In air, there is life and in life there is us.

One undisputable fact is that humans need air,

breathing is just a necessity that the absence of air, we are nothing, but not just any kind of air, we
need to take in, clean air. If we go back to a few hundred years in human civilization, one might not
be able to really appreciate clean air or even see the need to provide special care just for it to exist;
they would have just simply breathe it in. However, the realities of technology, development and the
rampage of human population growth means that we sacrifice one essential resource of life, not just
of human life, but for everything that revolves around it. The food we eat, the materials we build our
houses from, down to the medicines that enables us to live a little bit longer that we did before, all
depend on a 3 letter word, which unfortunately despites it depreciating condition, is still under
appreciated and a topic that people might discuss from time to time. As if we have that time, most of
us act as if the issue about air is just not that important or at least not as important with the demands
of a fast-paced life, we simply forget that what enables life itself is air, clean air.
As human society progress, so do the hunger for expansion and excess, people just want
more and more and never satisfied. Of course, it is not totally a bad thing because in the first place,
our hunger for more lead us to where we are, developed and advanced, but at the expense of the
environment. Factories for production, vehicles for transportation, and cutting trees for construction
those are just some of the cause of degradation of our environment, specially the condition of air in
general. Striking the balance between development and sustaining a healthy environment is the
quintessential question of our time, we simply admit that slowing down development is just too
difficult that the question revolves around how we can continue growing at this unsustainable speed
while limiting the environmental cause, an equally difficult task. The problem of air pollution is really
not a novel one, it is has been acknowledge for decades now in united nation declarations and even
convention. There are essentially no boundaries with regards to air pollution, the nature of these
resource means that it affects not only a certain area but even neighbouring countries as evidence
by the passage of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary of Air pollution on 1979. It is not an
isolated problem, in the sense that even if a country, provided there is still one, that really are not
causing air pollution, it may still be affected by its neighbouring countries activities that contributes to

air pollution. The challenge therefore is really not confined to a single area because it entails
cooperation between countries and even non-state factors to really address the problem.
There are indeed laws, both international and domestic that are passed, but laws are just
words, although binding between those who are subject to it, arent necessarily effective in
addressing the issue, because it all boils down to its implementation and enforcement. Undoubtedly,
air pollution, is an acknowledge problem and there are steps being taken to curve or limit it but time
is of the essence, the gravity of failing to really make the condition better would entail not only the
degradation of human life but degradation of the planet, which is of the moment already happening,
failing to address the air pollution problem would mean destruction of human life, if not address soon,
it would cause irreparable damage that would eventually be impossible for us, humanity to really
handle, by that time, it will all be too late.
To put it in context, one might have tried not breathing, be it underwater or just simply not
breathing for a short moment or until your lungs cant handle it anymore, the moment when we rise
up or take in air, is precisely where we are at the moment. We can still enjoy air, we can still revert
back to normal breathing rhythm from that very moment but once we held it a second too late, we will
lose consciousness, our brain would be deprive of oxygen, and eventually our body functions will
stop, and the possibility of death is just right around the corner, that is the situation of the earth right
now and the humans who depend on air for its existence, simply stating, failure to address the issue
of air condition very soon, will be the death of humanity, not a fast one, but a slow agonizing loss of
life, every slow breath of polluted air.
Now, the question remains, how humanity can address the concern, especially the nations
who are labelled as developing countries such as the Philippines, where in the need for development
is more urgent than to address environmental issues such as air pollution. Indeed, the Philippines
like many nations have expressed interest and shown active participation in crafting laws addressing
air pollution both in the international sphere and domestically, but the as previously mention, its not
really whether there is a law or not, but how effective are those laws in addressing the issue. In
evaluating these issues, a need to look at the applicable laws on the matter and assess its effectivity

and perhaps, if there are gaps on the law or lapses in its implementation, suggest and recommend
some points on improving it.

APPLICABLE LAWS AND JURISPRUDENCE

--- amando