i am a palaweno, born and bred here.(tbdtbd is dragonfly in cuyunon.)i grew up just in time to see the beauty and tranquility of the place get messed up by exploiters. and i believe no one can love a place more than its own people. but one thing that gets my blood heating up is also my own people, who, in their mindset, trumpets that palawan as the last frontier should not be abused.

now please don't get me wrong. i agree that palawan's resources should not be exploited but used. but to make the last frontier quote as the reason is totally non sequitur. don't they know what a frontier is? it is something to be conquered. the indian northwestern frontier was pakistan and afghanistan in the days of the british raj. the western frontier of the american expansion was indian territory. therefore if palawan is the last frontier then it must be the final place to conquer!  

the phrase was actually coined when national attention was focused on exploiting mindanao, when settling it and displacing the muslims there was the order of the day. those who do not wish to go to muslim mindanao and loved the rawness of virgin palawan wished to exploit it (and they did actually!) for the minerals we already know we have. in the 1960's we already know we have oil, while they are extracting silica in roxas, manganese in coron and gold in the mainland.as the last frontier palawan will thus be abused AFTER mindanao. and it is happening.

palawan is not a frontier anymore, ecological or otherwise.it is being raped and pillaged in ever-increasing pace by unscrupulous people. first was our seas, via commercial fishing, then dynamite and sodium cyanide. then the plains, by unlimited expansion, clearing away the forests to create so called farmlands, without considering in any way the suitability of the soil, because what was wanted was the trees. now it is the mountains, by mining.what is next?

and still they cry: PALAWAN IS THE LAST FRONTIER! aaaaaagggghhhh!!!!

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