By RJS In the recent Siargao Island Protected landscapes and seascapes (SIPLAS) Youth Summit held September 28 and 29 in Santa Monica town, a hundred selected high-school students, teachers from all nine municipalities and visiting professional-lecturers converged to study and evaluate the island's natural condition to help conserve and protect it from deterioration caused by ignorance, carelessness and neglect. The event was organized by the Surigao Economic Development and Micro-F...

By Lee Flores It's the season of finger-pointing and blaming others again. Also, the national government agency desperately excavating “pogi” points  for themselves to appear heroes as defenders of lush mountains. What in abused earth is new? In the provinces being battered by Typhoon "Ompong", the mining company heroically and arrogantly declared they managed and prevent  better against calamities compared to marginalized, small, hit and run miners who do no concrete defense to wha...

By Justino Red Passing by Caraga State University (CSU) main campus in Butuan was heart-warming and inspiring to see portraits of the list of graduates of the College of Forestry. Finally, this nation is officially recognizing the institutionalization of environment graduates and heroes or this country would end up swallowed by the greed of men in the guise of development and industrial progress. If there are no forward-looking citizens concerned and actively protecting our environm...

By Lee Flores and Justino Red What will happen to Caraga Region when the open-pit mining will be back after being correctly lifted sometime? Simple, the mountains and forests that are watersheds will perish, skinned-out (gipanitan in Visayan) and turn ugly and useless. Small people's voices and marginalized villagers and indigenous peoples will be snob and driven out or they join the rebellion movement. There will be no peace and order in the countryside and civilians living in c...

By Ramon Jorge Sarabosing Without them, the forest is less vibrant, fascinating, healthy. The hornbills, locally known as the Kalaw are the most spectacular winged residents of the beautiful but mining invaded island of Dinagat province. There is no reason why they (Kalaw) vanish at all. To date, there are only 50 sighted in one small area, the Loreto Watershed and this could be alarming. "There used to be a lot of them but since mining came and leveled off the forest you hardly s...

By Bonie Esmera Sounds familiar? Tan-aw nya mo ining sineha, coming soon. This is a true story. Nahitabo na ni sa atong lugar-sa kabukiran ug kalasangan. Ang casualty: ang kinaiyahan ug kaugmaon sa sunod generation. Sukwahi sa original nga "planet" diin ang mga apes intawon papason sa ilang gipuy-ang planeta'ng kalasangan, ang giyera dinhi sa "planet of the miners" ang mga dagkong minahan mao ang mopapas sa kalasangan, apil siyempre ang mga gagmay'ng tawo sa kabukiran-una sila pa-tr...

By GB Candelario It was a usual after rain scenario in the city. The ground was wet while people started to rush in going home as it was around 5:30 pm. But just when you look at the sky, you can surely spend your seconds looking up with fascination of that perfect colorful arc. A rainbow indeed! For a person who loves photography it was a tempting moment to grab a camera and trigger that shutter. And for someone who appreciates the wonders of nature it was a delightful exp...

By Lee Flores and Justino Red Yes, you read it right. The current movie "Kong: Skull Island" might as well be "Kong: Bald Surigao" and it perfectly fit the once evergreen Surigao provinces and Dinagat Island until mining monsters and Kong's nemesis wreck havoc and destruction to the forests and seas. Now here's a script guideline of the localized version of the said movie. A respected Filipino independent film-maker like Brilliante Mendoza or Lav Diaz (who is a Mindanaoan) mig...

By Philip Bernaldez   Every time I go to Siargao Island from Surigao City on a boat my heart breaks. I see two islands grossly mutilated and dead. Like they are calling to me like helpless beautiful ladies abused and prostituted (my apologies and no offense meant to the feminists). I wondered angrily why this been done and who authorize it--how naive do I get-no thanks to the greedy local and national politicians who claim the "favor" is for their people who remain as poo...