Monday morning quarterbacking is fun when one merely analyzes Sunday's ballgames.

But very disheartening when one feels the depth of billions of pesos in losses in infrastructure and food courtesy of two uninvited, one overstaying visitor (s) named Ondoy and Pepeng.

That could mean a cut into the already low GDP forecasts and a not-so-Merry Christmas by December.

They have not yet estimated the private sector losses of houses, cars, appliances and personal effects that have to be repaired or replaced.

These are not productive assets but have to be replaced anyway – channeling away precious pesos away from investments into private consumption for the above. The other is non-material.

The psychological trauma of being "near death," witnessing people die and property vanish are bad enough; the realization that no one is safe anymore-rich or poor-devastates the psyche even more.

What should be done?

The first thing to do is to shoot against the wall those who raised prices of food and medicine unjustifiably – the cruel criminals just playing on mere demand. Same with those who sold ordinary water (dirty) as bottled and the firemen who wouldn't clean subdivision mess without P8,000 (the crooks).

Same with that NCR mayor who relocated people from his district to faraway Rizal because his city could buy the lot sites at overpriced levels and collect his kickback.

Second, let's listen to the environmental heroes that we have largely ignored in the past.

Tony Oposa, a world-class environmental lawyer will sue NCR mayors who did not rehabilitate Manila Bay and the poor fellow is being merely derided. Class A architect-urban planner Felino "Jun" Palafox who stood his ground for the preservation of trees and against corruption in Subic Area is now being sued for libel and his business harassed to death by businessmen and politician-allies.

Senator Loren Legarda who authored the Solid Waste Management Act of 2001 and Ecological Waste Management Law has been shouting herself hoarse (the last many years) that the LGUs have not been implementing them.

Belatedly it seems, DENR secretary Lito Atienza threatened to sue and jail these mayors who did not comply – we kid thee not? He may have to rethink that. Because, our prison cells would not be enough since Atienza himself admitted that only 13% of the country's 1,500 mayors have complied with these legal mandates.

Third, Metro Manila of 15 million people must be decongested. Perhaps move out the schools and the airports out of the city. And develop alternative huge seaports outside NCR.
Fifteen million folks throwing out their solid and liquid waste -in abandon – can kill any city. Just too many people in so little space.

The waste goes into the main rivers of Marikina and Pasig which caused them to be silted and become shallow-leading to floods. The same garbage clogged the exits to Manila Bay, already a dying city bay by itself. Laguna is full of fishpens – killing the ecological balance.

Since business, education, shopping and entertainment are in Manila – every patch of earth is turned into condominiums and subdivisions to accommodate residents – killing all the green growth necessary for ecology.

The Government's "Balik Probinsiya" movement – financing the family's relocation out of Manila has long been in the planning. Review the 2004 Ten Point Medium=Term agenda of GMA and you will find that" Decongesting Manila" was a hot item even then. Of plans and men, as they say.

Fourth, those living along the waterways -rich or poor- must be relocated or be forced to move out.There are large tracts of unused government land in Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal and Laguna for relocation; the rich can always afford to go where their peso will stretch.

We heard there's even a huge 22 hectares of land beside the Bilibid prison in Muntinlupa-what's that real estate sitting there for?

It has been suggested that the lots they will vacate will be made into deep catch basins around the rivers and bays and will become man-made water pools when typhoons and flooding occur.

Urban Planning has been thrown out of the window. A Metro Manila zoning plan back in 1977 – Imelda's time- has been waylaid, according to Palafox. That document saw these debilitating environmental events today 30 years ago, good gracious.

Two months ago, we were in the hills of Rizal and saw the denudation of the forests there – stretching to the Sierra Madre by illegal loggers, kaingin criminals, dam builders and subdivision developers.

We know the stories to be true -retold by indigenous people in the area -victims of the so-called "wheels of progress and civilization."

Without trees, there are no watersheds to retain water and no roots to keep the surface soil from cascading to the lowlands during stormy weather.

And this is not just a Manila -Luzon phenomenon. The devastation in Bicol, Iloilo (last year) , Cagayan de Oro this year, the Butuan floods and the Ormoc Leyte disasters prove environmental tragedies defy geographical boundaries.

Manila and our cities must be rebuilt – intended to be a city of man, not for dead corpses and destroyed houses. Let us study how Singapore and Malaysia have done it.

The Inquirer reports that the country is a signatory to an obscure paper called Hyogo Protocol of 2005 where 160 countries agreed on methods to address environmental threats and proper responses to disasters. We wonder if one congressman or bureaucrat has ever read that document. All LGUs should study that by heart.

Finally, we have to invest in the environmental protection.
An Asian Development Bank Study had concluded that 1% of GDP environmental investment in the next 10 years can mean saving 4% of GDP thereafter. It makes sense -given the magnitude of the recent destruction we just saw via Ondoy and Pepeng.

The life we save, by doing that, could be our own.
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Seminar on Rural Farming and Gardening

Due to good response, there will be two runs of the "Seminar on Natural Farming and Gardening" at Flors Garden along Marcos Highway in Antipolo City. This environmental friendly seminar (open to the public) is sponsored by the Finex Research and Development Foundation in cooperation with Earth School.

Seminar participants will have a field trip in the ecology-based garden while leaning the tools how to enrich soil and grow own animal feeds using herbs and plants and growing chicken and pigs the "natural way." Tips on how to use flora in treatment of common diseases will be an added attraction. Flor's Garden – Earth School at the end of the first paragraph.

Interested "environmental warriors" can contact Cherry Basilio at email crsalazar@finex.org.ph