Sustainability commitment: Grossly ignored?

The spent wash spill in the North Bais Bay is now grabbing headlines that even the current investigation on corruption cannot suppress it.

- Fidel O. Abalos

This crisis is so personal to me. Though I’ve spent more than two-thirds of my life in Cebu, I was born and raised near foreshore in Barangay Tangculogan, Bais City. I was raised, primarily, from what my father earned as a farmworker during sugar milling season and as a fisherman in the offseason. Just like my father, I did the same on school-free days. Simply put, without the benefits from fishing, I couldn’t have finished college. Needless to say, I could have been one of those fisherfolks crying out at the gate of the Universal Robina Corporation (URC) for justice, not knowing when the next meal for my family shall come.

May I beg for your patience as I go down memory lane and try to chronicle what happened from fifty-two years ago to the present. United Planters Sugar Milling Company (UPSUMCO) was built in the early 70s. Starting commercial operation in 1973, we embraced the jobs it generated. Then a few months later, there was a fishkill. Ignorant as we were, we thought it was a curse from heaven. Only to realize later that it was due to the first release of the sugar mill’s effluents. Probably, however, the owners then were so conscientious and prevented it from happening again as fishing activities continued.

Then URC acquired UPSUMCO in 1988 and renamed it Universal Robina Sugar Milling Corporation (URSUMCO).