MANILA, Philippines – Two deadly storms have ravaged central and southern Philippines since October 2021’s filing of certificates of candidacies. This has left millions without homes or livelihoods in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Typhoon Odette (also known as Rai) made nine landfalls between Siargao Island, Palawan province, and December last year. This caused severe damage to power lines and communications lines in many areas. Four months later Tropical Storm Agaton, also known as Megi, unleashed heavy rainfalls, triggering landslides, which buried entire villages in Leyte.
These two cyclones combined have killed more 600 people and caused more than P50 billion in damage to infrastructure and agriculture.
As presidential hopefuls have savaged cities, provinces, and states over the past 11 week, scientists from UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published two reports that warned of dire consequences. It is urgent to reduce emissions and stop the worst effects of climate change.
The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change, due to its vulnerability to supercharged typhoons as well as rising sea levels. The 2022 electoral agenda does not seem to recognize the need to address this threat.
Climate and environmental concerns are often ignored in favor of other pressing concerns, including economic recovery and poverty alleviation.
Environmental advocates, however, have stressed the need for a “green” leader for the next six years.
Rappler Based on speeches, debates, interviews, and other sources, has assembled the climate and environment agendas of six major presidential bets. Platforms that are publicly available. These candidates were chosen based on their position in electoral surveys and their clarity. StatementsEnvironmental issues
Climate change
While climate change has begun shaping politics in other countries, it remains on the back burner for this year’s Philippine elections. Despite the fact that there is a narrow window of opportunity to address runaway climate changes, stump speeches, and debates rarely include plans for climate adaptation and mitigation, despite its impact on many vulnerable communities.
Leody de Guzman, labor leader, is the most progressive among those who are vying to be the next president. He has repeatedly called for climate justice, and demanded that rich countries pay reparations for their historical contributions to the climate crisis.
As part of her platforms for job generation, Vice President Leni Robredo bared plans to make the country a center of “climate industry” by creating green jobs through the promotion of climate-resilient agriculture and active transport. She also underscored the need to fix the country’s roadmap to meet its climate commitments and align with the global target of carbon neutrality by 2050.
Senator Panfilo LacsonPushes for improved emissions testing of vehicles, citing corruption at the Land Transportation Office. Transportation is the third largest source of emissions in the country after agriculture, industry and energy.
Green groups observed that most presidential candidates had a narrow understanding of the scale and urgency of climate change. Climate change is often equated with typhoons, with some candidates sharing similar platforms in the area of building disaster-resilient housing or infrastructure. Senator Manny Pacquiao supports the creation of a “super agency” that would integrate disaster resilience and response and long-term climate policies.
“We are in a state of emergency, and yet most of our candidates don’t even seem concerned about the climate,” said Jon Bonifacio, national coordinator of the Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines in a statement in March. “We need and deserve better leaders who can commit to immediate climate action.”
Energy
All presidential bets favor the shift towards renewable energy sources because of rising electricity prices and power outages throughout many provinces. De GuzmanBoth Robredo as well as Robredo demand the retirement of coal-fired electricity plants. Robredo pledged to phaseout coal within two years, if elected president.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., former senator and the late dictator’s son, heavily uses the imagery of wind turbines in his campaign, in a clear reference to the famed Bangui Wind Farm in his home turf Ilocos Norte. Viral posts on social media have claimed it as part of the “Marcos legacy,” but these have since been debunked, as the wind farm is a project of the NorthWind Power Development.
While supporting the transition towards renewables, Lacson, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso, and Lacson remain open to the exploration of oil or gas in the West Philippine Sea. Robredo also considers liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a “practical option” in the energy transition. This is a position that is being criticized by environmentalists who claim that LNG is still a fossil fuel and could lead to the country’s dependence on a carbon-intensive pathway.
The candidates on nuclear power are divided. Marcos supports the revival of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant a project under his father’s dictatorship that was shelved due to corruption and safety concerns. PacquiaoTo get lower power rates, he also pitched floating nuclear power plants (also known as nuclear bars)
Mining
In April 2021 President Rodrigo Duterte lifted a nine-year moratorium against new mining agreements. This was a move that the government claimed would bring more jobs and support large-ticket projects under the Build Build, Build program. However, anti-mining activists claimed that the move increased threats to environment and land defenders. The Philippines is still the most dangerous country for environment defenders in Asia. This position has been held for eight consecutive year.
If she wins the presidency, Robredo said she would repeal Duterte’s executive order, declare no-mining zones, and ensure that communities living in mining areas have a voice. Both she and De Guzman support the passage of the alternative mineral bill. This bill seeks to repeal 1995’s Mining Act and provide stronger environmental protections in mining. The labor leaderRecently, we marched against lifting the ban in South Cotabato on open-pit mining.
The other candidates expressed a friendlier stance, espousing the need for “responsible” or “sustainable” mining. Domagoso plans to foster a “mining-friendly policy” to generate jobs and attract foreign investments, while Lacson backs Duterte’s order, adding that environmental violations often involve small-scale mining operations.
“There is no legal definition of ‘responsible mining,’ so there are no policies or parameters to measure,” environmental group Alyansa Tigil Mina said in February.
Water and land resources
The 2022 election season will see conservation and protection land and water resources as the most important environmental concerns.
Most of the presidential bets have made general statements regarding environmental protection, but not provided any concrete plans. Both Pacquiao and Domagoso favor the creation of new departments for this purpose, the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and Department of Water.
MarcosPushes for reforestation, and stricter anti-illegal log logging laws. However, logging was worsened by the Martial Law of Marcos, which saw the elder Marcos reward relatives, military officers, and cronies with timber licence agreements. Research by the Philippine Center for Investigative JournalismThe data showed that the Philippines experienced one of the most severe deforestation rates within the Asia-Pacific region during the Marcos dictatorship. They lost an average of 316,000 hectares per year.
Robredo and De Guzman are both pushing for the rapid passage of the national laws on land use. Domagoso, however, stated that he would place a moratorium upon agricultural land conversion.
Final stretch
Other environmental issues that did not surface as much in this year’s election season include land reclamation, deforestation, illegal and unregulated fishing, plastic waste, and air pollution. Presidential bets did not pay attention to threats to environmental activists and their defenders.
Interviews and discussions, including those by the Commission on Elections and media organizations, did not touch on climate and environmental issues.
Still, environmentalists remain hopeful that whoever wins the presidency would urgently act on the country’s biggest climate and environmental challenges.
“The next president has to be a climate president because we only have that window of time to address the climate crisis. They have to realize that it has to be central to policy and not just a statement to appease the environmental sector, which is what they are doing right now,” said Lea Guerrero, director of Greenpeace Philippines.
She said it is a task that would require heavy lifting. The next administration is already poised for collapse under the weight an economic slump and a global emergency.
What this needs, said Guerrero, is a president ready to show “transformational” leadership that goes beyond addressing the country’s problems in silos.
“If we get a president that understands that all these issues are related strong storms put us deeper into poverty and debt, for example just connecting these and linking it to addressing climate issues is going to make a big impact [in] the long run,” she said.
These challenges require not only a leader who is well-versed in environmental issues but also an administration that supports democracy and ensures good governance.
“It should be a government where civil society is active, that is not corrupt, and can distance itself from extractive corporations,” said Guerrero. “Unless we have that kind of atmosphere, it might be impossible to put through climate solutions and approaches which we think will address the crisis.” Rappler.com
Reporting for this story was supported by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN).
