The state has a solemn duty to protect the environment, ensure fair processes, and resist the dominance of oligarchic interests that seek to monetize every square meter of land without regard for the people who call it home. Accountability and transparency, not impunity, must guide our approach, translating Bishop Elmer Mangalinao’s call for pananagutan, transparency, at tunay na hustisya into concrete action: independent investigations by the Philippine National Police in Nueva Vizcaya to assess due process and potential abuses in enforcing the court order, and clear, public reports from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Region II detailing the basis for permit decisions and any irregularities in mining exploration permits.
Procedural fairness remains essential; the dismantling of environmental activist barikadas cannot sanitize the moral and social consequences for communities—farmers and families who live with the land deserve meaningful consultation, meaningful hearing, and respect for local knowledge at every step of exploration. Environmental protection must be treated as a public good, not a commodity, with safeguards against water contamination, soil erosion, and long-term ecological damage, backed by robust monitoring, enforceable penalties, and independent oversight.
The current moment also tests our democratic resilience against oligarchic influence: governance must defend public welfare over private advantage and ensure licenses, permits, and enforcement reflect the common good, so that development proceeds with caution and accountability rather than speed and secrecy. The call for divine as well as human justice reminds us to ground policy in compassion for the poor—the subsistence farmers who depend on stable harvests and clean water, and the next generation that deserves a livable environment.
This moral framing should translate into concrete policy choices: rigorous, transparent permit frameworks; comprehensive environmental impact assessments; and accessible channels for community input that are recorded and revisited in decision-making. For policymakers, law enforcement, and regulators this means pursuing independent investigations with public findings and timelines for corrective action, clarifying permit frameworks with transparent explanations from DENR and MGB Region II, documenting community consultations, strengthening safeguards for communities through inclusive engagement and independent environmental monitoring, and ensuring proportional, rights-based policing that avoids escalations during protests. It also means promoting development pathways that diversify income for communities and prioritize sustainable practices, investing in local capacity building, and creating viable alternatives to environmentally risky projects so that people can participate in legitimate economic activities without compromising their health or heritage.
Public discourse should center on empowering local communities, funding and auditing environmental safeguards independently, and building a justice system that is accessible and legitimate to ordinary citizens, so that the law serves the many rather than the few. Protecting the environment is not a zero-sum game; it is a shared responsibility among the state, civil society, and the communities most affected, demanding accountability, transparency, and a justice that serves the common good beyond wealth, influence, and status. Bishop Mangalinao’s appeal serves as a reminder that the best defense of our environment is a government that acts with integrity, listens to its people, and places the long-term health of land and life above short-term gains, recognizing that environmental stewardship is a civic obligation that binds together generations and geographies in a common, imperfect yet earnest effort to live responsibly within the limits of our shared home.
