I was in the middle of a class and one of my students was about to do a singing activity when the building started to shake a little and it took me a couple of seconds more before I shouted to the class that there was an earthquake.

Everybody panicked but I told them to stay in the room. We were in the fourth floor of a building. I was afraid there might be a stampede along the stairs so I insisted that everybody stay in the room.

When the temblor subsided, I ordered the class to go down as fast as they could. According to initial reports, the quake was magnitude 6 and had its epicenter in Pangasinan.

This temblor brings to memory the July 16, 1990 earthquake which brought Dagupan City down to one of the worst hit cities.

The panic caused by the quake aggravated the fear of many in Luzon after two typhoons ravaged the island and leaving lives and properties terribly affected.

Let us all pray to God that the people will be able to bear the trauma caused by these natural calamities. Pray also that people will learn something from these experiences. God is probably sending a clear message to everyone.

Efforts to contain the oil spill in Guimaras Island are so concentrated that there seems to be nothing being done with what could be a bigger oil spill problem.

While it is true that the Guimaras oil spill is of such a big magnitude and that moves to control the effect of the spilled oil must be drastic and effective, we have to contend with another fact that oil is not only spilled by marine accidents involving oil tankers.

There is what we call the chronic oil spill problem. Not many of us know that oil is spilled along highways and other thoroughfares. Road oil spill comes out of leakages from engines and this spillage go all the way to the sea.

When rain pours, the oil on the road is washed away to the sewerage system which find their connections to inland waterways which in turn bring the oil to the sea.

Factories that use engines have to change their used oil and we just wonder how they go about the used oil disposal. Our simple logic tells us that many of these establishments dispose of their used oil through public sewers which, again, bring the contaminated waters to the sea.

We also wonder how our car care centers dispose used oil from the vehicles of their clients. If they just pour in the oil into the same public sewers, then they also contribute to the chronic oil spill problem.

The case is just as easily exhibited by the pathetic state of the Pasig River and other affected rivers in the country. The Manila Bay also shows its own share of the problem.

And before we even think of the magnitude of the Guimaras oil spill, let us not forget that this chronic oil spill happens everyday, in every urbanized and developing community across the nation.

I don’t know but if there is an honest to goodness research to be done about the chronic oil spill problem of the nation, I am positive that it will dwarf what we see to be a gigantic Guimaras oil spill problem.

If the Clean Air Act is any indication, then it is about time that the true state of our national waters should be studied and effective oil spill control measures should be implemented before we end up praying to God for a completely new environment.

The following is part of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, a Philippine Biodiversity Report of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, the Conservation International, Biodiversity Conservation Program-University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies, and the Foundation for the Philippine Environment.  Editors-in-chief are Perry Ong, Leticia Afuang and Ruth Grace Rosell-Ambal and Technical Editors are Prescillano Samora and Carly Vynne.

The Philippines is the second largest archipelago next to Indonesia.  It is composed of 7,107 islands and islets covering a total land area of 300,000 sq.km.  It has an exceptionally long coastline of approximately 18,000 km.

The larger islands have rugged mountainous interiors, most ranges running north to south with numerous peaks emerging above hills and valleys which in turn rise from the narrow coastal plains, broader interior plains, and major valleys.  A majority of the islands have extensive offshore coral reefs.  The combination of its complex geological origins, fragmented layout, varying exposures to shifting winds and typhoons and the peculiar distribution of rainfall, has given rise to the existence of a complex mix of ecosystems and habitat types, home to a diversity of lifeforms.  It is estimated that about half of the country’s wildlife and plant diversity are endemic to the archipelago and found nowhere else in the world.

Almost every major island in the country possesses unique species with high percentages of local endemicity, resulting in distinct biogeographical regions and subregions.  Based on the distribution of the marine taxa and the terrestrial floral and faunal assemblages, six distinct marine regions were identified, while 16 terrestrial biogeographical regions and 30 subregions were delineated.  In terms of cultural diversity, the country is home to an estimated 127 ethnic groups and subgroups.

The Philippines’ remaining biodiversity and the ecosystems that support it are under tremendous threats.  Extractive industries such as logging and mining have destroyed most of the forests.  High human population density and growth rate further put enormous pressure on the land.  In turn, rainforests have been converted to agriculture and plantations to augment the lack of land to support a growing population.  In addition, cyanide and dynamite fishing, along with rapid development in coastal areas, destroyed coral reefs and mangroves.  Conservative land and resource-use trend projections indicate that profound degradation of the country’s biogeographic regions will occur in approximately 10-15 years.  Because of the dire conditions of Philippine biodiversity, Eugene Linden (an environmental journalist) and John Terborgh (a plant ecologist) have written-off the country as being damaged beyond repair.  However, we disagree with their prognosis and believe that there is a small window of opportunity, through urgent conservation actions, to stem the tide and destruction before a point of no return is reached.

The Philippine Government’s initiatives to protect and conserve biodiversity are embodied in its Philippine Agenda 21.  It also developed its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) in 1997.  However, the Action Plan did not include geographical information on the areas that needed the most urgent attention and conservation measures.

In response, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (DENR-PAWB), together with Conservation International Philippines and the Biodiversity Conservation Program of the University of the Philippines-Center for Integrative and Development Studies (BCP-UP CIDS) convened the Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Priority-Setting Program (PBCPP).

The PBCPP put together the results of 18 months of data gathering and consultation process, involving more than 300 individuals representing over 100 institutions.  Participants from national government agencies, non-government organizations, people’s organizations, the academe, private sector and donor community joined local and international scientists during the whole exercise.

The PBCPP is a major breakthrough in the country’s conservation efforts. For the first time, experts from the three major ecosystems (terrestrial, inland waters and marine) and the stakeholders within them were able to plan together and discuss priorities and strategies for biodiversity conservation.  The process of identification and definition of the national priority areas, as well as the strategic actions for conserving Philippine Biodiversity were participatory, making the decisions and choices a national consensus.

Furthermore, the PBCPP validated two very important facts:

1. because of its complex geological history and archipelagic nature, the Philippines is indeed a megadiversity country with several centers and sub-centers of endemism and biological diversity in the terrestrial, inland waters and marine realms; and
2. the Philppines is the hottest of the global biodiversity hotspots because of the enormous threats to its biodiversity.  The urgency to conserve and protect the Philippines’ biodiversity cannot be overemphasized.

In the end, when species lists and maps of priority areas are drawn and conservation priorities are established and finalized, the responsibility of making these priorities a reality lies with the Filipino people.  The PBCPP is a critical first step towards meeting the challenge and averting the biodiversity crisis from a point of no return.