THE Philippines for more than a century since the independence of our archipelagic nation, our national government and political parties have never truly considered the environment as a national concern and priority in the drive for economic development. It was only a decade ago, when the Philippine Green Party (Partido ng Kalikasan) came about, where after 12 long years, majority of the voting population of the Philippines might have never even heard of nor even knew of the existence of this “green” political group. The environment was never truly part of any famous politician’s speech or political agenda, only to be construed upon on an electoral campaign by the Philippines’ richest man, the former senator, Manuel “Manny” Villar, who ran for president in 2010 with his infamous political jingle: “Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?” A campaign that revealed the disparity in which poverty and the environment were being portrayed in society — that only poor people swim in an ocean of garbage and trash, that having a polluted living environment is a trait of the poor.