The Philippine News Agency reported this week that the local government of Kabankalan has declared the southern city under a state of calamity.
The reason: farmers in the area have reported multi-million-peso damages to crops due to drought triggered by El Niño. The rice industry alone suffered losses amounting to almost PhP42 million due to crop damages among more than 1,200 farmers tilling nearly 1,000 has. of riceland.
Kabankalan is the second LGU placed under a calamity state. Earlier, San Enrique also reported immense damages or destruction in the farm lots of about 100 rice farmers.
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The calamity declaration in the two Negros LGUs came shortly before the April 22 observance of International Mother Earth Day.
Extreme heat, like the one that caused widespread damage to rice and other crops in Kabankalan City, San Enrique and other nearby communities, is among the concerns covered by the International Mother Earth Day agenda, which include plastic pollution of oceans, wildfires and floods that have affected millions of people all over the world.
IMED is sending an urgent awareness-focused message, to people across continents, a call to action: that nature is in pain and suffering, largely due to man-made abuses of the environment.
Consequently, these abuses, along with climate change, have disrupted biodiversity, thereby contributing to far-reaching damages to our home planet.
Advocates of this global celebration are calling for “a shift to a more sustainable economy that has both the planet and its people as its ultimate concern, one that places harmony and balance with nature and Earth”.
Here are facts and figures that the United Nations shared so that we can meaningfully reflect on the significance of IMED and respond to the urgent call for action to save whatever remaining resources Mother Earth has for us:
• The planet is losing 10 million hectares of forests every year – an area larger than Iceland.
• A healthy ecosystem helps to protect us from these diseases.
• Biological diversity makes it difficult for pathogens to spread rapidly.
• It is estimated that around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction.
Indeed, our immediate action – individual and collective – is needed and vital to our survival.
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Congratulations to the entry of my hometown in the just-concluded Lin-ay sang Negros pageant.
Lin-ay sang Cauayan Zoe Clarisse Limson, a native of Barangay Mambugsay, was named first runner-up.
Zoe, 18, is a first year Education student (major in Social Studies) at the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, where she was named Miss UNO-R. She is also the Miss NOPSSCEA 2023 titleholder.
Her second-place finish in the pageant almost made it a back-to-back win for Cauayan bets as last year Lin-ay sang Negros winner, Allah Janine Al Rashid, was Zoe’s predecessor in the town-level competition.
Zoe’s articulateness and conviction gave her the Darling of the Media Award during the public presentation of candidates and a wide applause in the pageant’s final interview.
She was also adjudged Best in Swimwear and was named Darling of Social Media, Miss Smart, Miss Coca-Cola, Miss Ayala Malls, Miss Robinson’s Bacolod’s Choice Awardee, Miss R. A. Construction, and Miss Acen Visayas, Azta Ambassador, Miss Travelton, Ms. Flower Studio, Ms. Brazaville and Miss Mangan Restaurant.
Panginbulahan to Zoe Clarisse, Cauayan LGU her family and team, a very worthy ambassadress of our town and province.
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The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. (Isaiah 24:4-5) | NWI
