix ofhydropower, wind and solar energy, carbon
emissions were slashed by a third in a year.
To ensure that all people have enoughelectricity, islanders cannot use more than
five kilowatts at a time and businesses
are limited to 10 kilowatts.
Residents enjoy lower energy bills and a better
quality of life. Before the introduction of‘Eiggtricity,’ as the locals call it, residents131relied on diesel-fired generators that were
noisy, polluting and expensive to run. One
resident said he used to buy a barrel of diesel
a month to get five hours of electricity a day.
Now it costs the same resident 30 pounds(about US$48) a month to get 24-hour electricity.
The way of the future is ‘soft energy’ – clean
and renewable energy. But this must be
coupled with a sustained energy conservation
program. There is enough energy for every
man to use, but not enough for one man towaste.

COOLING FROM THE DEEP
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Cold water from the bottom of Lake Neiuwe
Meer feeds a district cooling system whichenergy companies in Amsterdam have beentapping for free since the early 1990s.
The lake has a depth of 30 meters andtemperature of five degrees to six degrees
Centigrade.

132

Lake water is extracted using a closed systemof pipes. It is then transported to the urban
area where it is used to provide airconditioning to cool buildings, homes andbusiness establishments.
The system replaces conventional mechanicalchillers and cooling towers. It reduces the useof harmful cooling fluids and lowers carbon
dioxide emissions by over 70 percent
compared to traditional cooling methods.
In 2010, the program grew to 50,000
connections with a total capacity of 120-MW.
In places near the sea or a water body, this is avery feasible option.

ELECTRIC CAR SHARING PROGRAM
Malaysia
In the future, if cars are needed at all, theywould have to be small and energy efficient.
In August 2014, Malaysia began the firstelectric vehicle (EV) car sharing programin Southeast Asia. The Cohesive Mobility

Solution (COMOS) started with 40 units placedin hotspots in the Klang Valley.
The program includes EV charging providers,
fleet
operators,
parkingmanagement
operators and telecommunications network
operators. COMOS will run like a typical car
rental system with hourly fees only slightly
higher than normal taxi charges.
The goal is to field 3,500 cars nationwide by
2020.

URBAN DESIGN TO
PROMOTE SOCIALCONNECTIONSSUPERBLOCKS
Barcelona, Spain
To address high levels of noise and air noise
pollution, Barcelona designed parts of thecity into ‘superblocks.’ Basic roads form apolygon or inner area called intervía.

occupied by human dwellings is closed
to cars and parking (only residents andservice-emergency
vehiclescandrivethrough). Public space gives way topedestrians. Traffic flows around the intervía
using exterior roads on the periphery.

Under this grid system, the interior area

The mobility plan, which started in 2003, aims133

to reduce traffic and free up streets to turnthem into ‘citizen spaces’ with green areas to‘fill our city with life.’

RESTORING CONNECTIONSTO NATURE AND TO
EACH OTHER

One of the most popular places in Barcelona
is Las Ramblas. The boulevard’s center island,
which takes up most of the space, is reserved
for walking. Local roads around Las Ramblas
are mostly pedestrianized. Business is brisk
for stores along the way because people
on foot have more time to shop and stop forfood and drinks without worrying where topark.

CHEONGGYECHEON
Seoul, South Korea
In the early twentieth century, Seoul
was a growing city. The placid waters ofCheonggyecheon River that flow throughdowntown Seoul looked more like a sewer. The
stream was bordered by a slum and used as adumping ground. The polluted waters made ita public eyesore. In the drive for modernization, an elevated freeway was built over it in

Las Ramblas is one of the most popular destinationsin the city of Barcelona for strolling, shopping anddining. Only a small portion on each side of thepedestrian boulevard is available for vehicles.

Before: A concrete highway covered the Cheonggyecheon River. It added more traffic congestion.
134

the 1970s. This only encouraged more motor
vehicles, traffic congestion, air pollution, social
alienation and the decline of downtown Seoul.
In 2002, the mayor of Seoul led a project to teardown the freeway and restore the waterwaythat had been buried under the concrete. The
project was completed in less than two anda half years. It includes an 8-kilometer green
corridor and a 400-hectare park featuring
waterfalls and running tracks. The city reused
about 75 percent of the demolished concrete
to build walkways, fountains and bridges.
Most of the water flowing between its banks
is pumped from the Han River through sevenmiles of pipe. The massive urban renewal
project initially drew much public criticism but
after opening in 2005 has become popularamong residents and tourists.

After 2005

The return of the waterway has improved
the quality of life. Traffic congestion and air
quality improved. Families relax and havepicnics by the banks of the stream. Even thetemperature has cooled by as much as 3.6°C.
Property values next to the water increased by
300 percent.

135

ARE CARS NECESSARY?
Discovery Bay, Hong Kong
Discovery Bay is an upscale residential enclaveof about 16,000 people in Hong Kong.

families compared to the rest of bustling
Hong Kong.

No cars were allowed in this district, which
opened its first building in 1982. Residents
get around by walking, biking, or riding aclean energy-powered bus that comesregularly at loading bays. For special needs,
such as residents with disability, golf carts areavailable.

In 2014, however, the developer won consent
to have taxis and coaches enter with pick-up
and drop-off confined to the northern part of
the town. The 30-year-old development wasserved exclusively by ferry until 2000 whena tunnel leading to the North Lantau roadwas opened.

The car ban created a clean, quiet andmore tranquil environment that made it
child-friendly and conducive for raising

No wonder Discovery Bay is one of the mostdesirable (and priciest) addresses inHong Kong.

Discovery Bay
136

RESTORING THE WATERSSAGAY MARINE RESERVE
Negros Island, Philippines
The City of Sagay in Negros Occidental inCentral Philippines lies in the Visayan Sea –the geographic heart of marine biodiversity
on Earth.
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was one of the hotspotsof illegal and destructive fishing. One man
who was not a politician was so fed up withthe situation that he ran and won as mayor of
the town in order to lead reforms. Thus began
the journey of the restoration of Sagay’s
marine waters.
It has since become the 32,000-hectare Sagay
Marine Reserve, patrolled by six boats of
Bantay Dagat (Sea Guardians) personnel.
Mangrove forests surround one of its islands,
Molocaboc Island. When Typhoon Haiyan(local name Yolanda), one of the strongest
typhoons in recorded history, hit the island on
Nov. 8, 2013, the mangroves protected theisland from the storm surge.

With restored corals and mangroves thatserve as shelters, breeding grounds andnurseries of fish and other marine life, hunger
is no longer prevalent.
Former blast fishermen tend to crabs andother fish in magic holes, a natural andsustainable culture of marine life. Pregnant
crabs are not caught, and if caught
accidentally, are returned to the sea to release
their eggs. Today, crabs – with bodies as large
as small plates and claws as wide as a woman’s
wrists – grow in abundance.

137

BEACH FORESTS AND MANGROVES
After the fury of 2013 Supertyphoon Haiyan(Yolanda), one lesson was clear. The damage
could have been less if we had natural
bio-shields in place. Sadly, we have exposed
the coastlines by scraping them of mangroves
and beach forests.
Five-meter-high storm surges wiped out
Tacloban City and other parts of Perlas’
eastern seaboard.
Perlas has one of the world’s foremost experts
on mangroves, Jurgenne Primavera of the
Zoological Society of London. For the past 40
years, she’s been calling for the restoration ofcoastal greenbelts.
Nine months after Yolanda, with Jurgenne andvolunteer fisher folk, we planted 200 native
beach forest trees in the high tide line of the
SEA CAMP in Bantayan. She said this was
the first time beach forest trees were planted
anywhere in the country. My hometown
outpost was one of the few private open
spaces left.
Over the last century, Perlas has lost almost
138

Beach forest trees are planted on the open beachfront of the School of the SEA in Bantayan, Cebu on
August 2014. The author (in red hat), Dr. JurgennePrimavera (right, in black hat) and Lot Villabrille,
leader of a local fisher folk cooperative, plant
Nature’s frontline defense against storm surges.

No time to lose in restoring mangroves in abandoned
fish ponds like this in Perlas. Volunteers who go to
the 9.5-hectare Katunggan Mangrove Eco-park in
Leganes, Iloilo province also plant their share.

all of its natural beach forests to seaside
resorts, coconut plantations and other manmade structures. Almost half of our mangrove
forests have been turned into fishponds andreclamation projects.
With the climate crisis and storm surges
becoming the norm, there’s a lot of catch-up
work to do. Calling all hands on deck!

ILOILO RIVER ESPLANADEOver the years, the Iloilo (pronounced
eelo-eelo) River in Iloilo City in Central
Philippines turned into a sewer. Everyone
turned their back on this blighted waterway.
The flow of water to and from the sea wasobstructed by illegal private fishpens.
The old Carpenter’s Bridge across the river
was slated for demolition to be replaced witha larger one beside it. A cultural heritageadvocate suggested that instead of spending
one million pesos to tear it down, the funds
could be used to preserve the historic
bridge and make it a pedestrian park. Luckily,
the Government listened.

The historic Carpenter’s Bridge was saved from demolition and is used today by pedestrians not cars.

Meanwhile, work was started to build ahighway perpendicular to the bridge as atraffic bypass for congested traffic. While thiswas under construction, people started using
it for jogging, walking or simply strolling.
They wanted to keep it for walking, not cars.
However, there were obstructions suchas informal settlements and restaurants
illegally built on the river banks. A clamor
was raised to make the highway a public park,a seemingly impossible idea.
But the stars aligned. A new mayor was
elected in 2010. A national lawmaker from139

A cleaned-up river flows beside the Esplanade of Iloilo City which opened in 2012. Today it is a favorite leisurespot of locals and tourists.

Iloilo became the Senate President and wasdetermined to clean up and beautify the Iloilo
River.
With the people’s support and a unified
push by officials who set aside partisan
politics, tough decisions were made toremove and relocate illegal dwellers, andstop the pollution of the Iloilo River. Funds
from national agencies were pooled and thecommunity got behind a major river cleanup.
140

The Esplanade of Iloilo City was born. Today,
the 1.2-kilometer promenade by the river ismuch loved by Iloilo denizens – the rich andpoor, young ones and the young once, thepowerful and the powerless. Viewing decks
and park benches invite visitors to pause
and take in peaceful views of the river. Fromsunrise to dusk, people come to to walk, jog,
bike, dance or simply be in the company ofeach other in the presence of sheer beauty.

Esplanade at night141

RESTORING THE EXPERIENCEOF HAPPINESS
Gross National Happiness
Kingdom of Bhutan
While almost all countries of the over-consuming and materialistic world
use Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) tomeasure their progress, one country does not.
Nestled in the high mountains of the Himalayas is the Kingdom of
Bhutan in Nepal. Their standard of measure is ‘Gross National
Happiness’ (GNH), and is founded on four pillars of Environment
Conservation, Cultural Preservation, Good Governance and Sustainable
Economic Development.
“GNH is an aspiration, a set of guiding principles through which we arenavigating our path towards a sustainable and equitable society,” says
Singh Powdyel, Bhutan’s minister of education. At a young age, children
are taught basic vegetable gardening and environmental protection as
life skills. Solid waste is managed so as to recycle almost everything.
Bhutan even set up a ministry level office, the GNH Commission,
headed by the Prime Minister. It screens all projects based on whether
or not they will lead to happiness. For example, the country does notallow the operation of a well-known hamburger chain. Why? Because
eating this kind of fast food does not lead to happiness; it leads to illness.

142

143

144

12
FINDINGHAPPINESS
Question:
What is the end-goal of human life?
Answer:Happiness
A survey was conducted around the world tofind out what made people truly happy.
The top three sources of happiness are:
1. Relationships with family and friends
2. Work that is satisfying and meaningful
3. Leisure time to enjoy one’s interests,
hobbies and passions

This seems to be common sense. But thereality is far from common. We seem trappedin the physical world where everything ismeasured by material possessions and money.
We are driven by a need to acquire more,consume more, acquire more, consume more,
ad infinitum. We buy things, derive fleeting
pleasure from them, then shortly after, tire andthrow them away. That kind of consumption is
simply waste.
Most of us just want a simple life. But many aretied up in debt, paying for houses, cars, newclothes, appliances, gadgets and other ‘stuff.’
Suddenly we realize that most of that stuff has
little or no value in the experience of genuine
happiness.
145

NEEDS AND LONGINGThe goal of human governance, therefore,
is to advance the three sources of genuine
happiness. But what does economics tell us?
The material world uses the standard called
Gross Domestic Product or GDP, the total
goods and services produced as measured interms of money.
But GDP is a flawed standard of measuring
progress and well-being. Robert Kennedy said
it well: GDP ‘measures everything… exceptthat which makes life worthwhile.’1
Remember what we said about how new
words can change meanings and mind-sets?
From now on, let us change the meaning of
GDP to Great Disaster for the Planet (andPeople).

and injustice, the poisoning of the land, theair and the waters, depression and othermaladies that plague the world today.
The clue to the answer is not in politics,
economics or law. It lies hidden in humanphilosophy and psychology. It is about how
we see ourselves in this world, and about
how feelings and thinking affect us and ourrelationships with one another.
As a species, we have needs that range fromthe physical to the emotional, intellectualand spiritual dimensions of being human.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow called it the
Hierarchy of Needs.

In its place, let us use the term ‘Common
Good’ or CG as ‘the greatest good for thegreatest number…. for the longest time.’2
With this shift of measurement, how canhumans manage themselves to face theirproblems? These are challenges of poverty,
runaway crime, social alienation, inequality
146

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

I call it the Ladder of Longing. This has
four steps:

PhysicalAt the bottom of the ladder are physical needs.
We need food, water, air, shelter, sleep anddigestion. A wise man from Central Perlassummarized these needs as three K’s in the
Cebuano language – Ka-on, Katulog, Kalibang. That means good nutrition, good sleep
and good digestion/elimination. If any part ismissed or messed up, we have a problem.

Spiritual

AirIntellectual

Emotional

PhysicalWe need clean air. That means having the
Earth’s best air-conditioning and air-purifying
units in great abundance – plant life. We must
avoid fouling the air in any way. And we need
open spaces that ensure we breathe in good
air as we stay fit with physical exercise.
Water
Water must be abundant, clean, accessible
and responsibly priced. There’s no room for
waste or for the over-pumping of the aquifer(groundwater storehouses). That means watermust be cleaned and reused for as long as
possible. Storing excess rainwater will takecare of our needs when there is no rain.
147

Food

Emotional

The solution to hunger is not simply toincrease the production of money but forpeople to go back to the soil to plant what
they need for good health – vegetables, herbs
and fruits.

Open spaces for parks and wholesome fun
are important for emotional bonding. This iswhere people can enjoy each other’s company
in the middle of Nature without having tospend money.

Shelter and Sleep

In Singapore, one of the well-planned citiesof the world, it is a policy to have parks andopen spaces accessible within a 10-minute
walk from their homes. London, anotherwell-planned city, has about 60 percent of its
land area devoted to gardens and parks.

Only when people live in their own dwellings
will they fully appreciate their stake in thecommunity and society as citizens; only thenwill they care. This was the working philosophy of Lee Kuan Yew who caused the buildingof affordable housing for Singapore’s multiracial people. By doing so, he helped instilllove for their homeland.
Sleep is one of the most underrated habits ofa stressed-out, hurried and harried modern
society. It is in sleep when the body recovers.
Lack of sleep compromises the immunity
system and makes one vulnerable to diseases.
Only when we are secure and comfortable inour homes can we sleep well.

148

Learning must be fun, relevant andchallenging. Too much competition in theformal school system runs contrary to thenature of humans to cooperate. It crushes
the spirit and leads to greed. Sitting all day
in a classroom to listen to boring lectures isthe best way to kill curiosity. Students would
just forget 99 percent of what they are taught.
Basic education must also be accessible to all;it must be free or almost free.

Spiritual
Being spiritual has nothing to do with religion.
To be spiritual is to be compassionate andcaring, especially for the most vulnerable insociety – children, the elderly, sick anddisabled, prisoners and the LAW of Life.
Many spiritual leaders have emerged fromdifferent corners of the world. Mahatma
Gandhi in India inspired millions to choose
non-violence in resisting oppression. Jesus
Christ showed his love for humanity by laying
down his life. The Dalai Lama lives in exile from
Tibet but his influence as a Buddhist monk isglobal. An Albanian nun, now known as SaintTeresa of Kolkata, devoted her life to the careof the abandoned poor, elderly and the dying.
They are like stars.
‘I may not reach them,But I can look up,
And see their beauty...
And try to follow where they lead.’I believe that deep inside each one of us lies
a greatness of spirit that only needs to be unlocked.
14912.1 Goal of Governance
There are three imperatives of all animal life:
1. Food
2. Sex
3. Politics
What is politics? It is the way by which all
animals – birds, bees, ants, elephants, lions,even crocodiles – organize themselves forpeace and order.
In the case of human beings, it seems theycannot easily govern themselves. So theycreate a structure to which they give up someof their rights in exchange for a secure andharmonious existence.
Politics and The Common Good
The two words are often confused with one
other. Politics is the play of power. Governance is about how power is used to manage
people for the pursuit of the common good.
What is the common good? It is the ‘great150

est good for the greatest number…. for the
longest time.’ This good has a time dimension.
Otherwise we would use up everything today
and leave nothing for our children and for the
future.

POWER GAME
There are two kinds of politics:
1. The game of trying to reach or keep a
position of power
2. The use of power to achieve something forthe common goodPower is the most intoxicating, addictive anddangerous drug. The first kind of politics has
become all about the game of trying to reachor maintain a position of power. This is also
called the ‘politics of democrazy.’
Perlas and the greatest over-consuming
country across the Pacific just went throughnational elections where candidates spent
tremendous amounts of money to win.

151

Where did candidates get that kind of money?
Of course, it came from supporters andfunders who want to recover an investment,152

and make more money if their candidates won.
Such is the mess that politics has become. We
seem to forget that political governance is allabout organizing people so that we will have:
Peace
Order
Security
Food sufficiency andSocial harmony,to enable the full blossoming of the humanbeing.
The second type of politics involves the useof available power to bring about positivechange. As ordinary citizens, we can play thisgame and use whatever power we have in ourhands to do good for others.
Power of the People
And what power do we, ordinary citizens,have?
The power of thought and imagination, thepower of speech and persuasion, and thefreedom and power of human will.
Given a situation that is unacceptable, wehave innate power in our minds. Thought andimagination give us the ability to see ‘what is,’and then think about ‘what can be.’With the power of speech, we can express oursentiments, thoughts and ideas. We can write
letters to our leaders and give themsuggestions. We can demand change.
A question immediately arises: Will they listen?
The counter question: Have you tried making
them?
Do not underestimate this gift to influenceothers. Just look at the reach of social media.
The gift of human will is taken for granted evenmore.
“What the mind can conceive,
And the heart can believe,
The hands will achieve.”
Citizens vote leaders into office. Collectively,
we have the last say. Less than a hundredyears ago, people were still governed by
the absolute rule of one man or a handful of
power-driven men. As a result, there ensued
wars of unspeakable violence.
Until the 20th century, many peoples of theworld lived in countries – called colonies –under the yoke of the more powerful153countries. It was not until after two World
Wars that the powerful countries regained asense of humanity. They began to treat otherpeoples as equals and gave colonies their
independence. Perlas got its independence in1945 after the Second World War.
It took all of time to get us to where weare now – self-rule, independence and agovernment of the people, for the people,
and by the people. But today, we do not seemto quite understand that. What exactly doesthat mean?
Shift of Political Play‘Imagination is more important
than knowledge. Knowledge islimited. Imagination encircles
the world.’- Albert Einstein154

The goal of governance and politics is tofulfill the basic needs of people so that they
can blossom as human beings. It is not about
the game of attaining power – self-interest –but using the available power to effect change
for the common good – public service.
In the game of using the Life-Sources of Land,
Air and Waters, this must be the working
principle:

It must last until such time we no longer
need it. If we, and other life-forms, no longer
need water to drink, air to breathe and foodto grow for us and for our children and theirchildren, then by all means, let us go ahead
poison them all.
The native Iroquois tribe of America
practiced the Principle of Seven Generations.
They believed that in making a decision or law,the chiefs must think of the impact into the
future up to the seventh generation.
The use of the LAW of Life must last for at least
seven generations. In other words, it must lastforever.

			155

12.2 Principle, Pathway and Practice
If we see our role as caretakers and guardiansof the Earth, many things will follow. We will
begin to look at the world differently andaccept several basic truths.
The law is nothing more than policy distlled
in legal form and language. Policy flows fromprinciples.
Below is a list of some basic truths distilledfrom many years of experience and insights.
It is meant only to tickle your thinking andimagination.

Food Security
Food security is not about food. It is about
nutrition.
Land 		Land is the source of our food.
Air 			If we poison our air, we kill ourselves.

Let us play a mental game and see how they
can be applied to make our world fit to live in.

Water
Without water, we wilt.

BASIC TRUTHS

Transportation
Those who have less in wheels must have morein roads.

Environment
The environment is about life, and the Sourcesof Life – Land, Air and Waters (the LAW of Life)
Human Nature
Man is more than matter.
156

Law
The best form of law enforcement happens
when the law does not need to be enforced.

Money
Money is only a piece of paper with anumber. The new currency is the money ofmoments, memory and magic.

FROM IDEAS TO ACTION

sanctuaries and reserves. Collect rainwater in gardens, ponds and cisterns.

Principle flows into policy. Let’s call it apathway. The challenge is to get things done,
to put good ideas into practice.
Principle:
The Environment is about life and the Sourcesof Life – Land, Air and Water.
Pathway:
Every effort must be taken to conserve, protect
and restore the supply and quality of these life
sources.
Practice:
Identify sources of land, clean air and water.
1.

Land Break up part of concrete roads
and parking lots so that more open
areas can be planted for food.

2.

Air Stop poisoning the air with toxic
fumes from motor vehicles. Reduce thevolume of cars and field efficient,
low-energy public transportation.

3.

Water Stop dirtying the sea andfreshwater bodies. Set up marine
157

HUMAN NATURE
Principle
Man is more than matter.

158

Pathway
Shift away from money-centered entertainment
and leisure. Focus on promoting the threesources of genuine happiness – relationships,
work and leisure.

PracticeCreate open areas and parks where people
can reconnect with Nature.

If the law must be enforced, and a penalty ishanded down, it must be done in a mannerthat is swift, painful and public.

Offer activities for wholesome bonding withfamily and friends like biking, swimming,
camping, fishing, boating, ball games andother sports, gardening, arts and crafts, yoga/
tai-chi, etc.

Practice
Celebrate best practices, success stories andlessons learned from around the country indealing with pollution, illegal fishing, etc.

Open wellness facilities for physical,
emotional, mental and spiritual health. Thiscan include ‘eco day-care centers’ wherechildren are taught how to plant trees andgrow vegetables.

Hold on-the-spot recognition ceremonies in
the Presidential Palace or Provincial/State
Capitol.

LAW

Rituals for good behavior generate positiveenergy. The reward can be non-cash items likerice, scholarships, seeds or planting materials,
etc.

Principle
The best form of law enforcement happens
when the law does not need to be enforced
because there is voluntary compliance.

Apply compassionate justice.
Instead ofserving a jail term, let illegal fishers set up
marine sanctuaries. Require illegal loggers toplant trees and take care of tree nurseries.

Pathway
Use positive stroking to identify and recognize
good behavior.
The greatest hunger of man is not for food. It
is for appreciation.

The greatest hungerof man is not for food.
It is for appreciation.
				
159

FOOD SECURITY

TRANSPORTATION

Principle
Good food means good nutrition.

Principle
Those who have less in wheels must have morein roads.

Pathway
Promote a plant-based diet for better health.
The source of food must be as close to theuser as possible.
Practice
Eat more fruits and vegetables.
Hold demonstration exercises for edible
landscaping and edible rain gardens in homes,
schools and open spaces.
Remove junk food (cola drinks, chips, candy)
from school canteens and nearby stores.
Encourage planting local vegetables likemoringa (malunggay) and root crops (camoteor sweet potato) that are easy to grow andcheap.
Hold weekend community vegetable fairs tosell excess produce.

160

Pathway
Adopt road sharing. Use half of the roadfor motorized vehicles and the other half forwalkways, bike paths and edible gardens.
Promotenon-polluting,transportation.

efficientmass

Practice
Redesign roads for more pedestrian/bicycle
access.
		
Use new designs of transport vehicles that use
renewable energy.
Break up part of concrete roads. Restore thesoil by planting edible gardens.
Put up rain gardens as an anti-flooding measure.

161

AIR
Principle
Without air, we die.
Pathway
Reduce the number of polluting motor
vehicles.

WATER

			
Principle
Without water, we wilt.
Pathway
Stop dirtying the sea and freshwater sources.
Conserve and reuse water endlessly.

Enforce a road diet to promote efficient use ofroad space.
Convert some concrete roads into green
walkways, bike lanes and urban edible gardens.
Practice
Remove polluting vehicles from the street.
Hold road sharing and edible planting
exercises every Sunday. Gradually step up
frequency in the hours and days, and spreadto more roads.
Adopt energy conservation and energyefficient measures.

Practice
Set up marine reserves, marine sanctuaries
and fish shelters.
Collect rainwater.
Clean up coastlines and restore waterways.
To address flooding, capture runoff water by
digging ponds and water channels.
Urge home and building owners to installcisterns to store water.
Offer tax incentives or require this in the
Building Code.
Teach schoolchildren simple ways of low water
use and recycling.

162

163

MONEY

WASTE

Principle
Love of money is the root of evil.

Principle
There is enough for everyone to use. But there
will never be enough for anyone to waste.

Pathway
As bonus pater familia (good father of thefamily), Government must shift its emphasis
from making money to what makes people
happy: relationships, work and leisure.

164

Pathway
Remove the word ‘waste’ from our mental
vocabulary. Replace it with the the word ‘used’
as in ‘used materials,’ ‘used water,’ ‘used air.’Practice
Develop more parks, sports facitilies,
community centers and venues for art and culture that people can enjoy for free.
		Use taxes to discourage anti-social behavior(multiple car purchases, excessive profit gain,
liquor-tobacco use).

Practice
Reduce, reuse and recycle.

Spend taxes on housing, parks and edible rain
gardens.

Shift from coal-fired power to solar and wind
power.

			Compost food scraps, paper and otherbiodegradable material.

Shred plastic. Add this to concrete mixture to
make walls, tables and chairs.
Make compost out of food scraps, paper,
fallen leaves and organic matter.

Low tide in Bantayan Island

165

166

13
THE TIMEFOR TALKIS OVERThe health of the Earth and of humancivilization is in great peril. Will we beparalyzed by the danger or will we take action?

a lever rests or is supported and on which it
pivots. In our example, the fulcrum is themind-set – how we see ourselves in relation to
the world.

If we take action, what can we do?
Lever of Power
There are three parts of the picture of a leverlong enough to move the world.

‘ Give me a lever long enoughand I can move the world.’- Archimedes of Syracuse

The first is the fulcrum, the point on which
167

The second part is the lever, the human will.
With this, a world of endless possibilities begins to unfold.

These are catalysts – actions that will spark aseries of other actions leading to the end-goal.

The third element is the people willing to takeaction. The three figures in the previous page
are those of a man and two women. Why thegender imbalance?

EDIBLE LANDSCAPESAND RAIN GARDENS‘If you want anything said,
give it to a man. If you wantanything done, give it to a
woman.’- Margaret Thatcher,
Former UK Prime Minister
If we have these three parts, what we can dowith the array of problems of the world? Afterall the battles that I have fought for the land
and the forests, the air and waters, I realizedthat the solutions are right under our noses.
Three action points will begin to move theworld in the direction we want. They are:
1. Edible Landscaping
2. Road Sharing
3. A Movement for Climate Justice for Future
Generations
168

Food and water security will remain thegreatest challenges in the near and far future.
As we are now seeing, when it rains, there
is too much water resulting in destructive
flooding. During the dry season, there is too
little water, resulting in droughts. This is only
beginning.
Food scarcity will become even more severeas the human population grows unchecked
amid these conditions:
1. Almost all land in urban areas is pavedwith concrete. This results in intense heat,flooding and surroundings that are bare andbarren of life.
2. Humans are eating unhealthy food thattakes so much water and energy to grow in
distant places. It takes even more fuel to bring
the food from the farm to the family.

Man-made rainwater garden in School of the SEA, Bantayan

Both problems can be turned into the seedsof a solution. How? By thinking the opposite.

plants. That is the exciting adventure called
edible landscaping.

Instead of building roads and smothering
land with concrete, we can break up the
pavement and restore the soil to grow foodDo you see the lever that will unleash thepower of possibilities?

169

A road-sharing exercise on Roxas Boulevard in Manila on a Sunday morning, Feb. 7, 2016. The sidewalk takes up one extra laneof the road. Two lanes are devoted to bikeways and one lane for a prototype road train developed by the Perlas government.

ROAD SHARING
If a road is built on land where there are nopeople, it soon gets filled with structures andcrowds. If a road is built in a forest park, it soon
becomes a parking lot.
That is only part of the problem with roads.
The greater cause of much of mankind’s
maladies today, and of the climate, is the
motor vehicle – the metal monster that170

breathes poison and has taken over the world.
Within the petals of the problem is the seed of
its own solution.
Roads can be the lever to change for the better.
We only need to change our way of thinking.
We can transform roads that are now used
to move cars into roads that will connect
people. This can be done in a manner that ismost efficient and fun.

With this mental shift, the crisis is turned into
an opportunity. With these interventions,the problems of traffic congestion, social
alienation, heat, poverty, depression, airpoisoning, climate crisis, hunger for food,
flooding, etc. will not just be solved.
They will all dis-solve.

CLIMATE JUSTICE FOR FUTURE
GENERATIONSGrandes problemas, grandes remedios.
(Big problems need big solutions.)- Spanish proverb

Global GameOne game that this movement will play is
a collective legal action by the children –representing themselves and generations yet
unborn – in the courts of justice. The children,
backed by a crack team of legal experts anddoers, can ask the courts a simple question:“Under the Law, what are the duties of States
to protect humankind of the present andfuture generations from the climate crisis?”
This question can be framed according tolocal and regional conditions.

If the problem is global, the lever for action
must also be of a global scale. The lever is theplan to mobilize the youth of the world. They
stand to suffer the irreversible damage andirreparable injury from the kind of climate weare leaving behind. So it is for them to takepersonal and collective action.
Other people can participate in local actions
for edible landscaping and road sharing. On
a global scale, these movements can lightfires that will prod people in power to takeserious and sustained actions for change.
171

TWO-WAY CHANGE
Social change usually happens in two ways –top-down or bottom-up. Top-down change isfast, but does not last. When new people takeover the reins of power, especially those from
opposite parties or ideologies, they change
almost everything. Even if they belong to thesame party, the newcomer always wants his
own brand for projects. Thus he will reinvent
the wheel if only to say that it is his project.
That’s normal human ego at work.
Bottom-up change is lasting but the process

is very slow, costly and cumbersome. Whenpeople start change from the bottom but thisis not met by those at the top, confrontation
happens, sometimes even violent conflict.
The best setup comes about when the top
meets the bottom, and the bottom meets the
top. This is called the ‘sandwich theory’ ofsocial change.
In the language of Perlas, this is the theory of
the bibingka – a tasty rice cake with coconut
milk cooked with live coals above and below
the food. It cooks faster and better this way.

3

1

2

172

												How to cook bibingka:
Coals are placed above (1) and below (2)to make the rice cake (3)13.1 Edible Landscapes and Rain Gardens
What if food sources were just outside ourhouses, by the roadsides and in nearby open
spaces? Vegetables, fruit trees and herbs
growing on available soil will turn urban deadspots into a green and edible landscape.
It would solve many problems of the world
today – food security, flooding, water scarcity
and social isolation, among others. It willdevelop confidence among the people to be
self-reliant and will also restore their sense of
pride of place.
The idea of edible landscapes and community
gardens is a matchstick that can ignite subtle
yet powerful forces of change to produce
multiple benefits:

Community garden cultivated by immigrants in Bolzano, Italy173

a. Hunger will be History
People will eat more vegetables and fruits, thehealthiest diet. And when they grow their own
food, there will be abundance. The problem
of food poverty can be solved.

The joy of growing, harvesting, eating andsharing the fruits and vegetables that we growourselves is a joy like no other.
d. Healthier People
People will get more physical exercise withgardening activities. Of course, they will also
be eating healthier and cleaner food.

b. Spirit of Sharing
In scarcity, people steal.
In abundance, people share.
Gardening promotes interaction among those
who tend the soil and the plants. They will
be harvesting more than they can eat and will
begin to share their produce. This rekindles
the basic human instinct of cooperation andsharing.
c. Reconnecting to the LAW of Life
With a garden, we will begin to understandthat the food we eat depends on the delicate
and wonderful interaction between the three
Sources of Life – Land, Air and Water. Thus,
we are able to reconnect to our own nature.

e. Cheaper Food
A large part of the cost of food is the cost oftransporting the produce from distant farms toour dinner tables.
With food growing in or very near, our homes,
even on the outer walls of our houses, foodwill be free. Plants growing on walls will
absorb the heat of the sun and by the magic ofphotosynthesis will turn it into food. This will
reduce the heat inside the house because thevertical garden will serve as a natural coolantof the interior.

‘He who plants a garden plants happiness.’- Folk Wisdom174

A swimming pool is turned into a sunken garden of herbs in Cebu City.

f. Less Climate-Disrupting Gases

g. Carbon Capture

Imagine the energy cost of tractors that till
the farms, the trucks, boats and planes thattransport our food.

Do we remember our basic science? Plants
exhale oxygen, which people inhale. We
exhale carbon dioxide, which plants absorb.
But today there is a dangerous imbalance. The
air is overloaded with carbon dioxide from excessive burning of carbon matter (coal and oil).

That is called the carbon footprint, thetremendous volume of carbon dioxide (CO2)
released into the air that is making the Earthhotter. If food plants were growing right next
to our homes, we would reduce the release of
hot gas.

So what is the solution? Plants. They will
absorb as much carbon dioxide as they can for
their own growth.
175

In the world we want, roads, highways, parking
lots now paved with concrete will need to bebroken up. Large chunks of it must be restored
into soil and turned into edible rain gardens.

are clogged by garbage or human structures,water overflows and causes flooding.

RAIN GARDENS
Why is there flooding?
Because excess water has nowhere to go.
A rain garden is a simple remedy. Dig a holein the ground to collect and absorb the waterrunoff. The generic term for this is rainwatercollector but I prefer calling it ‘rain garden’
which is more appealing and excites theimagination.
Learn how to make one in your own yard or
beside your apartment or office building.
Runoff water
Roofs, roads, parking lots and other solid
surfaces gather massive volumes of rainwater.
Not all of this water can be absorbed. Some
simply spill off into drainage canals (thus theterm ‘water runoff’). In cities, where sewers
176

Rain garden in the State University of New York,
College of Environmental Science and Forestry

How a rain garden works
falls on roofs, gutters and concrete
1 Rainsurfaces. Not all the water can be absorbed in the soil.
directs the water to a hole
2 Ain downspout
the ground or pond that will absorb theexcess water.

water can drain to a nearby rain
3 The
garden which can be left open or covered

to store water for future use.

with sand, rocks and soil. This can beplanted with ornamentals or food plants.

plants (vegetables, herbs and fruits)
4 Ediblecan be planted on the banks and surface.

There are two kinds of rain collectors.
One type has a bottom not paved withconcrete to allow water to percolate or
seep back into the ground. Anothertype is a concrete container or tank

In tropical countries, easy-to-growand nutritious edibles are the KKK
combination of kangkong (morning glory
spinach), kamunggay (moringa) andkamote (sweet potato). Other nutritious
177edibles are alugbati (Malabar spinach),and mung beans.
the area with a few inches of
5 Covering
rocks and sand will allow water to seep
into the ground to replenish the aquifer
beneath the groundwater table.
aquifer is an underground layer of
6 The
water-bearing rock, gravel, sand and silt
from where wells draw water.
is the place we pierce to dig or drill
7 Thiswells. Over-extraction is a big threat. If
the aquifer is not replenished, it will dryup.
Question: Where do we get the land todevelop rain gardens and edible landscapes? From right under out noses.

City kids are shown how to harvest bokchoy
in the mountains of Balamban, Cebu
178

179

13.2 Road Sharing Movement
A BOY AND A CAR
Once upon a time, there was a poor boy. He
could only afford to eat vegetables and had towalk five kilometers to school every day. On
the road, flashy cars zoomed past him. Whenit rained, he got splashed with dirty water fromthe puddles.
“One day,” he said, “I will be rich and buy acar.”
He studied hard, went to university and later
became a successful lawyer. He bought a
fleet of cars and let drivers bring him to his
appointments and court hearings. He could
afford to eat anything he wanted – mostly fast
and fat food.
This lifestyle of the rich went on for a few years.
One day, in the middle of an intense trial, thelawyer suddenly collapsed. He was rushed tothe hospital and ended up in the Intensive
Care Unit. There he lay in a coma for 40 days.
180

When he woke up, the lawyer was happy to
be alive, but was very scared. Sobbing in
anguish, he asked, “Doctor, what’s wrong withme?”
The doctor said, “Sir, you have clogged
arteries, congested lungs, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, failing kidneys, high uricacid, etc. You have all the ailments of the richand sedentary. In other words, sir, your healthis in a state of crisis.”“Oh, doctor, what must I do?” asked thelawyer.

RUSE OF ROADS
The doctor said, “Eat vegetables and walkfive kilometers a day.”Car-diac Arrest
The lawyer’s car-diac arrest is the story of our
car-centered transportation system. Even at a
young age, people aspire to own a car. With
the explosion of so many vehicles, the roads –like our lungs and arteries – are all clogged up.
We have reached a state of extreme crisis.
Recall the Chinese picture-word for crisis
that is made up of two parts: ‘danger’ and‘opportunity.’ In a choking city, the danger
is clear – total traffic paralysis, stress andpoisoned lungs, among others. The opportunity is also clear. We must find a solution thatis creative, effective and fun.
How?
Take the doctor’s advice: Go back to basics.

How did cars become so popular, so desired asa means of transportation and such a status
symbol?
The self-interest of carmakers and governments
conspired to build more roads to increase thedemand for vehicles.
In the 20th century, oil was widely usedbecause it was easier to handle than coal.
This was also the time of mass production of amoving metal box on wheels. Car production
rapidly increased after the mid-20th century.
At the end of World War II, companies in the
United States which had been busy making
war armaments had nothing left to do. The
Secretary of Defense was also president of thelargest car company that produced military
hardware during the war. Together with othercar manufacturers, they decided to continue
their industries by shifting from making
military hardware to making cars. But there were
two obstacles to this plan.
First, the trolley, train and public transportation
system in the U.S. was very good. The City ofAngels, the seat of Hollywood, had 400 miles ofrail lines which served hundreds of thousands ofriders a year.
Second, there were not many roads. The public transportation system did not need many181

selling of more cars.
Their second solution was even more creative.
After World War II, national security was of highest
importance. The Secretary of Defense used thisprimal paranoia to the car industry’s advantage.
He advised the U.S. President to use federal funds
to build inter-state highways to connect cities andstates in the interest of national security.1
So instead of developing trains for efficient transport over long distances, the fire was lit for the
global scourge of more and more cars.
The car with its oil-fired internal combustion engine is
the single biggest cause of damage to the Earth.

wide roads because it was already moving
people efficiently.
What did businessmen do? Carmakers conspired
to buy most of the train and trolley lines, rippedout the metal rails or paved them over with concrete to make more roads. This provided space
for the cars they wanted to sell. It also wiped out
the competition.
This was a criminal act. The conspirators werecharged for their violation of the Anti-Trust Law,
were found guilty and fined.
But the stage was already set for the making and
182

Car-Crazy, Fuel-FoolishThus began the mania for cars and the obsession
for road building that lasts to this day. Billions ofdollars are spent on roads to make space so thatthe car-cabal can sell more cars and ‘oil-igarchs’
can burn all the fuel it can sell.
All this road building ignores the basic truth thattransportation is not about roads. Transportation is about moving people from one point toanother in a manner that is efficient, reliable,
convenient, inexpensive and fun.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
The car didn’t just mean personal convenienceand mobility; it became a status symbol. Not
having a car – and seeing one’s neighbor driving‘A developed country is not a place where the poor can buy cars,
but one where the rich ride public transportation.’								- Enrique Peñalosa								 Former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia
one – was a sure way of feeling poor. Owning a$15,000 car when your neighbor has a $50,000
model only intensifies the feeling of envy.
Owning a car became an aspiration and a markof success. This is especially promoted by theCity of Angels, where movies are made. Whenmovie fans see cars being driven by good-looking
actors, this is a subtle but powerful strategy to sell
the idea of cars to the world. Hollywood doesn’t
bother to show how cars in the City of Angels areconstantly stuck in traffic.
So the world followed suit even if there were very
few and very narrow roads. Monkey see, monkeydo.

This is made worse when political leaders go to
the City of Angels (more like the City of Automobiles.) There, ‘polluticians’ fall in love with the fastcars they see their friends and relatives driving.
When the officials go home to Perlas andother LCCs (Low-Consuming Countries), they try
to copy the freeways and huge parking lots. But
freeways are neither moving freely, nor are they
trouble-free ways of going anywhere.
Ask an Angeleno what the freeways look likeduring rush hour. He would tell you that they areslow-moving parking lots.

Roads and highways have become so cloggedwith vehicles that the whole purpose oftransportation – moving people efficiently – hasbeen forgotten.

“todaysroadiswherecaraftercarismovinglikethis”
183

QUESTIONS

Waste of Space1.

Are we happy with traffic? No!

2.

Why is there traffic? Because there are
too many motor vehicles, especiallyprivate cars.

A person standing up occupies about oneeighth (1/8) of a square meter. Sitting down,
he occupies about one-fourth (1⁄4) of a square
meter. Using a car, he will occupy 13 to 15
square meters, and the vehicle is not yet evenmoving.

3.

What is the solution – to add more cars?

4.

By the way, who is smarter: Ants orhuman beings? Of course, humans.
Even if an army of ants is crawlingabout, why don’t they suffer traffic jams?
Because they follow a single line. Thatis the ‘Principle of the Ant.’RETHINKING OUR
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
The case of Perlas and of other countries
with small land areas is a perfect example ofputting a square peg in a round hole. It does
not and will never fit. Private cars with theiroil-burning internal combustion engines are
the most inefficient way of moving from one
point to another.
184

Compare this with a bicycle. The road spaceused by a car can accommodate 15 bicycles.
Or 60 people standing up or 30 individuals
walking.

In urban areas, the most precious commodity
is space. Why then are we wasting so muchspace trying to copy the car-crazy lifestylepromoted by Hollywood and the car industry?
At an international car show in Metro Manila,
the capital of Perlas, a senator gave the
keynote speech. He said the people’s“116-year-old
love
affairwith
theautomobile (has) brought us pleasure, but also
pain – there’s traffic, there’s pollution, there
are accidents – things we cannot deny.”2
As of 2016, there is one motor vehicle(including motorcycles) for every 12 Filipinos,
or more than enough to form a single line thatwould stretch 31,000 kilometers, equal thelength of all national roads. Worse, only oneof every one hundred Filipinos own cars. Yet
all of the roads are given to cars and to motor
monsters.

Metal and Money
To move from one point to another in acar, a person weighing 70 kilos will ride a
machine that uses 2,000 kilos of steel. Is this an
economical and efficient use of steel?

Car

Bus

BicycleThe cheapest sub-compact car costs about
700,000 pestehas in Perlas, about US$14,000.
That is more than enough money to send
several kids to university in my country.
Add to the price of a car the cost of
maintenance and other incidental expenses:
interest on amortization, oil change, engine
tune-up, change of tires, insurance, gasoline,
parking and toll fees, repair of dents, etc. This
adds up to at least $400 per month (about
20,000 pestehas). This is more than double
the monthly minimum wage in Perlas. Thatamount can buy 10 sacks of rice, enough tofeed at least 10 families for a month. And yet
we just burn that amount.
Choosing to ride a car is more expensive than
you think.
185

Let’s play a game. Take out a $20 bill fromyour pocket (about 1,000 pestehas). Light amatch and burn it. Is that a good idea?

Warning: Please do not try this without thesupervision of a representative… of thefuneral parlor.

Is that not what we do every time we buy
gasoline? We exchange money – a piece of
paper – for a flammable liquid called gasoline
and then burn it.

Is this not what we are doing to the air that
we breathe? Poisoned gas is released frombillions of motor vehicle tailpipes all over theworld. In Perlas alone, 10 out of 11 respiratory
cases are reported in the capital of Metro
Manila.

Poisoning Ourselves
Let’s play another game.
Start the engine of a motor vehicle and ask
someone to rev it up while you go behindthe car. Kneel down and put your nose justoutside the car’s tailpipe. Then inhale thefumes for two minutes. What happens?

Hey, Mr. Ex-Con Economist and Mr.
Spokesman of the car industry, do you callthis is progress? Yes, it is progress… to thegrave. It is also a contribution to GDP – GreatDisaster for the People.

Time Lost
The stress and time wasted traveling a few
kilometers has become unbearable. People
are very angry at the extreme traffic
congestion in metropolitan areas, whether it isin Metro Manila, Cebu, Beijing, Bangkok, Los
Angeles, Nairobi or Jakarta.
We all want to escape the ‘Car-maggedon.’ I
call it ‘car-diac arrest’ because the condition is186to and from my home in Cavite province tomy law office in the financial center of Metro
Manila. I would leave before dawn and comehome long after dinner just to avoid thetraffic. I hardly saw my children while they
were growing up.
I have few regrets in my life. Having to spend
so much time sitting in traffic away from myfamily is one of the very few. One of thereasons I gave up my conventional law
practice in the 1990s was to avoid this highway Calvary.
such that it immobilizes us all. In Metro Manila
alone, the economic loss due to traffic congestion reaches three billion pesos a day or
US$21.9 billion a year at the exchange rateof P50 to $1. This is almost one-third of theentire national budget of Perlas for 2017.3 Is
this progress?
The money cost is not the biggest concern.
The hidden and most destructive impacts areon health and time lost from the company offamily and friends.
In the late ‘80s until the late ‘90s, I used tospend three to four hours on the road driving

The transport torture made me think hardabout how to solve the traffic mess. The
solution, after all, is simple as we will see
shortly.
Over the years, the problem has only gotten
worse. More roads are being built or widened,adding to the congestion.
Very good. Maybe the traffic crisis will finallyspark a revolution to find a solution. There isa move in Perlas to increase the excise tax on
cars. But unless the price of cars is tripled andpublic transport is improved, a higher tax will
not make a dent.
187

Water Waste, Flooding
To clean motor vehicles, we use up so muchclean and drinkable water. With El Niño andworsening droughts brought about by theclimate crisis, water will be more precious thangold.
If there was no more water left to drink, would
we still wash our cars with drinkable water?
To build roads to accommodate more motor
vehicles, we pave over soil with concrete.
When it rains hard, the land no longer soaks
up the water. The result is flooding.
From a living land full of plants and butterflies,
we turn it into a hot and dead surface ofconcrete where nothing grows… except roadrage.

Unfair Road Use
Perlas has a population of about 102 million
people. Less than two percent (or less than two
million people) own cars, yet all of the road
space is given to motor vehicles. The great
majority lack proper public transportation.
Sidewalks are removed or reduced to make
188

Urban road space in Perlas is mostly used by
motor vehicles even though less than two percentof the population own cars. Those who walkare left with small sidewalks or none. Is this fair?

way for more cars. Is this fair? In the languageof the Constitution, this is “unequal protection of the laws.” It is outright discrimination
against the poor.

Loss of Life
Motor vehicle accidents are the cause of lossof life and limb to millions of people every
year. If an airplane fell out of the sky andcrashed to the ground every day, killing innocent victims, wouldn’t we begin to think there
is something wrong with the aircraft?
The number of people who die every year inroad accidents is much more than the countin aviation crashes. Yet our leaders continue
to encourage more cars and individual motor
vehicles by building more and more roads.

Unhealthy Lifestyle
Doctors tell us that to stay fit, we must walkat least 10,000 steps a day, or about fivekilometers. How much walking do we do? Not
much.
In the city, those who can afford to go to a
gym park their cars closest to the door andthen spend 30 to 40 minutes walking or
running on the treadmill.
Remember our story of the poor boy and thecar? When we get sick from a lifestyle of therich and lazy, the doctor’s prescription is to
exercise and walk five kilometers a day.

Climate-Crazy Gases
Experts estimate that motor vehicles are
the source of more than 50 percent of all
climate-disrupting gases released into the air.4
Look at the life cycle of a motor vehicle andthe heat it generates in carbon dioxide andother hot gases. This starts with the intensive
use of energy to manufacture cars and supply
fuel. It includes the heat caused by concreteroads and pavements. It also counts the superhot gases used in mobile air conditioners.
Consider:• Mining, smelting and the manufacture ofsteel to make these ‘metallic horses’• Mining, refinery and distribution of oil tomake gasoline and diesel• Mining of rocks and sand to make roads• Making of asphalt and cement to makeconcrete roads• Removal of natural forests to plant rubber
trees for the raw material for rubber tires• Heat-island effect from concrete roads shornof plants• The inability of water to be absorbed by
the land because it has been paved overwith concrete• Heat from super-hot gases called HFCs
(hydro-flourocarbons) used for car
air-conditioning units• Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur
dioxide, nitrous oxide and other poisonous
gases released by motor vehicles.
189

Why do we insist on building more roads andadding more cars?
Political leaders see roads as a ‘concrete’achievement in their track record. Some
infrastructure projects also come with big
kickbacks. For ex-con economists, roads spark
economic progress even though it actuallyignites terrible traffic.
When new cars are released from factories
and showrooms, do they come with newroads? Yet we buy more motor vehicles tofill up already-clogged roads. In the study ofhuman psychology, this is called the ‘inertia ofcollective insanity.’
What do we need to do? We must not only
think out of the box, we must jump out of thebox, turn it upside down and then shake it.
Only then will there be real progress in humanthought.

Turn around the road system
180 degrees. Make the roads 		
more narrow.
190

MIND SHIFT MOMENT
If building more roads to solve traffic
congestion is like pouring gasoline to fight afire, what is the solution? Turn around the roadsystem on its head by 180 degrees: Make theroads more narrow.
		No, this is not a joke. Abundance breeds
waste; scarcity breeds efficiency. Bigger roads
trigger wasteful use. Smaller roads lead towiser use.
		
Another way is to follow the Principle of theAnt. Countless as they are, ants do not have
traffic jams because they move in single file.
We can improve traffic flow right away byproviding exclusive lanes for collective (public)transportation. Buses and trains can travel insingle file, in ant-like fashion.
		Wide sidewalks of at least three meters must
be set aside for people to safely walk or
bike. If public transportation is safe, reliable,
convenient, inexpensive and fun, car owners
would be happy to leave their cars at home.
Or feel no need to buy a car.

Exclusive lanes for buses and other public
transportation would look like this:		

But there are still too many cars on the roadusing up so much space to move so few people.

ROAD SHARING
Those who have less in wheels must havemore in roads.
A simple solution is Road Sharing. Divide theroad in half: Half for motorized vehicles moving efficiently, and the other half for people towalk, bike and plant food gardens.
Road sharing requires a 180-degree mind shift
from the present car-crazy and fuel-foolishtransportation system:• From building more roads for cars toproviding more spaces for people to move
• From favoring wasteful privatetransportation to giving priority to efficientpublic (collective) transportation• From road widening to a road diet
• From road greed – scrambling for the lastsquare inch of the road – to sharing thespace
How can we show that it works? Experienceis the best teacher. When people actuallybreathe cleaner air, feel the vitality of thecommunity and move around freely in anorderly manner following the Principle of theAnt, the idea of road sharing will come to life.
Many benefits will cascade to society. Thechange will:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Restore order and discipline on the road
Dissolve traffic congestion
Make travel time predictable
Increase disposable income

Those who have less in wheels
must have more in roads.

191

5.
6.
7.

8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Ensure fair use of public space andpublic funds
Lower transportation costs
Improve public health as more people
who would be walking, biking,exercising and breathing cleaner air
Free up space for community foodgardens
Reduce the importation of fuelRestore a sense of community andbelonging
Reduce crime through more transparent
movement of people
Increase the income of public utility
operators

13.

14.

15.
16.
17.
18.

Spark the growth of local makers ofrail-based trains, trams, trolleys andother collective transport systems
Restore pride of place and pride ofpeople, especially when visitors admire
the improvements
Reduce road accidents
Clean the air and cool the local climate
Reduce mining of ore for steel and rockaggregates for roads
Reduce release of heat and use ofenergy from the heat-and-energy
intensive manufacture of cement andsteel

Wide sidewalks and bike paths in European cities of Paris (left) and Barcelona encourage people to do awaywith cars for short and medium distances.
192

19.

20.
21.

22.

23.

Reduce the use of artificial airconditioning. With less vehicles on theroad and more plants growing, people
can open their windows to let fresh air
inIncrease quality time for family andfriends
Make more land available for parks,
edible gardens and non-monetaryleisureSolve flooding with more lands
available for rain gardens, ponds,
streams, wetlands and lakes
Reduce by half the release of gasesthat is causing the climate crisis.

Is this bad news for carmakers? No, it is an
opportunity to adapt to the new mind-set andthen retool manufacturing facilities to makebetter public transportation systems.
On a personal note, I am not against cars. I am
against the mind-set of having to spend a lot
to buy and maintain a car that only worsens
traffic congestion, when all I need is theservice of moving from one point to another.
In times when we need the personal
convenience of individual transportation,

car sharing services can fill the need. This isstarting to happen in Europe and parts of theUnited States such as the Zip car system in the
San Francisco area. In Vauban in the green
city of Freiburg in Germany, residents do not
own cars. They walk, ride a bike or take public transport. When they need a car, they go to
the common garage and take one unit from amembership pool. They pay a nominal amountfor the use of the car and cost of gas.

Bayanihan sa Daan
The essence of road sharing is the use of roads
and public space by all stakeholders in the mostefficient and fairest manner possible.
In the language of Perlas, we coined the term
Bayanihan sa Daan to describe the change.
Daan (pronounced ‘dah-AHN’) means ‘road’ or‘way.’
Remember the word Bayanihan? It comes fromtwo beautiful words: Bayan – community, nation, homeland or citizens; and Bayani – hero.
Bayanihan means ‘cooperative heroism’ or‘community spirit.’
193

“The Department of Transportation and theDepartment of Public Works and Highways
shall immediately transform roads using
aforesaid principle.
“All provinces, cities and towns are mandated
to support the change.

Half the road is used for people to walk and bike,and half for motor vehicles in Pasig City, Metro
Manila. Road sharing happens every Sunday
morning in Caruncho Avenue in front of City Hall.

“The DILG (Department of Interior and Local
Governments) shall coordinate with all LGUs
to transform the road system to favor persons
who have no motor vehicles.”5

A Suggestion?

Edible Gardens

By the way, this road reform is not a suggestion, it is a law.

If part of the roads will no longer be used forcars, space will be available to plant vegetables
and fruits. A concrete section of one or twolanes (about 3 to 6 meters wide) and one
kilometer long can be broken up and returned
to soil to grow community food gardens. Withfewer motor vehicles, the air will be cleaner andwill not poison the food plants.

In 2008, the President of Perlas issued
Executive Order No. 774:
“The Department of Transportation shall leadto transform the transportation sector. The
new paradigm in the movement of men andthings must follow a simple principle: Those
who have less in wheels must have more inroads. For this purpose, the system shallfavor
non-motorized
locomotion
andcollective transportation systems ….
194

Even edible gardens are part of the law in Perlas:“Public open spaces along sidewalks
and roads no longer needed shall be
devoted to urban agriculture for fruits,vegetables, medicinal herbs and plants.
Anyone who wants to plant but has
no land shall be lent use of land underan urban edible garden agreement.”(Section 12, EO 774).

Three of the five lanes are occupied by about
70 private cars carrying at best 200 passengers. All the passengers could fit into fouror five buses. If that would actually happen, theroad space would suddenly become vacant.

But alas, in the Land of Pearls, many laws are
only suggestions.

The vacant space can then be converted into
safe (and covered) sidewalks, bike lanes andedible gardens. One lane can still be used for
private vehicles. The mind shift is starting tohappen with the introduction of P2P (Pointto-Point) high-quality buses in Metro Manila
which charge about $1 fare and offers comfortable seats, free Wi-Fi and television on
board. What is still needed are dedicated, fastmoving lanes for public transport vehicles.

PUTTING POLICY INTO PRACTICE
What does it take to make this change happen?
1. Favor people over cars.
This is the daily torture chamber of cars on
EDSA, a main arterial road in Metro Manila.

2. Give people space for non-motorized
mobility.
“Build it and they will come.”
What if we built wide and covered walkways
and bike lanes of 3 meters to 6 meters wide –the width of one or two road lanes?
But first, we must remove and/or relocate all
obstructions from the sidewalks and streets.

195

The legal basis to ban roadside parking andsidewalk stalls is clear.
Public space is reserved for public use. It cannot
be used for private parking and vendor’s
stalls to benefit one or two to the exclusion ofall. These are a ‘nuisance’ as defined by law
because they obstruct or interfere with thefree passage of a public highway or street.
Removing road obstructions is a task for local
governments. This does not happen often,
though, because of wrong-headed populism
of its leaders.

Kinds of Roads
Roads in Perlas are classified as national,
provincial, city, or barangay (village) roads,
depending on which government agency
maintains the road. This system is one of themain reasons we are in this mess.

capacity/mass transport systems.
2. Collector Roads connect local roads toarterial roads. These roads are narrower.
Most can be transformed into sidewalks
and bike lanes, and even edible
landscapes.
3. Local Roads bring people to their homes
and are bordered by buildings andhomes. These roads are generally
narrow. Depending on the width of theroad, private motor vehicles must be
restricted to only one or two lanes
running in one direction. Better yet,they must be turned into walk-only/
pedestrian roads, with provision fordeliveries and transport of persons withdisabilities (PWDs), the elderly andemergency vehicles.

In the study of transportation and urban
planning, there are three kinds of roads basedon their use:
1. Arterial Roads connect one city or town toanother. They are best served by high196

In Shanghai, a road train serves a moderatecapacity of passengers.

Collector roads can be served by road trains like this fun
version with red coaches in Oslo, Norway. Imagine
jeepneys in Perlas connected to each other and turned intoa hybrid.
Bayanihan Road Train or BaRT. Why not?

In Barcelona, Spain, the district of Las Ramblas attracts
tourists and locals because many roads are only forpedestrians.
The scene is very lively with people
strolling among the stores, open-air stalls and restaurants
in the area.

The Esplanade along the Iloilo River in Central Perlas wasbuilt after a major cleanup of the city’s river.
Today, it is a well-loved public promenade.

A hybrid road train that runs on diesel and electric poweris being developed by the Perlas government. The
prototype can carry 260 passengers.

197

HOW TO START

1.
Right of Way Identify and mark out
the road-right-of-way of all paved roads. Halfof the road will be used by motorized transport; the other half is reserved for people towalk, bike or plant edible gardens.

In Perlas, the problem of over-speeding buses
and unruly drivers who stop anywhere to drop
off and pick up passengers is directly linked totheir so-called boundary system. Under thissystem, drivers have to meet a daily quota ofroad trips and revenue that is a basis for theirearnings and to ensure a profit for the owners.

Arterial and Collector Roads must have one
or two lanes dedicated for collective or public
transportation like the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
System.

Note: The alis-puno system is only to be done
for the first few weeks. The aim is to gather
enough data for operators to set the best
travel and dispatching schedule.

2.
Cleared Sidewalks Clear and expand
sidewalks so that people will have safe andconvenient spaces to walk.

5.
SundaysStart road-sharing pilot
projects on Sundays when traffic is light.
Then gradually extend the hours and roads
covered. Any revolutionary mind shift cannot
happen overnight. It must be done in small,hardly noticeable steps.

Here’s a sample action plan for Road Sharing:3.
Ant-walk All vehicles must follow asingle line – the Principle of the Ant. All buses and public transportation must observe
proper stops and loading bays.
4.
Alis-Puno (leave when full) If the bus
leaves when it is full or almost full of passengers, cutthroat competition among drivers
and transport owners will vanish.
198

A Design for Shared Roads
1.
Arterial and collector roads can be divided by half — half formotorized vehicles andhalf for wide sidewalks
and bike lanes as well as
edible landscaping.
2.
The half that is devoted to motor vehicles
will be used for high-capacity solar/renewableenergy transport runningin an organized andorderly manner. Cars may
still have their own lanes,
but carpooling must be
encouraged.
The divider between the lanes can be3.
devoted to edible rain gardens. People whowant to plant can organize themselves into
small cooperatives and assigned an area
where they can grow vegetables and harvest
their produce for personal consumption or forsale.

Use solar-powered streetlamps that4.
automatically shut off at sunrise.
5.
Waterways will be cleaned so they canbe used to irrigate the edible gardens.

199

-

PROGRESSThe Road Sharing Movement is not the dreamof one man. It is a collective dream of a world
stuck and suffering from ‘car-diac arrest.’ Thisis especially true in low-consuming countries
like Perlas, Indonesia, Thailand, Kenya,
Egypt and even in cities of Over-ConsumingCountries like Los Angeles, Washington DC,
Honolulu and others choking in traffic.
The transformation is happening in many
versions around the world like Brazil (Medellin
and Curitiba), in the U.S. cities of Eugene,Portland, Irvine, New York, in Singapore,
Kyoto and Perlas cities of Pasig and Marikina.
The more developed models are in European
cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna and Paris. These are themodels we should be looking at.
In Perlas, there is a growing movement of
citizens trying to sow the seeds of road
200

sharing. It started with an experimental
closure of the busiest road in the central islandof Cebu on June 12, 2011, Independence Dayof the tropical country. For one whole day, a
2.3-kilometer stretch of Osmeña Boulevard
was closed to motor vehicles and turned intoa park.
This inspired the City of Pasig in heavily
congested Metro Manila to follow the exercise.
Every Sunday, the main 1.3-kilometer road ofits financial district – F. Ortigas Avenue – isnow a fully pedestrianized road. Four of its
main roads – two along the Pasig River, theother one in front of City Hall and anotherrecently opened – are shared with pedestrians
and cyclists.

Walkers and cyclists use half of the East Bank Road
of Pasig City every Sunday.

Win or lose, the point was made.
In the meantime, citizens and advocates havebeen reaching out to public officials show theexamples of road sharing on the ground.6

ON THE POLITICAL FRONTNational

Filipino children and students were among those who
petitioned the Supreme Court to compel the government touse a road sharing scheme. Will they win?

ON THE LEGAL FRONTOn February 17, 2014, a group of law
students, cyclists and ordinary citizens,backed by a team of young lawyers, filed what
may well be a watershed case to implement
the road-sharing principle. The petition awaits
decision by the Supreme Court of Perlas.

Friends in Congress are drafting the
Sustainable Transport Bill. With the supportof an Earth-friendly senator who chairs the
Senate Committee on Finance, a cost allocation was made for road-sharing exercisesin the 2016 national budget of the Metro
Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
This act of creative legislation holds brightpromise. It will make government agencies
duty-bound to implement road sharing,promote non-motorized transport and build
people-friendly walkways and bike ways.7
With the recent change of government,
however, initiatives taken a few months ago
with a more awakened leadership are now beginning to languish in the sickbed of ignorance.
201

They took over the roads and painted lanemarks in the middle of the streets.
One summer day on April 22, 2016, an evenmore daring legal action took place. Using alittle-known law that says that 100 voters of a
town can directly propose a local ordinance,
the children took action.

Road sharing in Cebu City in central Perlas on Sept. 28,
2014. The one-day experiment was part of a private
sector-led urban plan called the Green Loop. Proof ofconcept: It works but needs refinement.

Local
In my hometown of Sta. Fe. in Bantayan
Island in central Perlas, children and youth
volunteers, with the support of their local
leaders, are taking a step forward.
202

In the morning of Earth Day, a group ofchildren, local officials and ordinary citizens,
accompanied by a live percussion band, went
to the municipal hall to file their petition tocompel local authorities to share the road.
					The petition was signed by more than 600
voters and 1,200 children, backed by twodozen lawyers. They proposed an ordinanceto divide the roads of the town by half – half
for motor vehicles and half for people to walkand bike.8
The local council started hearings on the
petition. Of course there were objections.
Some came from tricycle drivers and local
officials. But the wheels of the legal petition
have been set in motion.

Will We Succeed?
The Road Sharing Movement is up against
powerful vested interests – car manufacturers
and dealers, the oil industry, road builders,
corrupt politicians and political leaders whoare stuck in the belief that the ultimate good
is to build more roads and that economic
progress is symbolized by owning a car.

But the most difficult adversary is not thepoliticians who come and go, not the car
manufacturers and wealthy government contractors who rise and fall, as do even empires.
The most challenging adversary is the mindset that desires the glamour of cars.
What are roads for? For whom are roads built?
We have to return to the common sense goalof roads and of transportation as a means ofmoving people.
The car-centered mind-set of society is thesource of much of today’s urban maladies.
People cooped up in speeding steel boxes(cars) are transformed into rude, self-centeredand even violent creatures. That is what we
see in ‘road rage.’
Roads can be a positive catalyst. By changing the road system, people can be kinder,
gentler, more cooperative and more generous.
When roads are shared and become public
spaces instead of exclusive lanes for privatecars, people are able to interact. They once
again see each other as human beings insteadof metal boxes in motion.

Local youths paint lane marks to divide the roads forroad sharing in Sta. Fe town, Bantayan during Earth Day.

Yes, we need to transform the road system203

and the way we think of roads and space. We
need to shift the focus from motor vehicles
back to the people.

It is all up to you whether you want to share
the road or suffer the status quo of traffic jams,
air pollution, mean streets and meaner men.

Will we be able to unlock the traffic Gordianknot that plagues cities that desperately copy
the lifestyles of the rich and lazy promoted inadvertisements and movies?

But plant a seed of ideas we must. If it falls
on good soil, maybe it will sprout and one day
become a tree to give shade and fruit. May
the shade be wide and the fruits many.

We may not see it in our lifetimes or maybe
in the next ten lifetimes. A revolution cannot
and must not happen overnight. It counts on
ordinary citizens and enlightened policymakers and doers to take bold steps forward.

In the stories shared in this book, a setback
often turned out to be a step forward in
disguise. Sometimes, after working so hardand meeting only fantastic failure, all of asudden, without lifting a finger, the pieces fall
into place.

Pedestrian road in Malaga, Spain

204

But through it all,we must always have fun,and grin at both success and failure.
Those ‘two faces of the same impostor,’
ever ready to eat humble pie
when the tears of defeat wet our eye.

But through it all, we must always
stop for friendship and forthe scent of a flower.
And in voices loud with power,
howl at the ceilingfor the sheer pleasure of living.

20513.3 Legal Marketing
The chronic challenge of Environmental Law
is its implementation and enforcement. I havespent an entire career trying to enforce thelaw. I also compiled all the environmental lawsof my country in a 1,400-page book. In theend, I was appalled that not even one percentof these laws were being implemented.
In the rare times that we have been successful,
we only minimized the destruction of a
resource or blocked something that would
have been catastrophic. Rarely was there
success in punishing the guilty. All the gains
have been achieved at great cost of life andlimb to those who seek to enforce the Law.
After all the wounds and scars of battle, I
realized that:a. Individually and collectively, we haveachieved very little. Despite all the laws, theproblems of the Earth have grown fromworse to worst.
b. The best form of law enforcement happens
206

when there is general compliance. To
generate compliance, Law must betreated as a marketing exercise. While
ordinary marketing sells a product, Law
sells a mode of conduct.
If Law is a marketing exercise, then we must
use the Five P’s in the Art of Marketing –Product, People, Place, Promotion and Price.
Let us try this out in the solid waste
management law.
1. Product – What we are trying to market isthe social good of cleanliness, reduction ofwaste, and a wholesome and livable
environment.
2. People – Who is the primary target
market? That would be community leaders,housewives and schoolchildren. Once thetarget market is identified, efforts to reachout to them in creative ways must be
explored.
3. Place – Where will the product be tested?
It can start as a pilot project in a locality
where the inputs and outcome can bemonitored by a village or a cluster ofvillages. When it works there, it can berolled out and scaled up to a larger area.
4. Promotion – Strategy is needed toencourage voluntary and generalcompliance, and to spread awareness of its
goals and benefits.
5. Price – The effort to comply with the Law or
its ‘cost’ must be kept low, i.e., the Law
must be easy to comply with. It also refers
to the cost of not complying with the Law.
This must be very high.
If the Law must be enforced at all, it
must be done in a manner that is
swift for certainty, painful for
memory and public for deterrence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------‘Kind words do not just praise
the goodness of others.
Kind words have the power tochange the destiny of a nation.’- Dogen, Zen Master--------------------------------------------------------------------207

Human Hunger
Law punishes bad behavior. But what promotes good behavior? It is not the Law; it ishuman psychology.
The greatest hunger of humankind is not forfood; it is the hunger for appreciation. Thereis so much good happening in this world bymen, women and children from all walks of life,
ordinary citizens and government employees
alike.
Yet what do we hear in the news? Mostly
about the bad things. The mass media usuallyreport the killings, the rapes, corruption,
controversy and the vilest acts of humanbeings. Bad news sells.
Remember what we said about paper money?
All currencies of the world are of such sizethat when you cover your eyes with it, you see
nothing else.

Recognition Program
What if we had a recognition program to
identify, appreciate, recognize and commend
good environmental behavior? This could be
208

done with partners in government and in theprivate sector.
Take the case of Government. There is an
all-powerful agency in Perlas that strikes fearin government personnel – The Office of the
Ombudsman. It has the power to investigate,suspend, terminate, forfeit retirement benefits
and prosecute government personnel forgraft, corruption or gross negligence inthe performance of public duty. When agovernment employee receives a memowith the letterhead of the Office of the
Ombudsman, he will almost fall off his chair,suffer serious anxiety and lose sleep.
What if we use this ‘power of the stationery’to recognize and commend good behavior ofgovernment employees? Instead of falling infear, wouldn’t the heart of the recipient of theletter leap to high heavens with the rocket fuelof joy? He or she would immediately shareit on social media, tell relatives, friends andofficemates, and thus serve as a shining example of a good government employee. What
if the letter of recognition and commendationis co-signed by the Office of the President,
Secretary of the Department of Environment,
and a couple of prestigious local and interna-

tional nongovernment organizations? Wouldthat not add to the recipient’s pride, honorand joy?
This would have powerful and happy side
effects.
First, the one who receives the commendation
letter will feel so honored that he will doeverything in his power to deserve it and will
be motivated to do even better.
Second, other people in his circle will be inspired to do their best as well. If good behav-

ior will be recognized, there is hope that the
innate hunger for appreciation will be satisfied.
Third, the positive energy created by many
commendation letters will generate a tidal
wave that drowns out the negativity of mass
media. In its place, a new world is born, one
where more good acts are recognized andrepeated. It will serve as an exponential
multiplier of goodness.
Once a year, a major awarding ceremony canbe held in City Halls or Provincial/State Capitols
for local awardees. National awards for truly
outstanding achievers can be held in the Presidential Palace or another prestigious venue.

Seeds of Hope
A plan like this is already in place. Last October 2016, a group of men and women in
Perlas discussed the basic mechanics of such a
program. A full-time secretariat from the private
sector will be set up. The private character will
insulate the movement from the fickle winds ofgovernment and petty partisan politics.
Politicians and government officials come andgo. A sustained program is possible only when209the people who lead it are truly committed
to the cause with a long-term view. Government agencies are welcome to join. Again, one
recurring and often expensive lesson I havelearned is never to rely on government to do
the right thing in a sustained manner.
What do we recognize? Initially we agreed tospotlight good deeds in:
1. Solid waste management
2. Innovative marine conservation
3. Coastal governance
4. Road sharing
5. Edible landscaping and rain gardens
6. Eco-governance
7. Environmental legislation
8. Environment education
9. Arts for the earth
10. Environmental jurisprudence
11. River restoration
12. Youth affairs
13. Women empowerment
14. Lifetime achievement
That is just for starters. To add prestige, theawards can be named after people who havemade truly distinguished contributions in eachfield.
210

If anyone is willing to help carry this out, feel
free to get in touch with me directly. The only
thing I can assure you is that it will not take long
before the wave of positive energy will replace
the negativity we feel in the world today.
Other countries can adapt this program to local conditions in their own way and style. The
positive energy will unleash the native geniusof the human heart. What is important is theover-arching principle: To recognize and appreciate good environmental conduct. This canbe later replicated in other sectors, e.g., anticorruption, women empowerment, health, etc.
By doing this, my dear friends, together we will
be planting many seeds.
To paraphrase Confucius:

To plan for a year, plant rice.
To plan for ten years,
plant a tree.
To plan for a thousand years,
In the hearts of every man,woman and child,
Plant the seeds of hope.
		

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212

14
CLIMATE JUSTICEFOR FUTURE
GENERATIONSWhat is ‘justice’? Justice is giving everyone
what they deserve.
Do the future generations deserve the Earthand the climate we are leaving them?
If they do not, what can we do about it today?
The list is long, and time is short, very short.

Climate Crisis
The Earth has a high fever. The symptoms
are the clear and present dangers of extreme
weather events, super typhoons, forest fires,
droughts, flooding, rising sea levels, storm
surges, an acidic sea and more.
Yes, the Earth’s fever is rising and is reaching astate of convulsion and delirium.
213

Mind Shift Moment
In the evening of December 12, 2015, almost
200 countries finally agreed that:
1. The climate is in crisis.
2. The cause is the excessive burning by
pyromaniac humans.
3. The time for talk is over.
It took an entire generation for supposedly
wise humans to accept the truth and decide to
take action.
In the Paris Agreement, nations agreed totry to keep the Earth’s fever from rising too
high, somewhere between 1.5 to 2.0 degrees
Celsius. The human body has an averagetemperature of 37 degrees Celsius. Imagine afever permanently rising to 39 degrees. What
happens to the body?
At best, the Paris Agreement is an aspiration,an almost impossible dream. How the world
will get there, a world severely infected by thevirus of consumption, is unclear and remains agreat challenge.
What is certain is that this future will not214

happen by itself. Nor will it happen becauseof the good graces of governments. By
definition, governments and political leaders are shortsighted and fickle. Shortsighted
because almost all elected leaders look ahead
at only 1,000 to 2,000 days of their terms in
office and then focus on how to win the next
election. Fickle because the next person who
assumes office, especially if he comes from the
opposing camp, will most likely reject the workof the past official and start all over again.
Long-term concerns can only be addressed bycommitted and collective actions of those whodare to care. That’s us – the people whose lives
and well-being are at stake. This is especiallytrue for the young of today who will suffer thefull impact of the climate crisis. We will makeit happen!
Think Global, Act Local
Sure, change must happen. But real changemust begin in each of us— every man, woman
and child.
Simple changes in personal behavior liketurning off lights, gadgets and appliances
when not in use, not wasting water, being

mindful of what we buy, what we throw away
and what we eat.
These actions may seem small. But by doing
that, we will experience firsthand what theworld needs to do – become less wasteful. By
doing that, we become living examples of the‘change that we seek to see in the world.’ We
can stop bellyaching about the problem andstart becoming the solution.

Outer Changes
Three movements for outer change can sparka series of actions leading to the end-goal of
the change that we seek.
1.
2.
3.

Road Sharing
Edible Landscaping and Rain Gardens
Inter-generational Climate Justice (ICJ)
Movement

When change happens inside, then we areready to change the world outside.

215

DISCUSSION
Road Sharing
We saw earlier how the motor vehicle in its
entire life cycle is the cause of more thanhalf of all heat-causing gases released into
the air. The Road Sharing Movement has two
objectives:
1.
To improve public transportation,
reduce the burning of gasoline by the motorized monsters running amuck in the roads andthus clean the air; and2.
Provide spaces for people to walk, bikeand grow edible gardens.
Edible Landscapes and Rain Gardens
Communities, especially urban centers, needmore greenery for a better quality of life.
Edible landscapes and rain gardens will
dissolve the problem of food hunger andflooding. Added benefits include cooling theair, restoring social interaction, the capture ofcarbon dioxide by plants and reducing the216

carbon footprint of the transport of produce
from farm to family.
ICJ Movement
Inter-generational Climate Justice (ICJ)
confronts the question of whether we aredoing justice to future generations with the
Earth that we leave behind.
ICJ also means the Inter-national Courts ofJustice. These are the courts of law where thequestion on inter-generational climate justiceis being raised by the young, representing
themselves and future generations. The
hyphenated word ‘inter-national’ is deliberatebecause it refers to both national andinternational courts and tribunals.
The ICJ Movement is a movement of citizens
and lawyers around the world who are using
the law as their tool for social change.
This Movement seeks to:
1. Stir up global cooperation, especially among the youth, to prod and support
strong and sustained actions to address
the climate crisis; and2. Impress upon short-term governments their long-term duties to protect
humankind from worsening climatecaused disasters.
The movement is not an organization, aproject or a funded program. It is a spontaneous combustion of actions of ordinary people – by grown-ups who care for their children
and of children who care for their future.
More importantly, it is a movement of people

around the world connected by a sharedpassion, who care … and dare.
Legal actions in courts and tribunals havealready been started in the Netherlands,
Pakistan, the Philippines, Peru, Norway, Sweden and in the U.S. states of Washington
and Oregon. In October 2016, 450 womenin Switzerland aged 65 and above started aseries of legal actions against the Government
to compel authorities to take action on the
climate crisis.
Yes, the time for talk is over. People all over
the world are using the power of the law toto tell the story of the unraveling climate crisis

Perlas

A storytelling and listening tour on climate justice for future generations can be held in all UN regions of the world -Aftrica, Latin America/Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Western Europe, North America and Australia.

217and to take action. We will see more of this in
the coming months and years.
Legal actions generally take two tracks. One
is to hold parties responsible for past actions.
The other is to compel present and future
actions.
Many of such actions are happening in thelocal courts. But there is a more ambitious(and fun) plan to bring legal action before thehighest court of the world – the International
Court of Justice (ICJ).
The idea is to ask the World Court for anadvisory opinion on the question:• Not look to the past nor imply liability or
responsibility for past actions of any state party. Instead, it looks to duties of the future.
These duties are inherent in the role of States
as the bonus pater familia not only to its own
people and to people of other States but tohumankind in general.
• Compel all States, whose temporal powers
are held by short-term governments, to look
far into the future. Human beings by nature
are hard-wired to think only of the present.
We all need to see the impact of present
actions on our children, grandchildren andnext generations.

“Under International Law, what are the dutiesof States to protect humankind of thepresent and future generations from theclimate crisis?”
This request for an advisory opinion from the
ICJ is an innovative approach to use the Court
to address the climate crisis. The question isframed to:• Be non-adversarial against any state.
218

The UN General Assembly will be asked to consider thisquestion: Do the youth of today and future generations
deserve the climate and the Earth we are leaving behind?

THE PROCESS
Seeking an advisory opinion in the World
Court is a two-step process.
1. Resolution of the UN General Assembly
A country or group of countries must initiate aresolution in the UN General Assembly to seek
an advisory opinion of the World Court. The
resolution has to be approved by a majority ofthe member countries.
Here the fun begins.
This step will be a reason to invite the youthof the world and others concerned to petition
their own governments and UN Ambassadors
to support the proposed resolution.
For a global campaign, public hearings canbe held in various countries similar to that
conducted by the Brundtland Commission in
1987. This would include a listening tour todraw out stories of how the climate crisis isaffecting different parts of the world, what
citizens are doing about it and what we all can
do together.

Hands-on activities for road sharing and edible
rain gardens will provide people, who are
overwhelmed by the immense challengeof the climate crisis, direct experience withchange agents that will have an enormous
impact.
2. Referral to the ICJ
Once the UN Resolution is approved, thematter is forwarded to the ICJ based in The
Hague (Netherlands) for deliberation. The
World Court then invites all the State Partiesof the UN to submit written comments.
Here another phase of the fun begins. Youthgroups and other concerned citizens, in theirown countries, can put gentle pressure on theirgovernments to submit plans for sustained
actions to face the climate crisis. The crisis
is already here. Humankind must address it
through mitigation and adaptation measures.
Many of these plans are contained in the
Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs)
which nations submitted to the UN Climate
Change Secretariat. Some are strong, some are
weak. But if, and that is a big if, these NDCs

219

are complied with, the Earth’s climate is still
heating up by almost 3 degrees. Again,
imagine if the human body with a normal
temperature of 37 degrees Celsius would
permanently rise to 40 degrees.
The word ‘if’ is a big one. Government plans
are pipe dreams that remain on paper unlessthere is a strong impetus to make themhappen. That force can only come from thesovereign power – the People, especiallythose who have the most at stake – the young.
This is their game.
The question to be raised before the ICJ isvery simple, almost common sense.
The same philosophical question, framed
in different ways, about the legacy left for
future generations, is being raised in different
nations. But the simplest question can be athunderbolt whose electric charge will be felt
around the globe.

In Summary
Together, we will roam the world to ask basic
questions:
1. Do future generations deserve the Earth weare leaving behind?
2. What must we do – especially governments
who stand as good parents of the familyof man – to protect present and future
generations from the climate crisis?

If you want to be heard,

If you want to be heard,
a story.
Telltella story;
IfIfyou
want
to touch
the heart,you
want
to touch
Sing a song;theheart,
If youwant
to start a revolution,Aska question.
sing
a song.

If you want tostart a revolution,
Ask a question.

A fisherman paddles past mangrovesin the Tañon Strait in Cebu
220

221

DECLARATION OF COMMITMENT
I, __________________________, resident of one Earth, citizen of _____________________,
with address at ___________________________________________________ hereby declare:
I believe that the climate crisis is the greatest threat to humankind and to other life-forms
on Earth.
I know that we, human beings, supposedly the wisest creatures on Earth, are the principal
cause of this problem. I also know that we must be the solution.
As a responsible human being, I commit myself to take actions of enlightened citizenshipto be part of the solution.
For this purpose, I will take personal actions and do my share to reduce the damage thathumankind is inflicting on the Life-Sources of the Earth – the Land, the Air, and the Waters.
Only by doing so will I have the credibility and the moral authority to seek change fromothers.
I will then join the International Climate Justice for Future Generations Movement ofordinary citizens. Together we will call on others and on our leaders to take strong, serious
and sustained action to address the global climate crisis.

Signature and Date222

PERSONAL ACTION
I, ______________________________________ , hereby commit to:(Please check at least 5 items.)
Turn off lights, gadgets, and appliances when not in use.
Reduce waste of materials and energy. Ensure that my used materials will be recycledwhenever possible.
Promote efficient public transportation and non-motorized transportation systems. I
will walk or bike if I can, and minimize my use of cars.
Reduce or eliminate my consumption of animal products, especially red meat.
Compost my biodegradable wastes.
Plant and care for a vegetable, flower, or tree.
Nurture other living creatures.
Avoid mindless consumerism by reducing my purchase of material things.
Extend the use of my things as much as possible.
Avoid the use of disposable plates, utensils, glasses, and plastic bags.
Conserve water whenever possible (e.g., using a glass of water when brushing teeth,
take shorter showers, report leaking faucets, etc.).
Purchase locally grown and raised produce and products, whenever possible.
Others _____________________________________________________________________To quality for membership in the International Climate Justice for Future Generations
movement, we would appreciate you taking at least 5 personal actions. We must be thechange that we seek!

223

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224

15
EARTH,HEART& ART

To protect the Earth,
we must use the Heart.
Not the mind.
But how?

Science and law speak to the mind
and give the direction.
Art speaks to the heartand sparks the fire of passion.

There is a cluein the words ‘Earth’ and ‘Heart.’
Both words contain the word
Art.

When you change the mind,
it can change tomorrow.
When you change the heart,
it is forever.
225

226

To test this, on April 22, 2016, the Art Center for the Earth was put up in thewhite sand shores of Bantayan Island in the central seas of Perlas.
It is our hope that the modest beginnings of the Center will one day blossom
as a venue and melting pot of artists.
It will also be a hall envisioned for the performing arts, a library, a room for an
artist-in-residence and an office with a view of this …

227

Tonight, My Dear
Tonight, my dear,
I shall dream of you
Tonight, my dear,
I shall pretend
That you and I
On the seashore lie,
To peer into the heavens
And at those pinpricks of light
They call the stars.
Tonight, my dear,
I shall talk to you,
In a language that only
The passion of fire
And the fervor of faith
Shall ever understand.
Tonight, my dear,
I shall sing you a song,
A song that from the soul springs forth,
A song whose words
Need not be written;
Whose melody need not be set in rhyme.

228

Tonight, my dear,
I shall whisper to you a song,
A silent song that
Only you can hear.
Tonight, my dear,
I shall thank you.
For like the rays of the morning sun,
Coupling with droplets of rain,
You have given life once again,
Life to a wilting flower,
Long deafened,Long deadened,
By the ticking
And the tocking of the hour.
Tonight, my dear,
If you please,
If you wish,
I shall love you.

229

230

16
PAINTING
OUR
FUTUREFor the last hour or so
I have taken you for a walk.
Now it is your turnto tell us your storyof what you want
the world to be.

231‘What you can door dream you can,begin it.
Boldness has genius,
power and magic in it.’- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

232

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DRAW HERE,..- -'.
. ---"

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233

There is no limit
To what we can achieve
When we unleash
The native genius of
The Human Heart.

234

235

236

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

From My Inmost Heart of Hearts

This story and picture book is like a painting. It is the product of hundreds of painters, stroke bystroke, with layers upon layers of human thought and experience.
Some of these people I have not met. But the outlines that they drew on cave walls inspired me
to think differently. I began to shift my thoughts from the present state of destructive economics to one
where we nurture the LAW of Life. After all, are we humans not the wisest animals on Earth?
E.F. Schumacher sketched a new economic thinking in his seminal book Small is Beautiful. There
was David Brower and his ideas on conservation, protection and restoration (CPR); Lester Brown and his
State of the World books with stories of turn-arounds from destruction to restoration; Abraham Maslow
and his hierarchy of needs; Mohandas Gandhi on the power of non-violence and the value of simple
living. They are my heroes, although no longer with us.
In this life, I have met Gus Speth, and my spirit brothers Nick Robinson and Durwood Zaelke. Gus
Speth is a living legend. I was so happy to read of his ideas on new economics. It somehow assured methat I am not as dumb as I look.
I had the good fortune of being cared for by two sets of parents – my grandparents, with whom I
grew up, and my biological parents. From my grandfather Canuto (Papa Oto) I learned the values of thrift
and simple living. From my grandmother Rosario (Mama Ing) Codilla, I learned to appreciate the generosity of Nature. From my father, Antonio (Tonying) Oposa, the great surgeon, I received jolly genes, a
happy view of life and an attitude of gratitude. I owe him my life in at least three ways – the gift of birth,and the gift of healing for two serious health episodes. From my mother, Clarita (Claring) Velhagen Asuncion, I received the gift of nurturing Life through the life of plants.
237

A special note of thanks to Durwood for inspiring me to take on the title. In May 2012, four of us
were in my beach house in Bantayan Island —­ Romina Picolotti, the youngest Environment Secretary ofArgentina, and our dear friend Mike Frizzell, former marine and Vietnam combat veteran. We turned off
the lights at night and went to the beach to watch the stars.
We sat on the seashore listening to the waves. At high tide, beaming a flashlight on the water, wewatched fish leap out in different shapes, forms and different directions. Durwood casually mentionedthat this nightly treat is what we see in the School of the SEA —­ shooting stars and dancing fish.
Thank you to the Vermont Law School and to the Pace (now Haub) Law School. In Vermont, may
I thank Melissa Scanlan, Stephanie Farrior, Gus Speth, Pat Parenteau and the students, among them
Samantha Ruiz, Jon Hernandez, and my friends Steve and Janet Anderson, Merideth Wright and many
more for their hospitality and friendship.
In Pace Law School, we rekindled ties with Dick Ottinger, Nick Robinson, Bobby Kennedy Jr. andKarl Coplan, and made wonderful new friends like Victor Tafur, Jason Czarneski, Felipe Dias, Oscar Zenteno, Chelsea Hebert, Kelly Nishikawa, Laura Jensen and many more. Kelly helped so much in the researchof CPR stories around the world.
Without the space and quiet time they gave for cloister, this book would have remained a seed.
A sincere thank you to Eric Yamamoto and David Forman, and the University of Hawaii (UH) for therare chance to teach there in the Spring of 2015. There I carved out time to refine the thinking for thisbook. In Hawaii, I met dozens of wonderful people like Denise Antolini, Mike Wilson, Peter Arnade, Avi
Soifer, Spencer Kimura, Clifton Tanabe, Philip Tumbaga, Khara Carolus, Belinda Aquino and the Fil-Am
Community, Keani Rawlins, Malia Atukagawa and Maxine Burkett.
Some occupy high positions in the academe or elsewhere. But to me, each one of them occupies
the highest position … in my heart.
Journal of a JourneyThis book is a journal of my journey in Environmental Law, a practice that did not exist when238

I started in my home country. It would not have been possible without the guidance of two of mylaw professors, mentors and dearest friends, Myrna Feliciano and Leo Quisumbing. They opened thedoors for me to the world of Environmental Law, assuring me that I was not on a fool’s errand.
Although I was a lawyer by profession, at heart I was (and am) really a beach bum. I care deeply about
the sea, the fish and the trees, all of whom do not pay attorney’s fees.
The country owes a favor to the Father of Environmental Law in the Philippines, Amado (Ding)
Tolentino. In the 1970s, Ding met Parvez Hassan of Pakistan. Under the mentorship of Wolfgang
Burhenne, they drew up the outlines of Environmental Law for the world. As Director of the National
Environmental Protection Commission (NEPC), Ding published the first books that compiled thecountry’s Environmental Laws.
Special mention goes to Ma’am Myrna Feliciano who guided me in every critical twist and turn of
my roller-coaster career. She was one of the few lawyers who supported my decision to file the petitionon the Children’s Case against illegal logging. In the late 1980s, she invited me to co-author with her,
Ding Tolentino and Wally Gloria the 1992 book Environmental Law in the Philippines.
When I was on the ropes in the Children’s Case, Ma’am Myrna introduced me to Eric Jensen of
The Asia Foundation. It was Eric who invited me to my first International Environmental Law
Conference in Hong Kong in 1991. It was organized by the American Bar Association.
There I met Dinah Bear, then General Counsel of the U.S. President’s Council for Environmental
Quality (PCEQ). She told me about a book by law professor Edith Brown-Weiss from Georgetown
University Law School. In Fairness to Future Generations introduced the concept of ‘Inter-generational
Responsibility,’ a term I could hardly pronounce. Dinah said this was the theory of what I was doing inpractice. This gave my work a more intelligent and sophisticated name from someone more credible
than a 35-year-old wild-eyed lawyer. It was later in 1997 when I got to meet Professor Brown-Weiss.
In that conference I met friends who would later rise to great heights – Michele Corashk; Brian
Preston, now Chief Justice of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales; Ben Boer, Deputy
Chair of the World Commission on Environmental Law and Professor Emeritus of the University ofSydney; Mas Achmad Santosa, founder of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law ICEL; andJohn Boyd.
239

In the Children’s Case (Minors Oposa vs Factoran), two young lawyers, fresh out of law school,provided moral support. Jig Corpuz was my legal assistant and the other, Ipat Luna, went on to makesignificant contributions in Environmental Law and serve as Undersecretary of the Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The Children’s Case was a ‘No-Thing,’ a product of my being hardheaded about bringing it all
the way to the Supreme Court to make a point. I wanted government offices to see that children andfuture generations were real parties-in-interest. If we wiped out all the forests today, my children (andthe children of my friends and relatives) and the generations yet to come would suffer irreversible loss.
It was a great stroke of fortune that the case landed on the desk of a man who is deeply
connected to Nature, Hilario Davide Jr., who later became Chief Justice. The man grows his own
vegetables in a garden at home.
In this book, I share stories of my adventures and misadventures. May I take this chance toacknowledge the gift of friendship and cooperation that I have been blessed with throughout thisjourney.
Illegal Logging
My earliest foray into hands-on law enforcement work was in the early 1990s. I had a small job with
the World Bank to conduct law enforcement training for judges, law enforcers, environment agencies,etc.
I went the extra mile and used contacts made during these seminars in different regions to begin
striking the blow of serious law enforcement against commercial illegal logging. Illegal logging wasdone with impunity. It went on directly through operators or under the protection of public officials,
police and even the military.
It was during the term of Environment Secretary Angel C. Alcala (1992 to 1995) that the firstcoordinated and no-nonsense crackdown on commercial illegal logging began. This did not end the
problem, but it was a catalyst that sparked a series of other actions that finally led to a logging ban in the
country 20 years later. Alcala also created a marine conservation office in the DENR. Congratulations,
Doc ACA. In your time, while gifted with privilege and position, you started the sea change.
240

In this adventure I met men like Jun Gana, Mon Esguerra and Rey Lugtu (Department of Justice);
Oscar Embido and Ludgi de Lemos (National Bureau of Investigation); Nards Paat (DENR); Juanito
Bernad (Supreme Court); and Dangal de Leon (Office of the Solicitor General). Special mention andprayers go to Leonardo Tindoc, one of our witnesses in the illegal logging campaign and cases. To
silence him, he was murdered in front of his house. He was one of the first victims of extrajudicial killings(EJK) of environment advocates.
Friends of Shared Passions
The author CS Lewis defines friendship as ‘people of shared passions.’ In my journeys using theLaw of Nature as my weapon of choice and human law as the spark plug of action, I have met wonderfulpeople.
In my early days of planting trees in the mountain villages of Cebu City (circa 1983-1988), Rene deRueda, then DENR Assistant Secretary for the Visayas, opened doors for the environmental movement in
Cebu to see the light of day.
I had the chance to work with Boy Montejo, Vivian Batayola, Inting Calizar, Jerry Dolino, Nards
Sibbaluca, Nanding Alberca, Ebert Bautista, Jun Factoran, Celso Roque, Nards Paat, Delfin Ganapin(both father and son), Ted Pison, Vic Ramos, Mon Paje, Bebet Gozun and Ben Malayang.
When I moved to Manila in 1988, only a handful of young lawyers were practicing in theunknown field of Environmental Law. There was Ding Tolentino and members of a newly formed legalarm of the Haribon Foundation called Tanggol Kalikasan. The title of ‘mother’ of Philippine
Environmental Law is deserved by our dearest law professor, Myrna Feliciano of the University of thePhilippines.
Visayan Sea
When I started my sea adventures (ca. 2001), there were my dear friends Bombi Aznar, Dodong
Pena, Rudy Estampador, Bernil Gastardo, Gary Cases, Nora Ross, Boy Amores, Dodoy Marabi, Jojo de laVictoria and many others who lent a hand. Together, at different stages of the sea voyage, we took two
small outriggers and toured the Visayan Marine Triangle.

241

To raise awareness about the condition of the sea, we gave pictorial lectures and did community
outreach work. In one of those seaborne legs to Refugio Island, a dream took hold that later became the
School of the SEA (Sea and Earth Advocates).
Because of rampant illegal fishing that was going on, we decided to shift focus to law
enforcement. Thus was born the strike force known as the Visayan Sea Squadron.
In this, I worked with sincere, committed and action-oriented public servants in the NBI and otheragencies – Ludgi de Lemos, Ed Caratao, Ermie Monsanto, Greg Algoso, Arnel Pura, Rey Pono, Bert
Pernito (Police) and Jun Abueg (Navy). I also had the chance to become the friend of Benny Magallanes,
Emok Montibon, Hector Teodosio, Art Defensor, Raul Banias, Jett Rojas, Dodong Toledo, Wilmon
Peñalosa, Alett Nunez and many more.
Manila Bay, Laguna Bay, Minolo Cove
Allow me to mention people who played a role in the legal dramas. In the Manila Bay Case, Vina
Ilas was among my UP Law students who dared to act as plaintiff. There were Lucenito Tagle (the trial
judge), the opposing counsel in the Office of the Solicitor General, and my co-counsels Sig Fortun andBeda Fajardo.
Moral support was given by people like Ave Cruz, Rudy Estampador, Romy Mabanta and Bobby
Joseph. We needed to let the court smell the stink of Manila Bay. Ave Cruz and company helped us holdthe first ocular inspection in an Environmental Law case in the Philippines. From the Manila Yacht Club– glamorous in name, but foul smelling – we took a boat ride with the judge and the opposing parties.
Together we all saw the dying condition of Manila Bay.
I started out this journey alone. When my guru Nick Robinson knew of the case, he invited me
to the Pace Law School in New York to attend the Water Keeper’s conference, a group led by Bobby
Kennedy Jr. It was heartwarming to see other people from another part of the world doing similar work
to clean up the sea and waterways.
I was fortunate that the judge that tried the case, the Honorable Lucenito Tagle of the regional
trial court, was sympathetic. After all, this case was nothing personal against any individual and welltranscended their terms of offices. In the ten years the case was pending, the DENR had six Secretaries.
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In the court hearings, I was lucky to get the help of my brother-in-law, seasoned trial lawyer Sig
Fortun. He designated lawyer Flor Andres to handle day-to-day affairs of the case. In the Supreme Court
hearing almost ten years later, I was joined by top-caliber lawyers Rolly Vinluan, Linda Jimeno, Rico
Agcaoili and Karl Castillo. My spirit brother, the legendary MC Mehta of India, also helped explain to the
Court the idea of a continuing mandamus.
Many thanks to Midas Marquez, Court Administrator of the Supreme Court and to Chief Justice
Rey Puno and Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. for their important roles in the Manila Bay clean-up case. It
was during Chief Justice’s Puno’s term that the Rules of Court for Environmental Cases in the Philippines
were passed. These rules contain watershed provisions on the Writ of Kalikasan (Nature), the Writ ofContinuing Mandamus, waiver of filing fees, citizens’ suits and anti-SLAPP suits. These have all become
part of the law of the land. This was CJ Puno’s handiwork of pure genius, using the rule-making power of
the Supreme Court to open the doors of the judiciary for the redress of environmental grievances.
Much gratitude to all members of the Supreme Court who voted for the decision of the Children’s
Case and the Manila Bay Clean-Up Case. Several of them, including then Chief Justice Corona, Velascoand Mar Castillo, rode a coast guard vessel to see for themselves the condition of Manila Bay. Gratitude
also to Francis Jardeleza for his early support for my work that made many things possible.
In the Minolo Cove case, I worked with Vicky Loanzon, a brilliant lawyer and environmental
planner, and Cecilia Yulo-Locsin. Early on, Locsin started to protect a large chunk of Puerto Galera’s
beautiful coastline and mountains in the Province of Mindoro. God bless her for her vision and action.
			In the Laguna Bay case, I worked with lawyers Abet Hidlago and Tess Oledan. Together we crafted
and nudged an ecosystem approach for the management of Laguna de Bay.
			
In opposing the reclamation of Manila Bay, I had the chance to meet and work with Doris
Magsaysay-Ho, Jun Palafox, Pitoy Moreno and other kindred spirits who tried to protect the remaining
unhampered view of Manila Bay.
Bantayan Island, Imus River
In the case of Bantayan Island vs Easement Zone Violators, it was a privilege to see committed
people in Government like Nards Sibbaluca, Nanding Cena, Inting Calizar, Horace Ramos, Jun Adobo,243

Dodo Salazar, Gwen Garcia, Tamar Espinosa and others. The DENR’s ad hoc demolition team removed
structures by the sea for violating the easement law. Despite lack of proper equipment, they carried on.
Dodo and Gwen had a few jackhammers handy, and kindly lent them. Ben Cabrido, a hardworking andbrilliant lawyer, was my counsel of record.
Cleaning up part of the Imus River was fun, made even more exciting because I thought we could
do things right. My father-in-law was then Governor of Cavite. In this endeavor I met great examplesof sincere and committed human beings, among them Cesar Virata (the country’s first and only prime
minister), Johnny Remulla, Ayong Maliksi, Recto Cantimbuhan, Mon Resureccion and Mr. Ponce.
The experience was also my frustration in working in the political arena. This became the seed of
the Manila Bay Case. Yes, political persons and governments are shortsighted, fickle and iffy. Maybe legal
action can give a sense of continuity.
School of the SEA, Art Center for the Earth
And then there are ongoing projects where I am blessed to have friends taking the path with me.
In the School of the SEA, I value the support of my daughter Anna, Dodoy and Dita Marabi, Lot
Villabrille, Bebe Gictenta, Joy Onozawa, Socorro Atega, Ace Durano, Lourdes Manulat, Cindy Pepito,
Pereg Noynay, Martin Alfaro, Freddie Maranon, Doc Angel Alcala, Domi Chua, Bonar Laureto, Tata Morandarte, Ramon Tinga, Geralyn Escario, Erlinda Giducos, Vivienne Zerrudo, Winnie Pastor, Nilo Arribas,
Panchito Puckett, Jurgenne Primavera, Ed Hagedorn, Rene Mercado, Boy Montejo, Jenny Franco andmany others.
Their names are forever etched on the marble Wall of Honor in the School of the SEA in
Bantayan.
One of the main parts of the school is the evolving Art Center for the Earth. It is envisioned to bea venue for budding artists – children and adults alike.
In this new phase, I am working with artists Fernando Sena, Golda King, Anya Lim, Teacher Emma
Gutierrez, Adrian Rubio, Sir G Gonzalez, Junyee, Loren Legarda and many more. This is an evolving
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dream to showcase the best of the Philippines and of the Filipinos through the medium in which they areso natural – the expression of beauty through Art. Art is the food of the Heart, as music is the languageof the Soul.
Road Sharing Movement
In the Bayanihan sa Daan (Road Sharing) Movement, I’ve met great friends and fellow
revolutionaries who believe we can turn around the car-fueled madness in the world today. They are
Paulo Burro, Elen Basug, JL Contento, Karen and Rosar Crisostomo, Cora Jimenez, Danielle Guillen,
Patrick Joson, Raquel Naciongayo, May Sangalang, Val Cruz, Grace Anastacio, Paulo Alcazaren, Tara
Rama, Joy Onozawa, Maritoni Corominas, Randy Su, Kat Dematera, Glynda Bathan, Vicky Segovia,
Brian Yuson, Clink Hagedorn, Mike Rama, Marc Canton, Rudy and Louella Alix, Buda Lebumfacil, Gene
Tabada, Rene Mercado, Emerson Carlos, Tina Diaz, Bryan Montances, Wilmon Peñalosa, Tisoi Sy, Randy
Yap, Rock Drilon, Jay Trenas, Edna Lee, Ron Sebastian, Romy Armamento, Nida Quibic, Neric Acosta,
Marky Castaner, Mark Tinao, Robie Siy and his son Anthony Siy, GC (Mike) Kim, Alex Yague, Merva Arapo,
Ian Cruz, Mark Tinao, Yeb Sano, Mario Montejo, Babes Singson, Frank Drilon, Jeb Mabilog, Noel Hechanova, Jonathan Bulos, Gerard Mosquera, Myles Teologio, Pia Cayetano, Karen Sarinas, Tess Trinidad,
Franco Sarmiento, Cesar Sarmiento, Rachel Sibugan, Loren Legarda, Cynthia Villar and Julia Nebrija.
Edible Landscaping and Rain Gardens
In this effort to green the surroundings, I’ve had the chance to work with heart-and-mind people
like Dodong Toledo, Babes Singson, Velenda Calimlim, Boyet Gawaran, Sammy Pacilan, Nong Jun
Davide, the Yu family, Rubi Palafox and Dodoy Marabi. Given a little government support, the idea of
edible landscaping and rain gardens will become a trend. With sustained effort, the culture of goingback to the soil for our food will be ingrained in communities. We will become the models for the world.
Climate Justice for Future Generations
This wild idea of suing the whole world with the world “wanting to be sued” has turned into a
non-adversarial but fun adventure to stir legal proceedings in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
I’ve rekindled friendships and made new ones to advocate Climate Justice. Among these allies are245Antony Bartholemeuz, Frances Lawson, Philippe Sands, Farhana Yamin, Richard Harvey (UK), Romina
Picolotti (Argentina), Rafael Asenjo (Chile), Antonio Benjamin (Brazil), Mike Gerrard, Nick Robinson,
Paul Reichler, Carroll Muffett, Alyssa Johl, Karin Cicelski, Matt Pawa, Alix Contumaccio, John Bonine,
Liz Brown, Julia Olson, Mary Wood (USA), Nicky Peart (South Africa), MC Mehta (India), Lye Lin Heng
and Koh Kheng Lian (Singapore), Brian Preston, Justin Rose and Ben Boer (Australia), Kristin Casper(Canada), Asterio Takesy, Kandhi Eliesar, Andrew Yatilman, Tilson Kephas, Jun Baculando, Uncle Walter,
David Forman, Denise Antolini, Mike Wilson (Pacific Island States) and Rida Derder (Morocco, Northern
Africa).
The list is still growing. Yes, the time for talk is over.
The movement has been sidelined by a recent health episode of one of the key players. This
needs someone with the energy, the heart and the imagination to make it happen. Calling for volunteers!
Book Writing
In 1998, the decision to quit my commercial law practice and write two books was a foolish leapof faith. I made sure my family had something to eat, but professionally I was broke. I moved to a new
office near my house and went to work on A Legal Arsenal for the Philippine Environment and The Laws
of Nature and Other Stories.
In Bantayan where I invited longtime friend Maning Go to our home, I told him of my decision
to give up a law practice to finish writing my books. When he learned that I couldn’t afford to pay for a
research assistant, he promised to help. Maning introduced me to the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation (RAFI).
And so both books got finished. Special thanks to John Boyd, Narsing Alfaro, Cindy Cabote, George
Tapan and Sonny Alvarez in this project.
And thank you, Bai Maning, for opening many doors.
When it was time to get my work published, I could not find a publisher who would agree to waive
copyright of the books and allow people to photocopy any of its content. I believe that knowledge,
like love, are the only ‘commodities’ that increase in value when shared. Again, I was stumped without
resources. (I did not want to ask RAFI for more help.)
246Luckily, I inherited a piece of land in Ormoc City from my grandmother, Mama Ing. The property
sale came just in time. I decided to spend the proceeds for publication of the books, a good idea.
Both books finally saw print in 2002 and 2003. The mistake, however, was to give away many
copies for free. I realized that when things are given away for free (like Air and Water), people don’t givethem much value and tend to waste them.
Like any misstep, this was a step in the right direction … for next time.
I recovered a fraction of what I had spent for the books. As taught by Papa Oto, what is importantis not how much you earn, but how much you save, and how well you use what you have. So, I decided
to use all the book proceeds to set up the marine sanctuary in front of the School of the SEA.
It is not immodest to say that this marine sanctuary is one of the best-protected marine areas in the
Visayan Sea. It is to the credit of my brother marine mammal and buddy Dodoy Marabi, who guards overthe sea with eagle eyes and a daring heart 24/7. We have since called it the Jojo de la Victoria Marine
Sanctuary in honor of our fallen comrade.
Writing
Many people have inspired me in the art of writing. Among them was my early high school teacher Nerissa Camins who believed I could write. (Me, write? In high school, I received the lowest conduct
grade ever given in the school’s history).
In the UP College of Law, Professor Ruben F. Balane was a genius. His knowledge of Civil Law
was surpassed only by his knowledge of and love for Literature and Philosophy. A very special mention
for my dearest professor Flery Romero. As then Director of the UP Law Center, she wrote to me, a mere
student, a letter of congratulations and thanks for organizing my fellow law students to plant the seven
Talisay trees that now adorn the Center. That showed me the power of good words to light up the candleof courage and inspired me to pursue it with the Pasalamat sa Katauhan movement. And there were my
fun classmates Dennis Mesina, the natural born philosopher, and Cesar David, the natural born lawyer,
who introduced me to good books.

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People like Durwood Zaelke, Nick Robinson, Philippe Sands, Gus Speth, Oliver Houck, Cliff Villa
and Lye Lin Heng, who are lawyers and authors, have inspired me to continue writing.
This Book
The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. has become a partner in the vision of the School of the SEA.
Several years ago, RAFI generously offered to help ‘institutionalize’ the school. I am probably the only
grantee of RAFI who returned grant funds.
Since then, we have become close partners in many endeavors. This book is one of them.
Thank you, Don Ramon Aboitiz, for the vision of putting up the foundation 50 years ago. And
thank you to your worthy successor, Bobby Aboitiz. With Bobby and his team, who share your vision– Domi Chua, Evelyn Castro, Ron Calumpang, Rianne Tecson, Carol Ballesteros, Rochie Glico, Amaya Aboitiz, Anton Dignadice, Joy Gerra and the hundreds of RAFI staff, friends and allies – RAFI ismaking a big impact. In their network of brilliant friends are Dr. Resil Mojares and the Happy Garaje
couple Johanna and Mark Deutsch.
The Happy Garaje tandem that handled the visual design of the book is beyond brilliant. Theirskill level is of the highest order; they are natural talents. When we needed an illustrator, the right personcame along. Art professor Radel Paredes doesn’t just draw and paint, he writes an opinion column, a rarecombination.
‘Nong (elder brother) Resil Mojares is a genuine treasure of a writer and a source of great pride for
Cebu and the Philippines. He gave me wise counsel on how to proceed with the book.
When I asked him in early 2016 to suggest a good editor, he pointed to Eileen Mangubat, agood friend I’ve known since her early days as a reporter. She went on to become editor in chief andpublisher of an independent community news-paper in Cebu, one whose icon is a native songbird, theSiloy or Black Shama, which is a crtically endangered species. The book narrative was ready for her
review. By coincidence, Eileen had just started early retirement and was available for the project.
The order and finesse you may find in this book is the product of her painstaking editing,wonderful suggestions, and love and caring for the Earth. The team was completed with designer
Gilbert Chua and proofreader Melissa Gurrea.
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The stories continue to unfold.
Together, my friends, the stories will be told.
Throughout my long walk, I have been guided by my brothers Durwood Zaelke, Mario King, Martin
Alfaro, Mike Frizzell, Ed Hagedorn, Junyee, Jun Davide, Nick Robinson, and sisters Peregrina Noynay,
Loren Legarda, Golly Ramos and Lin Heng, among others. They have been constant companions
throughout the Magic Mountain ride of my life on Earth.
Behind every success of a man is a woman. In my case, behind whatever honors I have received,
is a woman … who is rolling her eyes.
Greely Remulla-Oposa is the yin of my yang. As my beloved wife, friend, adviser and partner, she
can be my harshest critic but is also my staunchest supporter. Without her organized brain, I would still
be in high altitude, floating about. In my small boat, she is the sail that gathers up the wind and keeps us
on course. Because of her, our four children were raised to become decent, dedicated and productive
members of human society.
Greely has put up with my frequent and extended absences from home. One day, I was asked
what I considered my highest achievement. Which cases, awards? None of that. It is that my wife has not
yet kicked me out of the house. A woman less strong and less secure would have tossed out my clothes
a long time ago.
As we begin our ride in the afternoon of life, we look back. With the power of 20-20 vision fromhindsight, it’s but right to ask: What have I done with my life?
I can only answer, “Much, but not much.” In fact, I have done so little.
If there is anything I am doing right, it is that I proudly present to the world my children – Tonyboy,
Anna, Uli and Kiano. It is my hope that they will carry on the ‘play projects’ that we started: The Schoolof the SEA, the SEA CAMP program, the Tagasa Bird Sanctuary, Jojo’s Marine Sanctuary, a proposed
Community Food Garden and a model eco-village. Or that they find their path and follow it with theirhearts. That is all that matters.

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Most of all, dear reader, I thank you for getting this far in ourstorytelling session. Please feel free to get in touch with me toshare your own story.
Thank you, dear friends, brothers and sisters
All in the family of humankind.
Thank you, dear friends, for walking with me
All throughout this journey,
Thank you, dear friends, for walking with me to
The world we want.
Mabuhay!

25 January 2017
School of the SEA
Bantayan Island
tonyoposa1024@gmail.com

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251

GLOSSARYBANTAYAN – A Filipino word whose root word‘bantay’ means to safeguard and to care for. Whenthe accent is on the first syllable, Bantayan is theactive verb meaning ‘to guard over.’

CPR ECONOMICS – The economics ofConservation, Protection and Restoration of the
Sources of Life on Earth – Land, Air and Waters.
The opposite of Ex-Con Economics.

When the accent is on the second syllable, theword refers to an island in Central Philippines in the
Visayan Sea, the geographic heart of the richest
marine waters on Earth.

EX-CON ECONOMICS – Today’s model of
economics that engages in reckless extraction andmindless consumption of natural resources. Thissystem hereby stands convicted of the crime ofplanetary plunder.

It is the island where I have a home on the beachand the School of the SEA.
Visayan Sea

Bantayan

GDP – Commonly known as ‘Gross Domestic
Product.’ This standard is used by countries tomeasure the total goods and services produced,
the energy and material used and consumed, allgauged by money.
It also means ‘Great Disaster for the Planet.’
This flawed standard measures the quantity of what
is produced and used, and thrown away. It does
not measure quality.

CAR-DIAC ARREST – The state of trafficparalysis in countries due to the uncontrolled
volume of cars.
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ICJ Movement – ICJ stands for Intergenerational Climate Justice. It also means theInternational Court of Justice based in theHague, The Netherlands. This movement of crack
international environmental lawyers and ordinary
citizens will bring the emergency issue of Climate
Change before the highest court in the world.
It will engage the youth of the world in acts ofenlightened citizenship to protect the Sources ofLife for themselves, their children and generations
yet unborn.
LAW of Life – Land, Air and Waters. These are
the vital organs of the Earth, the delicate blendingof which makes possible all life on this planet. Takeout one or destroy the quality of any, then Life is no
more.
LOW-CONSUMING (LC) COUNTRIES – So-called‘developing countries’ with low consumption ofenergy and materials. They know the meaning ofwhat is enough for sustenance and avoid excess.
LC also means ‘Loving and Caring.’
OVER-CONSUMING (OC) COUNTRIES – Socalled ‘developed countries’ that consume moreenergy and materials than what humans need tolive. OC also stands for Obsessive-Compulsive
behavior, a psychological disorder characterized bysymptoms of excessive accumulation of material
things and a mania for control.
PERLAS – The Philippines is the beautiful Pearlof the Orient Seas or Perlas ng Silanganan. Its
currency in pesos is used in this book as pestehas.

PLANETARY PLUNDER – This high crime is theresult of the violence inflicted on Planet Earth in
the name of progress and development. We haveraided and laid to waste the elements of Life – Land,
Air and Water.
ROI – Ripples of Impact, not Return on Investment.
This is the ideal working principle in the use ofmoney. For every unit of currency spent (dollar,peso, euro), it must have an impact of at least 100
times. (Not 100 percent which would only be twotimes.)ROI is useful when you rely on your own meager
resources without external funding. To accomplish a goal, money alone is not important. What is
important is how we use it. Money – if not usedwell or left idle in a bank – is just a number.
ROI also means ‘Return on Inspiration.’ It measures
how much motivation is sparked by an action.
ROAD SHARING MOVEMENT – Its motto: Thosewith less in wheels must have more in roads.
This movement of ordinary citizens aims totransform society by improving public transportation, clearing and expanding sidewalks, andputting up bike lanes. It seeks to divide all roads byhalf. Motor vehicles and efficient public transportation will occupy half while the other half is space fornon-motorized mobility, i.e., pedestrian walkways,
wide sidewalks and safe bike lanes.
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In Filipino, it is Bayanihan sa Daan (cooperative
heroism on the roads).
School of the SEA – The environmental training
camp for the youth started in 2002 as the Bantayan
Island SEA Camp. SEA stands for Sea and Earth
Advocates. Volunteer teachers and friends held
learning sessions for children in summer.
With a donation from a friend, the School of the
SEA was inaugurated in a house made of bamboo
in the summer of 2007. In June 2008, TyphoonFrank destroyed it. Out of the ruins was built a
Climate Change House on concrete stilts. It survived intact during the 300-kilometer-per-hourwinds of Supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013.
The school has no tuition or classrooms. Sessions
are held under the trees, on the beach, beside thelagoon or on a glass bottom boat in a marine sanctuary. A 10-hectare Tagasa Wetland Wilderness andBird Park in the area is reserved for native wildlife.
The School of the SEA is evolving into an Art Center for the Earth and a Meeting Place on the Beach.
SEA CAMP – The original name of the environment training for youths held in Bantayan. It is now
called Sea and Earth Advocates of Culture, Arts andMusic for the Planet. As an activity of the Schoolof the SEA, this prepares youth leaders to be effective advocates. In their time, the new generation
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Coral Triangle

will protect and nurture the Sea and the Earth forthemselves, and for generations yet unborn.
This program, carried out by my daughter Anna,
reaches out to young ‘sea-tizens’ in Southeast Asia
(SEA). May good fortune smile on her and may theGreat Spirit bless her deeds.
VISAYAN SEA – A 1.3-million hectare body of sea
water in central Philippines.
Historically, it has the highest concentration of coral reef fishes in the world and spans the provincesof Cebu, Negros, Iloilo and Masbate. However, destructive fishing methods have reduced this wealth.

The Philippines is part of the Coral Triangle which
includes all or part of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei,
Timor L’Este, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon
Islands.
The Visayan Sea lies in the ‘center of the center ofmarine life’ on Earth. It is the heart of Perlas.
VISAYAN SEA SQUADRON – A volunteer groupof citizens made up of fishermen, scuba divers,
law enforcement officers, lawyers, local officials,
youth leaders and citizens who seek to protect andrestore the Visayan Sea.
Their stories of seaborne marine law enforcement
operations are the stuff of legend. In 2001, volunteer divers and marine biology students helped
conduct an underwater survey of the Visayan Sea.
They did this with hardly any funds but a full ‘war
chest’ of inspiration. The bio-survey provided baseline data for CPR efforts of the Visayan Sea.

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END NOTESPART 1 PAINTINGS ON CAVE WALLS
The origin of the quotation “Watch your thoughts...” hasbeen lost over the years. The words have been attributed
to various figures including Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu,
Buddha and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
		PART 4 STORY OF A MARINER
1. The term Conservation, Protection and Restoration(CPR) is from David Brower, the prominent American
environmentalist. I am extending the idea to propose a
new economic model.
2. “The State shall protect and advance the right of thepeople to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord
with the rhythm and harmony of Nature.” – Article 2,
Section 16 in the Declaration of Principles and State
Policies of the 1987 Philippine Constitution
3. The Climate Change House in Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island
was built after Typhoon Frank struck in 2008.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/66901/filipino-name-forstorm-surge
PART 5 ECONOMICS AS TUBERCULOSIS
1. Ten Earths. Nick Robins et al., Rethinking Paper Consumption at 8 (1996):‘Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and chair of the World Commission on Environment& Development, conveys the idea of ecological footprints even more powerfully:‘It is simply impossible for the world as a whole to sustain a Western level of consumption for all. In fact, if seven billion people were to consume as much energy andresources as we do in the West today we would needten worlds, not one, to satisfy all our needs.’
PART 6 PERLAS DEL MAR
1. The “tenfold” wealth of the Philippine’s biodiversity iscited in the study of Lawrence Heaney, Ph.D. and Jacinto Regalado Jr. in Vanishing Treasures of the Philippine
Rain Forest released in 1998 by the Field Museum ofChicago.
2. Dr. Kent Carpenter, associate professor of biological studies of the Old Dominion University in Virginia,
U.S.A., headed the study on biodiversity. He said,
256“Scientists have long known that the area in Southeast
Asia that includes Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippine Islands holds the richest marine biodiversity. I wasamazed to discover that the extreme center of this biodiversity is in the Philippines, rather than closer to theequator.” (ODU News 2005)
The 2005 report is based on a 10-year multi-disciplinary
study conducted for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Carpenter and Victor G. Springer of Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History
wrote the report Environmental Biology of Fishes.
“The Indo-Malay-Philippines Archipelago, or Coral Triangle has long been considered an area of high marine
biodiversity. Indonesia, because of its greater area, may
eventually be shown to have a greater overall marine
biodiversity than the Philippines. But there is a higher concentration per species per unit area in the Philippines, with the world’s highest concentration of marine
species – including fish, shrimp, crabs, seaweeds, corals,
sea turtles and sea snakes,” said Carpenter.
The area specified was the Verde Island sea passage
between the island of Mindoro and Batangas province.
Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature
www.iucn.org
PART 7 WAR STORIES
1. See Pedro Walpole’s article Low Forest Cover in the Philippines: Issues and Responses at the Community Levelin the website of the Institute of Environmental Science
for Social Change and its 1999 study Decline of the Philippine Forest.
2. “Bahala na si Batman” (Leave it to Batman) is a Filipino
slang expression made when one is faced with a hopeless or impossible situation and chooses to leave thematter to fate.
3. Minors Oposa et. al. vs. Factoran et. al., Supreme Courtof the Philippines, G.R. No. 101215, July 30, 1993. The
novel class suit was filed by 43 children through theirparents and guardians to compel Environment Secretary Fulgencio Factoran Jr. to cancel all timber license
agreements or logging permits in the country and tostop issuing new ones. Atty. Oposa and wife Rizalina,
along with their three minor sons and daughter - Juan
Antonio, Anna Rosario and Jose Alfonso - were among
the petitioners.
Battle for Manila Bay
4. This issue of legal standing to sue was not disputed by
the Office of the Solicitor General.
The Government’s duty to clean up rivers when the water quality has deteriorated is stated in Presidential Decree 1152 (Philippine Environment Code) of 1977. See
Section 17 - Upgrading of Water Quality and Section 20
Clean-up Operations.
5. The Supreme Court decision in G.R. Nos. 171947-48
Dec. 18, 2008 ordered petitioners Metro Manila Development Authority and other government agencies toclean up, rehabilitate and preserve Manila Bay. Further
orders were issued requiring each agency to submit
action plans and periodic progress reports.
Other (Mis) Adventures
Forest Lines
6. Congress’ role in defining the boundaries of forest lands
and national parks is found in Section 4, Article XII “National Economy and Patrimony” of the 1987 Philippine
Constitution.
7. The DENR announced it had completed the delineation of forest boundaries.
http://denr.gov.ph/newsand-features/latest-news/895-denr-completes-delineation-of-forest-line-boundaries-.html
Laguna Lake
8. Fish pens in Laguna Lake were declared illegal. See casedecision
http://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1995/dec1995/
gr_120865_71_1995.html

Bangus fry versus power barge
9. We lost all the way to the Supreme Court. See decision
http://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2003/jul2003/
gr_131442_2003.html
Beach Protection
10. Under Article 51 of the Water Code of the Philippines,“The banks of rivers and streams and the shores of theseas and lakes throughout their entire length…are subject to the easement of public use in the interest of recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing and salvage. No
person shall be allowed to stay in this zone longer thannecessary or to build structures of any kind. Presidential Decree No. 1067 series of 1976.
11. Front page story on the removal of beach structures
http://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/31327/denrdemolishes-resort-kiosks-in-bantayan/amp
Action for Forest Protection
12. Report on the extent of illegal logging and forest
law enforcement http://siteresources.worldbank.org/
INTINDONESIA/FLEG/20171557/Oscar_Embiddo.pdf
13. Chief Justice Andres Narvasa (+), Deputy Court Administrator Juanito Bernad (+) and my dear Professor
Myrna Feliciano
14. Paat vs Court of Appeals http://www.lawphil.net/
judjuris/juri1997/jan1997/gr_111107_1997.html
15. Rules of Court for Environmental Cases in the Philippines <http://www.chanrobles.com/scdecisions/rulesofcourt/2010/am_09-6-8-sc_2010.php >PART 11 STORIES OF CPR ECONOMICS
Megahalaya, India
https://asia.ifad.org “Meghalaya Livelihoods Improvement
Project in the Himalayas
Green Roofs
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/
offices-roofs-edible-garden-sustainable-cities257

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/20/francedecrees-new-rooftops-must-be-covered-in-plants-or-solarpanels
Bogotá Car-Free Day
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-livingblog/2010/jun/16/cycling-ethical-living
Paris
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pariscar-ban-on-champs-elysees-begins-in-battle-againstpollution-a7019491.html
No To Food Waste
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/
news/2014/10/141013-food-waste-national-securityenvironment-science-ngfood/
Malaysia car sharing
http://ens-newswire.com/2014/05/09/malaysia-to-roll-outelectric-car-sharing-program/Barcelona Superblocks
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/
superblocks-rescue-barcelona-spain-plan-give-streetsback-residents
http://www.bcnecologia.net/en/conceptual-model/
superblocks
Seoul, South Korea
Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project by Dr. In-Keun Lee
http://www.slideshare.net/simrc/cheong-gye-cheonrestoration-project
Mangroves and beach forests, Philippines
http://www.philstar.com/science-and-technology/
2013/12/19/1269584/shelter-storm-coastal-greenbeltsmangroves-and-beachBhutan Kingdom
http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com
PART 12 FINDING HAPPINESS
1. Robert Kennedy on Gross National Product (GNP)“Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in
the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross
National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a
year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge theUnited States of America by that - that Gross National
Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising,258

and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage...
“It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither
our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion
nor our devotion to our country, it measures everythingin short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/
Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Robert-FKennedy-at-the-University-of-Kansas-March-18-1968.
aspx
2. “Common good” from Clifford Pinchot’s definitionof “conservation” is found in his book Breaking New
Ground. Pinchot was the founding Chief of the U.S.
Forest Service.
3. “I can look up (to the heavens) and see their beauty....” is based on a quote from Louisa May Alcott,American novelist
4. “What the mind can achieve....” is a quote with many
variations. It has been attributed to Napoleon Hill, Muhammad Ali, and Janet Jackson among others.
PART 13 ROAD SHARING MOVEMENT
1. Bradford C. Snell, Hearings on the Ground Transportation Industries in Connection with S1167 Before theS. Subcomm. on Antitrust & Monopoly, 93rd Cong.
2 (1974) (statement of Bradford C. Snell); The Street
Car Conspiracy: How General Motors Deliberately Destroyed Public Transit, THE NEW ELECTRIC RAILWAY
J. (1995). Snell’s account has been both confirmed andcontested by subsequent historians. See Guy Span,
Paving the Way for Buses – The Great GM Streetcar
Conspiracy, Parts I & II, BAYCROSSINGS (2003), dismissing Snell as a conspiracy theorist but then concluding: “Clearly, GM waged a war on electric traction. It
was indeed an all-out assault, but by no means the single reason for the failure of rapid transit.” As for the
existence of the conspiracy that Snell alleged, it was
found to be quite real, and criminal, by both a trial jury
and a federal appellate court on review. 186 F. 2d 182.
Thank you to Prof. Oliver Houck, Professor of Law of
Tulane University, for this information and citation.

2. Sen. Ralph Recto speaking at the 6th Philippine Motor
Show, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sept. 17, 2016.
3. A study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) estimated the economic cost of traffic congestion in Metro Manila at 2.4 billion pesos per day
in 2012. http://www.rappler.com/business/economywatch/51824-ph-cost-traffic-jica
An updated view in 2016 by Metro Manila transport
officials placed the loss at 3 billion pesos per day. In
one year, the cost would then reach P1.09 trillion (alsocalled pestehas in Perlas). This is about one-third of
the annual budget of the Philippines of P3 trillion foryear 2017.At an exchange rate of 50 pesos to US$1,
the amount of money wasted in traffic reaches US$21.9
billion a year.
4. The impact of motor vehicles causing 50 percent ofgreenhouse gases is contained in a judicial affidavit ofa member of the Nobel Prize-winning UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This wasevidence submitted in the Road Sharing Petition filed
in the Supreme Court of the Philippines on Feb. 17,
2014 to compel the Government to divide all roads
by half – half for motor vehicles and half for walkways,
bikeways and edible gardens.
5. The Presidential Task Force on Climate Change was reorganized under Executive Order 774 issued in 2008by then Philippine President Gloria M. Arroyo. Three
government agencies were tasked to carry out reforms
in the transportation sector.
6. Petition to implement road sharing filed in the Supreme Court of the Philippines
http://www.interaksyon.com/assets/documents/
notice-to-sue-final-notice-to-sue-july-102c-2013.pdf
7. Sen. Loren Legarda is a champion of climate change
adaptation, the environment and disaster risk management.
8. Youths in Sta. Fe, Bantayan island lead road-sharing
exercise.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/786813/on-resort-islandroad-sharing-advocates-test-law

PAINTINGS
By the Author
Boat at sea in Bantayan
Part 1		
Part 2		
Waterfall		
Lilies in green pond
Part 3		
Hawaii coastline
Part 5		
Lone sail boat at sunset
Part 7		
Purple, red sunset		
Sailboat under the moonPart 9Blue mountain and sea
Part 10		
Laughing clouds
Part 12
Vanishing islands
Part 13
How a rain garden works
		A design for shared roads
		Yellow and orange sunrise over the sea
		Banca on the shore
Coconut trees and sunset
Part 15		
Acknowledgment
Blue, red, yellow sunset over Bantayan
Fishing boat and seascape
ILLUSTRATIONSRadel ParedesPart 12		
		
		
		
		
		
		
Part 13								Part 14		
Part 16

Ladder of Longing
Road sharing in action(3 black/white frames)
Slice of life:
Edible garden and community activities
Buses, bikes, pedestrians in shared road
Water tanks, windmills, vertical garden
Three people and a leverComparison of man standing, sitting,
driving a car
Seedlings for farmer
Feverish Earth (title page)
Draw the world you want to see

Happy Garaje
Part 1
Lao Tzu
Part 2
Green skyline, fish and bones (title page)
Part 13		
Boy on the road
Glossary
Map of Cebu in Visayan Sea

259

PHOTOSSeveral images used in the book were secured from online
sites covered under Creative Commons License or in the
Public Domain except the following:
Part 4
Portrait of a mariner, Papa Oto (Oposa family collection)
By the Author:
Three trees in School of the SEA
Volunteers make fish condominiums
Wetlands in Sta. Fe, Bantayan
Part 6
Sardine Run in Moalboal, Cebu by Ferdinand Edralin,
OceanaCebu Hawk Owl by Godfrey Jakosalem c/o Cebu Provincial
Tourism Office
Cebu Frill-winged Damselfly by Reagan Joseph T.
Villanueva c/o Cebu Provincial Tourism Office
Pied Triller by Nilo Arribas Jr.
Green Sea Turtle, Danny Ocampo, OceanaPart 7
Forest cover maps, Institute of Environmental Science forSocial Change, Ateneo de Manila University
Philippine map showing the epicenter of marine life basedon a study by Dr. Kent Carpenter. The red color, mostintense at the center in the Visayan Sea, showsthe “pattern of species richness based on samplingin early to mid1900s (Carpenter and Springer 2005).”
Powerpoint slide of Dr. Porfirio Aliño of the Marine
Science Institute, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Imus River with trash, Tony Oposa		
Cebu Daily News front page, May 29, 2010 issue, © 2010
Cebu Daily News
Bantayan Art Center for the Earth by Radel ParedesCampo 7 experimental forest by Rudy Alix. Part of the
100-year-old Osmeña Reforestation Project inMinglanilla, south Cebu
Illegal fish pens in Laguna Lake, Laguna Lake Development
Authority
Birds in Laguna Lake by Lenny Borja
260

Part 9Map of Sea Surface Heat, National Oceanographic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the UnitedStates
Copy of painting of the Cebu Flowerpecker c/o Cebu
Provincial Tourism Office
Biker on Amsterdam road, Tony Oposa
Part 11
Cheonggyecheon River, GC (Mike) Kim
School of fish by Ferdinand Edralin, Oceana
Discovery Bay street scene by Jojo Sevilla
By Tony Oposa:
Carpenter Bridge, Iloilo
Iloilo River Esplanade
Las Ramblas, Barcelona
Part 12
Low tide in Sta. Fe, Bantayan by Oggie, OceanaPart 13Road sharing in Roxas Boulevard, Manila by Marianne
Juliet Bermudez, © 2016 Philippine Daily Inquirer,
online edition Feb.8, 2016
Rice cakes (bibingka) cooking in stoves in Mandaue City
by Rudy Alix
Community garden in Bolzano, Italy by Hilary Solly. Photoshows members of the Orto Semirurali Garten
managed by the Association Donne Nissa.
Swimming pool makeover as edible garden in theresidence of Eleanor Rivera in Lahug, Cebu City.
Landscape design and photo by Michelle Domocol,
michelledomocol.carbonmade.coChildren harvest bokchoy in organic garden of Healing
Present Nature and Wellness Farm in Balamban, Cebu.
Photo courtesy of founder Eleanor Rivera
Philippine Daily Inquirer front page, Feb. 18, 2014 issue© 2014 Philippine Daily Inquirer
Cebu Daily News front page, Sept. 29, 2014 issue © 2014
Cebu Daily News
From contributors:
No sidewalks in urban Philippine roads
Local youths paint lanes in Bantayan
Philippine hybrid road train

By Tony Oposa:
Man-made pond with lilies in Bantayan
Sidewalks and bike paths in Paris and Barcelona
Pasig City road sharing event
Road trains in Shanghai and Oslo
Las Ramblas in Barcelona
Pedestrian road in Malaga, Spain
Part 14People on seashore by Ferdinand Edralin, Oceana
Fisherman’s boat in mangroves by Ferdinand Edralin,
OceanaPart 15
Bantayan Art Center sign by Radel Paredes
Trees in Bantayan School of the SEA by Radel ParedesPart 16
Fishermen and sunset by Ferdinand Edralin, Oceana
Glossary
Map of Coral Triangle from contributor
Map of Visayan Sea from Dr. Porfirio Aliño (Map details
enhanced for this book)261

‘The wise man goes to the mountain,
the happy man goes to the sea.’

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