WE MUST PROTECT AND SAFEGUARD MT. APO FOR THE NEXT GENERATIONS

I am amused that my satirical article on my opposition to the construction of the 7-kilometer stairway to the peak of Mt. Apo caused so much misunderstanding among the readers and followers of this page.

Several posters thought that I was serious in proposing the construction of an escalator instead of the stairway as proposed by the tourism office of the City Government of Kidapawan.

By jokingly proposing an escalator instead, I was actually being satirical and was just trying to emphasize the lunacy of the idea of building a concrete stairway to the peak of the country’s highest mountain.

To make things clear, I will state here categorically: I OPPOSE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE STAIRWAY TO THE PEAK OF MT. APO.

Leave Mt. Apo as it is. We do not own this mountain, not the city of Kidapawan and not the Province of Cotabato.

The Filipinos of this generation are only custodians of this great mountain.

This beautiful and majestic mountain is owned by the next generations of Filipino and on their behalf, legal minds could stop anybody from defacing or destroying the mountain.

There is a legal precedent on the doctrine of generational responsibility in the protection of the environment when a Filipino lawyer filed a suit before the Supreme Court to stop the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources from issuing more timber licenses.

The Supreme Court ruled in his favor and said that the unborn generations of Filipinos have the right to be protected from the ill-effects of a damaged environment.

Come to think of this: If we reshape Mt. Apo and destroy its natural beauty, what answer would we give our grandchildren when they ask: “How did Mt. Apo look like before there was a concrete stairway and before all of these concrete structures were built along the way?”

There is nothing political about this, as some posters suspect. What has politics got to do about protecting nature and the environment?

The proponents of the 7-kilometer concrete stairway to the peak of Mt. Apo should be warned that they will be faced with legal suits supported by a Supreme Court jurisprudence.

Please do not destroy Mt. Apo. Let my grandchildren see the natural beauty of this majestic mountain.