By Alan S. Gensoli

Before that, last March 4 it was reported on Umagang Kay Ganda that there has been a hepatitis outbreak in Iloilo. Contaminated drinking water was being blamed. Na, ara na! Now you know why we worry about dumping unsegregated garbage in Felisa where the BACIWA has five water wells. The day previous, March 3, a local newspaper in Bacolod reported that Mayor Bing Leonardia, through Councilor Greg Gasataya, asked the DENR for an extension on the deadline to close the open dump in Felisa because the city has no place to put its garbage, since the sanitary landfill is yet to be built. I appreciate the honesty and humility, but while the DENR can agree to wait, bacteria cannot. So, pray that we have no outbreak while DENR extends our compliance. Otherwise, DENR, be ready to explain.

I vividly recall in 2004, during the run-up to the presidential elections, I suggested in another column that we ask all the presidentiables who they will bring to Malacañang to hold five key portfolios, namely, education, trade and industry, agriculture, agrarian reform, and national defense. I further suggested that this short-list of cabinet candidates sign in blood their commitment to serve the country. This way, even the most amusing presidentiable will have a chance to be elected, because the people’s choice will hinge on the company that the presidential candidate keeps, and not on Ernie Maceda’s P1,000 bills or Manny Villar’s boiled camote. I was right to suggest that idea then, and I think I’m still justified to suggest the same for this year’s elections. For look at the characters that PGMA surrounded herself with. My only modification for 2010 would be this: To the list, I will add the DENR and Dept. of Energy, because in this day and age, it’s the environment, Mister President!

If only the presidential candidates of 2004 listened to me, then we could have been the first country to assign environmental minds to the top seats of the DENR and the Dept. of Energy, and not some fat clown in Hawaiian shirt and grandma jeans, and a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none village general, both of whom probably could not be hired in the corporate world, reason why they are loitering in government hallways.

Instead, so many other countries did exactly what I thought intelligent governments ought to do, tapping the most serious environmental minds to lead their respective environmental campaigns. Many jumped out of the box, avoiding traditional politicians (like Lito Atienza and Angie Reyes), and appointing instead a Nobel physicist and a deposed prince.

Prince Mostapha Zaher is a name that could have come from Pandora. But I assure you, he’s not an Avatar. Prince Zaher of Afghanistan is a real prince. Together with his king lolo and the entire brood of Afghan princes and princesses, the young Zaher lived a life of exile in Italy since 1973. Despite that, King Mohammed Zahir Shah, the lolo king, never gave up his dream of turning Ajar Valley in central Afghanistan, his family’s hunting grounds, into a wildlife preserve open to all citizens. The valley is home to snow leopards and other rare creatures. Para bagang Baluarte sa Ilocos.

When the Taliban fell from power in recent history, the royals returned to Afghanistan. In 2004, Prince Zaher gave up his office as ambassador to Italy to become Director of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency. To ensure true and widespread transformation towards respect for the environment, Prince Mostapha Zaher went straight to his country’s constitution, amending it with an act that makes it every Afghan’s responsibility to "protect the environment, conserve the environment, and to hand it over to the next generation in the most pristine condition possible." Now, that’s the cha-cha I would like to dance!

If Afghanistan has a prince, America has a czar. And if Afghanistan has a one-man army, America has a six-man tag team. Pres. Barrack Obama’s environmental team is second to none. Former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Carol Browner has been moved up to the newly created post of Climate Czar. Lisa Jackson has slid into the post of EPA Chief. They are joined by Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary and Steven Chu as Energy Secretary. Harvard University’s John Holdron has been brought in as Science Adviser, and a marine biologist, Jane Lubchenco, now heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

I’d like to go back to Energy Sec. Steven Chu and draw a comparison between him and your Energy Sec. Angelo Reyes. Steven is a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. He is, in fact, the first Nobel Prize winner to hold a Cabinet post. Your Angie, on the other hand, has been hopscotching from one government office to another, wherever he is welcome. He used to be Chief of Staff, then Defense Secretary, then DENR Secretary, then Energy Secretary. And now Angie is contemplating running for Congress.

Tell me who your friends are... is Pres. Arroyo gambling away our future? Had you known of her friendship with Lito Atienza and Angie Reyes, would you have voted for her in 2004? These legitimate questions remain for all 2010 presidentiables: "If you win the elections, what friends will you take to Malacañang? Who will you appoint as DENR Secretary and Energy Secretary?" On the strength of their answers, we shall vote.*