Clean Up and Come Clean
[Re: The Manila Bay Clean Up] On the surface, rehabilitating Manila Bay seems like a good thing and it absolutely should be! Who wouldn’t want to see Manila Bay restored back to sublimely unspoiled conditions? Yet the administration handling the project is sufficiently untrustworthy enough for us to question the integrity of their agenda. As early as now, there have been many reports of certain mega corporations planning to reclaim Manila Bay and urbanize it. This is an urgent cause for alarm because Manila Bay will then be compromised for insidious partnerships between the government and ultra-polluting entities to take over its development. It would be extremely difficult to protect Manila Bay in the face of capitalistic business interests that do not care for its long-term maintenance as long as they profit from its use. It is part of our civic duty and duty towards our Earth to protest against any political and business maneuvers that will put Manila Bay back in a vulnerable position. It’s not enough to just participate in clean-ups and share posts about Manila Bay.
As the youth, we are at the forefront of change. We are the creators of change. We already know that we should properly dispose of and reduce our waste, minimize our carbon footprint, and so on. But we shouldn’t stop there. As the youth, we should demand for transparency, integrity, sustainability, and accountability from the ones in charge of implementing Manila Bay’s rehabilitation. As the youth, we must do everything we can to ensure that the hands Manila Bay will fall into in the present will be better than the past. And as the youth now, we are responsible for becoming the safest hands for Manila Bay so that it may still be there, beautiful and thriving, in the future.
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