People Power for Clean Air
Apr. 20, 2007

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines congratulates the Metro Manila Anti-Smoke Belching Association, the Partnership for Clean Air and the IBP National Environmental Action Team (IBP-NEAT) for their commitment to clean air and to the preservation of nature, particularly in the country’s biggest metropolis.

The Integrated Bar takes this opportunity to express its solidarity with this cause. And we wish to state once more our commitment to assist in the education and legal requirements of the advocacy for the protection of the environment and its preservation for future generation.

It is the British inventor and writer Arthur C. Clarke, perhaps, who has summarized best the reason behind our shared commitment to this cause. He wrote:

"Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal. "

The urgency of the need for cooperation and collaboration for the protection and preservation of the environment was underscored early on by pioneer American ecologist Rachel Carson, who as early as 1962 was already warning the world with these words:

"The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible.”

It is for this reason that the Philippines’ legal community has placed its best minds behind the crusade for environmental protection. It is our view that the pollution of the air and the destruction of the environment is an even more serious crime than those committed against persons and property. This is because when we allow the destruction of the quality of the air that we breathe, we allow the commission of a crime not only against this generation but also the next.

Perhaps, in crimes against nature and the environment, we have mostly allowed ourselves to be silent, passive accomplices.
The great American poet Robert Frost once wrote: "Nature is always hinting at us. It hints over and over again. And suddenly we take the hint. "

We are glad that many sectors in our country has “taken nature’s hint”, finally. And it is encouraging that in passing on the hint to other sectors, several government agencies have taken the lead. We congratulate them, too, and express our support to their efforts. We cite in particular the program for the expanded use of bio-diesel and other forms of clean and renewable energy.

These are the most visible signs that we are responding aggressively to “nature’s hint”. And a most encouraging sign that we are protecting one of our most important legacies to the next generation: clean air and a preserved environment.

I close with a famous line from the American ecology pioneer I mentioned earlier – Rachel Carson. She has an important advice for all of us:

She said:

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. "

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines hopes that with each important step towards the preservation of our environment, we keep the beauty of our earth for future generations. And as we continue to contemplate on earth’s beauty, we remember the organizations and people who have inspired this crusade in the Philippines and elsewhere.

And we thank them for helping preserve the beauty of this planet so that we may continue to draw strength as long as life lasts.

Thank you and good day.