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BY JOHNNY NOVERA
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IN OUR article of Feb. 14, 2017 titled “Un-inhabited Islands” we mentioned of the total number of islands in our archipelago at 7,507, adding 400 new ones lately discovered.
According to NAMRIA or the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, only 2,000 of our islands are identified by names and inhabited while 5,507 are unnamed and without settlers.
The criteria in classifying them as islands is that they are all above sea level at any given time and can support animal and plant life.
We suggested that the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), a government entity which undertook recently an impressive job of reclaiming from the sea 1,500 hectares of land for the Manila Reclamation Project called Bay City, can be asked to expand its function to build new communities in other parts of the country.
If it cannot do that, we suggested Congress create a similar agency like PRA, say, as we think of it now, one to be named “Philippine Island Development Authority” and empower it to build new settlements on the 5,507 of our islands that are still unexplored, unnamed and undeveloped (UUU).
Then the new agency can be given specific powers to survey the vacant islands and distribute them to deserving beneficiaries who will settle in the area. Think of what this can do to answer the problems of many families today that are jobless by enabling them to own land and improve their lives, with full government assistance.
This actually happened to many Ilonggo families who previously migrated to Mindanao and settled on land given by government. We saw them improve their lives and raised the economic status of their families in the new environment.
A disturbing news item appeared in Sunday’s Inquirer headline, “Justice Bare Invasion of PH Islands.” It referred to Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio’s revelation that two frigates, a coast guard vessel and two fishing boats of China, were sighted guarding Sandy Cay, a sandbar just about 4.5 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Philippine-occupied Pag-asa Island.
The senior Supreme Court Justice was part of the team who won the arbitral ruling last year that invalidated China’s sweeping claim to the South China Sea that infringed on the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea. What will our government do about this new intrusion to our territory by China?
With what is happening, we wish that our government can immediately start to set up an agency like PIDA before the Chinese grab more of the new islands in our archipelago. PIDA can open “a new Mindanao” like in the past for the many jobless and economically-disadvantaged Filipinos who wish to own land and improve their lives.
We wish Congress will immediately put it in their agenda to pass a new law that will open and assist settlers in the unnamed and unpopulated islands, with priority for those who will relocate from the big cities; then everybody will have land to source his food and livelihood, instead of crowding in the slums where they live today.
We quote here a father’s advice on the importance of land: “Son acquire land because God no longer makes land but continues to make more people.” (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com/PN)
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