Founder/Managing Editor, WISDOM
Website: www.wisdommpdc.blogspot.com
Email add: wisdommindanao@yahoo.com
Sulu is considered one of the most riches coastal zones among the 822 coastal municipalities in the Philippines. In spite of its affluence, however, it is also the poorest coastal residents, nationwide, due to non-implementation of the following coastal resources management by the local officials:
1. Provincial Strategic Fisheries Development zones.
2. Provincial Coastal Resources Management Projects.
3. Strong and Active provincial law enforcement (agents) council.
On the other hand, there has also been misused of the Motor Vehicles User's Charge (MVUC). RA 8794 specifies that the road tax should be used solely and exclusively for road maintenance and improvement of road drainage, installations of adequate and efficient traffic lights, road safety devices and air pollution control. Installations of road safety signs and devices were mandated by the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals of which the Philippines was a signatory to that convention.
Further, non-implementation of the solid waste management programs and material recovery facilities (MRFs) are gross violations of RA 9003. The Ecological Solid Management Act of 2000 specifically requires all local governments to establish the said facilities and under RA 6716, rainwater collection facility must likewise be established or installed as deterrent for flashflood in the area prone to flood water.
The above scenario is the grim outlook of Sulu today and tomorrow. Unless the academes and other professionals in our society shall detach their emotional attachment to anyone who perceives himself to be demigod for dependence and need to cooperate for survival and bind themselves with the wisdom of a 25 years old David Tseng, terminally ill patient said:" I think what matters in life is its value, not how long it is, so we should cherish the time we have and do something good. I finished college and write a book... I didn’t live in vain".
Today, I hope that the wisdom of David Tseng be engraved in the hearts and minds of our academes and other professionals not just standing all day and saying nothing.
It is a high time now to bring back the past glories and splendors of Sulu!
