Promising developments

Let’s have some good news today.

Recent news reported promising developments about our youth, about methane capture, and, about alternative/accessible/cheaper farm fertilizer.

First about our youth as the hope of our country.

Jose Rizal must be smiling where he is now and proud to know about Rizaldy Villaflores of Jagna, Bohol.

Rizal must be doubly cheering that not only is this young man named after him. Only 19 and just newly elected as SK in Jagna, Rizaldy showed what genuine leadership and integrity mean.

After he was elected vice presidentof the SK municipal federation, Rizaldy Villaflores, a member of Jagna’s Parish Youth Ministry of the Catholic Church,tendered his November 16 resignation letter and wrote: “With great regret… I was tempted to violate these values when I participated in the vote-buying and other unlawful acts during the SK Federated election period.”

He narrated that the night before the SK municipal federation elections, he and other SK chairpersons for the different villages in his town were brought to a pension house in Tagbilaran City for an overnight stay. It was there that he received P5,000 from a candidate for an SK federation post.

Rizaldy wrote- “as a youth leader in public service, I have to stand and tell the truth to rectify these mistakes in order for me to lead by example in the right way.”

Noting that the election was tainted with multiple violations, he wrote - “this runs counter to the very core of the group’s values, principles, missions and endeavors.”

In his resignation letter, Rizaldy quoted Tagbilaran Bishop Alberto Uy’s words: “when integrity in leadership is missing, it can have severe consequences for individuals and society as a whole.”

Thank God for youth leaders like Rizaldy Villaflores!

May his courage and honesty inspire more youth leaders to take the high but oft-less travelled road of integrity, truth, and, genuine service to God and people!

MABUHI KA RIZALDY!

PADAYON! Make our national hero, Jose Rizal, your namesake, even more proud through the years!

Moving on from the promising story of hope raised by Rizaldy, will this next promising development of methane capture help better manage global warming?

How many of us know that “when organic waste decomposes it generates harmful gases, including methane, which is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at producing the greenhouse effect driving global warming?”

Well, this actual promising report!

Since 2020, in Canberra’s south, “gases emitted from organic waste at the Mugga Lane landfill have been captured and then converted into electricity for homes and businesses in the territory.”

The news report quoted LGI chief operating officer Jarryd Doran who said “the facility,along with a landfill gas flaring project in West Belconnen,had already helped the ACT government reduce carbon emissions by 963,000 tonnes.

Doran further added that “you'd need to plant 16 million trees to achieve an equivalent or comparable level of abatement! It's a very efficient way of reducing emissions. The beauty of it as well is it's measurable and it's irreversible."

Is this promising development doable here in the Philippines as well?

Calling the attention of WTE-loving politicians in this province and throughout our country and the world! You may all want to explore this promising, less costly option over WTE?

Finally, the 3rdpromising development for sharing with you all points to an alternative fertilizer that is readily available/accessible and can be produced locally.

No more expensive, imported, polluting fertilizers! BUT is the world ready for… human urine as fertilizer?

Urine contains nitrogen and phosphorus, two essential nutrients for plant growth. Thus it can serve as an almost cost-free, locally available nutrient resource for agriculture.

However, are people ready for world large-scale recycling of human urine which also needs to hurdle “technical, socio-cultural, economic, institutional, and ecological barriers?"