However, there are three fundamental problems not addressed:

1. That major disasters will continue unabated;
2. The further socio-economic marginalization of millions of people who lack basic human needs and security of livelihood and who will be lowered into greater deprivation, untouched by government programs;
3. And of course corruption, the elephant in the room, that is not addressed. The death of former DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes shows how deep, how complex, and how beyond the law, corruption is.

In the ESSC editorial last week, we have lined up a number of comments and questions that might be helpful for government to consider in responding to the continued forest loss and degradation and to the disasters brought about by flooding and landslides.

The intersection between these two environmental threats is a major motivation for the executive order and the intentions are genuine. However, the breadth of vision espoused in the first part of the EO is nowhere to be found in the rest of the document.

What emerges are questions:

• Will the log ban give people and local governments false security, thinking this has addressed flooding? Are we feeding ignorance and complacency?
• How will government deal with community-based forest management and the previous executive orders defining this as the national strategy for forest management?
• How will government define on the ground where the natural and residual forests are when the forest line up to now has not been delineated?
• How will government genuinely enforce current laws on illegal logging when DENR officials themselves are part of the corrupted system? This was the unfinished story in 2005.

There are realities that we have to accept as part of the Philippine landscape.

Flooding will still recur in areas that are flood-prone as this is the natural course of water. The response needed is to get people out of harm's way and minimize the debris that will be brought along by the floodwaters. Little has been done on a national level since Ormoc 1991 in terms of local city and town planning.

Major landslides will recur in areas where soil is of sufficient depth and has reached saturation point after continuous heavy rainfall. The response is to get people off of steep slopes and ensure that the appropriate vegetation is planted to regenerate water infiltration and biodiversity that will sustain the environment under average climatic conditions.

Apprehension and prosecution of violators of existing forest laws must be seriously and genuinely undertaken, even if these are government people involved. Then and only then can people see that government is serious in enforcement.

Corporate and carabao logging are areas of concern that seriously needs attention. IFMA holders have a commitment to replant and not go beyond prescribed boundaries for their plantations. Many poor communities not granted proper tenure and access resort to carabao logging and who therefore cut in natural forests.

CBFM holders are not provided government assistance to manage their areas that will provide both the forest protection needed and earn livelihood from prescribed plantation areas. But this forest management strategy has been sorely neglected and there are CBFM holders who abused this privilege.

We need to internalize that the primary role of forests is not in averting major flood disasters but as that of providing ecological services, of biodiversity, cultural integrity of indigenous peoples, and especially given the varying climatic circumstances, the importance of sustained water generation.

If we want to take the disaster out of natural events, we have to relocate the homes of people from steep slopes, alluvial fans, floodplains, and deltas.

When and how in our culture of both the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural, will people believe and work for this?