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By SHIELA MAE BUTLIG
Correspondent

REPRESENTATIVES of non-government organizations who participated in a recent legal aid clinic at Liceo de Cagayan University said their groups have been facing difficulties in campaigning for environmental protection because communities “refuse to understand.”

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At times, local government officials are even part of the problem, they said. They said this explains why environmental problems such as pollution, illegal mining and dynamite fishing have remained unabated.

The NGO representatives said this during a workshop conducted by American lawyer Helen Kang at Liceo de Cagayan University from July 7 to July 16. Kang, a law professor and director of the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic at the Golden Gate University School of Law, came over for the individual and group mentoring of Liceo Legal Aid Clinic volunteers. She also assisted in developing a law school curriculum on environment, and worked with NGOs here to design strategies on environmental advocacy.

Local environmentalists said the problems on the environment cannot be solved unless the communities themselves get involved.

In Bugo, for instance, local officials lack political will in enforcing environmental laws, said Rebecca Pastrano of the Citizens’ Watch for Good Governance.

“The local governments themselves have not been informing communities and making them aware of the extent of the problems” despite directives from the Interior department, said Susan Grenio of the same group.

Kristine Galarita of the Macajalar Bay Development Alliance (MBDA) said there were also instances when local governments carried out massive information and awareness campaigns but the communities remained passive and “refused to understand.”

Galarita’s group have been sounding alarm bells about the serious environmental threats at Macajalar Bay as a result of economic and industrial activities in the city and Misamis Oriental.

She said villagers contribute much to the problems because of improper disposal of garbage into the bay, and dynamite fishing.

Galarita said there was a need to step up the enforcement of environmental laws, and stop people from contributing to the Macajalar Bay pollution.

The Liceo workshop was part of the legal aid clinics by American lawyers that was started in 2014 by the US Embassy’s Public Affairs Section (PAS) in partnership with ISLP to strengthen the capacity of Philippine law schools to administer their legal aid clinics.

ISLP has sent two American legal aid experts to Mindanao and Palawan to conduct mentoring and coaching sessions with newly established legal aid clinics, which are supported through US Embassy’s PAS’ Legal Aid Program for Mindanao (Leap-Mindanao). Following their month long stay in Palawan and Mindanao, the ISLP lawyers submitted the following recommendations:
• continue to build the capacity of legal aid clinics in community engagement; and
• seek reforms of the country’s clinical legal education program to encourage sustained involvement of law schools.

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