Bishop: Global warming is earth’s vengeance vs 'plunderers'
04/22/2008 | 07:57 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Global warming is just one of the ways the environment can get back at humanity for plundering the earth's resources, a Catholic bishop said as the Church marked Earth Day Tuesday.
Dipolog bishop and anti-mining advocate Jose Manguiran stressed this point amid rising concern over global warming.
"If humanity would continue to hurt and plunder the world, the world has its own way to get back at plunderers ... Man is not the savior of the world; in fact, the world saves man," he said in a statement posted Tuesday on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website.
He added that if man would just respect the harmony and inter-relationships of all the living beings and of all the life forms in this world, "then we become stewards."
Manguiran said that despite the Indigenous People's Rights Act, some areas where indigenous Filipinos live have already been given to mining and logging companies.
"Even in agriculture, just like in the 1970s, they (government officials) introduced the golden kuhol which they described as a rich source of protein but ended more of a pest to rice farmers," he added.
Manguiran also scored government for mismanagement of other development projects that has resulted in grinding poverty in the countryside.
"The mismanagement is caused by poor implementation (of development
projects) as there are already many guidelines, laws and policies in favor of the Filipino, in favor of the poor," he said.
He added the problem lies in the implementation of existing policies that "are not in favor of the poor but are in favor of the foreign investor or the Filipino rich." - GMANews.TV
Dipolog bishop and anti-mining advocate Jose Manguiran stressed this point amid rising concern over global warming.
"If humanity would continue to hurt and plunder the world, the world has its own way to get back at plunderers ... Man is not the savior of the world; in fact, the world saves man," he said in a statement posted Tuesday on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website.
He added that if man would just respect the harmony and inter-relationships of all the living beings and of all the life forms in this world, "then we become stewards."
Manguiran said that despite the Indigenous People's Rights Act, some areas where indigenous Filipinos live have already been given to mining and logging companies.
"Even in agriculture, just like in the 1970s, they (government officials) introduced the golden kuhol which they described as a rich source of protein but ended more of a pest to rice farmers," he added.
Manguiran also scored government for mismanagement of other development projects that has resulted in grinding poverty in the countryside.
"The mismanagement is caused by poor implementation (of development
projects) as there are already many guidelines, laws and policies in favor of the Filipino, in favor of the poor," he said.
He added the problem lies in the implementation of existing policies that "are not in favor of the poor but are in favor of the foreign investor or the Filipino rich." - GMANews.TV
