PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte. CONTRIBUTEDPHOTO
Monday’s speech by President Rodrigo Duterte was a moment of candor that was surprising. He expressed the hope that his successor will do a better job in addressing climate change. We hope that his successor will recognize this as the challenge it is because Duterte’s environmental legacy, in our opinion, is better than the self-effacing statements make it seem.
After returning from an aerial inspection of areas in the Visayas devastated by the recent Typhoon “Agaton”, Duterte shared his thoughts. The increasing frequency and strength in tropical storms is one result of the warming Earth’s atmosphere through greenhouse gas emissions. This may have been the President’s thought when he made his comments.
Whatever President Duterte thinks are his weaknesses in dealing with the impacts of the global temperature emergency, his record on environment has been, despite some valid criticisms, a generally good one. We can list several examples, but most of them did not get much attention or were misunderstood.
The President ordered the complete shutdown of Boracay Island’s tourist destination in order to conduct environmental rehabilitation. This was widely criticized because it had a negative impact on the local economies. The controversy did not cover the positive outcomes of the island’s poor sanitation infrastructure and irresponsible management.
Boracay is now a cleaner, more sustainable area that will support a local economy for many years longer than it would if left alone.
After being ignored by both the previous administrations, the long-term rehabilitation of Manila Bay, and the waterways that flow into the bay, has shown remarkable results. Water quality has improved, solid waste pollution has been greatly decreased; there have been numerous posts on social networks in recent months noting the return of birds to the bay and tributaries like Pasig River, which were long ago considered “dead”.
The controversial “dolomite” beach was the focus of much of the public attention on the bay rehabilitation project. This attention was mainly critical. Although the beach was not necessary or recommended, and the government’s response was probably better, the controversy was a case where the forest was overlooked for one tree. In the end, the beach was only one component of a larger initiative.
Finally, and this is the most recent example, the President ordered that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources stop all applications for reclamation projects and “leave them to the next administration.” This may seem like a routine order, given Duterte’s time, but it is actually quite significant. The change-over at end June means that any pending applications to reclamation projects are now back to square one and subject the perspective (or whims), of a new administration.
Duterte’s environmental management has not been perfect. There have been areas where not much has been done, such as reducing vehicle emission or, as the recent Typhoon demonstrated, climate adaptation within small communities. We believe that Duterte has left environmental management in a better place than the one he had inherited from his predecessor. His acknowledgment that there is more to do and that his successor must “do a better work” is both a challenge as well as a valuable piece of advice for the next president.
As we pointed out in an earlier editorial environmental policy has not received the attention that it deserves from the candidates for the presidency. The recent comments of President Duterte are a reminder that this is a priority that will only get more critical over time.