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BY JOHNNY NOVERA
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Tuesday, February 14, 2017
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WE ARE an archipelago of 7,507 islands, including the 400 islands lately discovered and added to our territory by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) in February last year.
For a landmass to be considered an island, NAMRIA said it must be above sea level at high tide at any given time. It can support either plant or animal life, or both.
At present, only about 2,000 of our islands are inhabited and 5,500 others are not and have no names.
Last week, Finance secretary Carlos G. Dominguez announced the approval by the Department of Finance for the immediate implementation of 20 out of 96 reclamation projects in the pipeline of the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).
This accomplishment of PRA is impressive – reclaiming from the sea 1,500 hectares additional land, or the Manila Bay Reclamation Project, with the new area now named as the Bay City. All indications show this will grow into a big metropolis.
If our congressmen can take a little time out of their hearings and exciting investigations, we wish they can look into the function of a good-performing government agency like the Philippine Development Authority (PRA) and expand it to undertake the identification and development of the 5,500 unnamed islands in our archipelago. Then, afterwards, build on them new communities or even cities like in the Manila Bay Area.
Or as an alternative, for greater concentration in implementing this kind of project, Congress can especially legislate and create another body or agency similar to PRA with the major responsibility of setting up new settlements or communities on the uninhabited islands after survey. Then all local government units shall be encouraged to send emigrants to the new islands and introduce basic infrastructures for human settlements and sustaining growth.
If we do not do anything to occupy and make use of the 5,500 un-explored, undeveloped and unnamed (UUU) islands in our archipelago, one day we will find more intruders occupying them just like what happened to Scarborough Shoal now being held by China. It is sad that our Philippine Navy has no capabilities to protect our islands and seas.
It is Valentine’s Day, and we take this opportunity to dedicate to our faithful readers a love poem that we wrote inspired by an unnamed island that we once visited off Giuimaras coast:
A Lady By The Sea
A lady by the sea, Or was it a pretty nymphet,
That I saw one early morning,
Cavorting on the rocky beach?
Then I stole a picture of her,
From the best angle I could get,
Where are you from? I would have asked,
But gone she was; I wish we could have met.
Where are you lady fair, nymphet you may be?
At the very spot where I took the shot,
I kept on coming back,
Oh Lady by the Sea, you have stolen my heart!
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For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com/PN
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