On These Concrete Benches

They used to sit here

These concrete benches

On Malcolm Square

Dad, Uncle Tony, Uncle Fred,

Uncle Bernard

Other uncles

One time I got wind

Of the old men’s conversation

It was about the successes of children

And grandchildren

They wore the crowns as their own

I could see it in the smiles

That showed the creases in their cheeks

At another time

They were raising their chalices

Of childhood memories

I could hear their stories breathing

With lives of their own

Drawing near the characters of the past

In a failed love

Or someone else’s failed love

There was always a story

Set in the years

That have abandoned them

Or which they abandoned

Like they were summoning the past

To be in the present

They used to sit here

On these concrete benches

Uncle Bernard stopped returning

Uncle Tony, too, in 2012

Dad, then Uncle Fred in 2013

Now I see only Uncle Basawil

Talking to an old man

Much younger than him

I am sure the past is with him

Breathing with a life of its own

And I wonder if I will see him again

When I pass this way

Next year

Strip DENR of power

^-AA⁺A

By Gerome M. Dalipe

Thursday, May 29, 2014

PARTICIPANTS of an environmental convention in Cebu City yesterday called on the Philippine Government to strip the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of its “power of environmental protection.”

Participants of the 2014 Environmental Law Talks III forum realized that one challenge to the environmental law enforcement in the country is the conflict between resource utilization and environmental protection.

DENR 7 Information Officer Eddie Llamedo said environmental protection is the agency’s mandate enshrined in the Constitution.

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It requires bicameral concurrence and presidential approval to remove the environmental protection power of the DENR, said Llamedo.

Instead of stripping DENR of its power, Llamedo urged environmental groups and lawyers to cooperate with the department in strengthening the enforcement of environmental laws.

Llamedo, local environmental lawyers, law students, government prosecutors and government agencies participated in the three-day environmental forum organized by the University of Cebu College of Law and the German foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

The forum bore the theme “Mainstreaming Environmental Justice through Science-based Participatory Governance and Effective Law Enforcement and Adjudication.”

A declaration drafted by lawyer Cheryl Daytec described Mother Earth as an ecological time bomb because of consumerist culture characterized by waste production that pollutes the environment.

Apart from stripping the DENR of its environmental power, they urged the government to create an independent agency that will enforce environmental laws.

The proposed independent agency should have a quasi-judicial power and centralized environmental authority.

State officials were urged to review the Philippine Development Plan to strengthen provisions on environmental justice promotion and active participation of communities and other stakeholders.

Local government units were encouraged to assume a frontline role in the protection of the environment being acquainted with local realities than the National Government.

Environmental lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos, coordinator of the Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc., said the Philippines, in its 2011-2014 Development Plan, admitted that enforcement of environmental laws and policies is inadequate.

“Weak rule of law and the failure of national institutions, including ineffective judicial system, are at the root of a culture of impunity,” said Ramos in her presentation.

DYING ON MT. OLYMPUS

Come on, don’t fool us

We, mortals, know

You are dying

You are. Dying

You wanted what you have now

So much. No, too much

You were so short of height

In the esteem of the gods

On the platform of servility, you stood

You were not tall enough still

You tiptoed then pushed yourself up

Like a serpent, you stretched your body

Until your whispers of platitudes

Reached the ears of the gods

With the tongue of a sycophant

You asked to kiss their hands

On their doorstep, you shed off

Your clothes

You whored your way

To the inner circles of Mount Olympus

You got them- the paper and pen

A table and a swivel chair

You learned to sign your name

In blood. Not yours

You walked above the ground

One hand holding high a trident

Anyone who saw it had to bow

Everyone saw it

Everyone who did not bow

Had to face your Olympian wrath

Occasionally, you would dine

With the gods and goddesses

On Mount Olympus

Breathing the air they breathe

You thought you became

One of them. Immortal.

Eternity-bound

That was when

You started dying

You are dying

Your feet can no longer take you

To the barren ricefields

That kept you alive

When the pull of death was strong

Or the slums which gave you a home

When the affluent doors were closed

You are blind; you no longer see

Shame in the starvation of many

Amidst the opulence of a few

You are deaf; you hear obedience

From the silence of the poor

Deaf to the slander and indictment

Pronounced by their grumbling hunger

You lost your hands; you can no longer

Embrace your brothers and sisters

Shivering in the cold

And what happened to your tongue?

You were fluent in justice

You coopted its lexicon

To mask your evil ways

Now, among mortals, you speak

Only the language of tyrants

Among gods, the language of slaves

You lost your mind; you think power

Is oppression over submission

An elephant over a hapless ant

An entitlement of wealth

To steal from hunger

You lost your heart

You sow fear rather than reap love

You set foot on Mt Olympus

You are now immortal. And

You are dying

You are. Dying.

THE EXPRESSIONS

Our baby, Kathlea Francynn Gawani, 11,  expressed her feelings over the news that Ate Rachel, her loyal and efficient carer, is leaving. Rachel's father is seriously sick and needs to be cared for. She says Gawani drew faces on these eggs while asking repeatedly if she was indeed going away soon.