New season and the next stage

(Malindig Volcano)

The rainy season has started after we have felt the effects of a prolonged El Nino phenomenon on the island. Bushfires even occurred in areas in Buenavista and Gasan as if fueled by the election heat.

The effects of El Nino on local forest projects such as the one undertaken by the provincial government with DBP needs to be re-assessed.

This project is the largest in scope among other similar DBP projects as it involves watershed rehab, fruit tree forestation and mangrove forest rehabilitation covering an aggregate of 500 hectares of public land in Torrijos, Sta. Cruz and Boac. Gen. Recaredo Sarmiento II (Ret.) (in photo), is the current steward of the DBP Forest Project in Marinduque.

Such keystone responses to climate change, ecosystem, water and poverty crises on this island should receive more attention now from Marinduque's new elected leaders. This, instead of allowing themselves to continue descending into endless political bickering and old traditional behavior that divides.

The youthful Congressman-elect of Marinduque, Lord Allan Jay Q. Velasco (above photo) who has scoured Marinduque's landscapes and seascapes as part of his local tourism profiling initiatives has been confronted first-hand with all the primary threats to development, natural ones and politics-sponsored. It is largely perceived that Velasco is decidedly ready now to take Marinduque to its next stage of development.