Kalibutan Archives

30 Years of Mining Plunder: A Comprador Capture of the Philippines

Oligarchs wielding vast political and economic influence have exploited the Mining Act to expand their empires, amassing immense fortunes at the expense of displaced communities, polluted water sources, and deforested landscapes. Enabled by bureaucrat capitalists—corrupt officials who manipulate regulations, grant permits, and overlook environmental violations for personal gain—these mining operations thrive with little accountability.

Kalikasan PNE | Mar 4, 2025

Red lines for the Global South at COP26

By LEON DULCE This speech was delivered as part of a panel in the ‘People’s Struggles and Priorities on the Road to COP26’ webinar by the Southern People’s Action on COP26 last October 22, 2021. Good evening comrades and colleagues! We thank everyone for coming...

Kalikasan PNE | Nov 2, 2021

Standard Chartered, stop funding our destruction!

A Filipina climate activist tells a British multinational bank: "Your money kills people, fuels the climate crisis, and destroys our homes."

Bulatlat Contributors | Feb 8, 2021

In defense of the Philippines

Ever since Duterte declared the longest standing COVID-19 lockdown in the world back in March 15, 2020 up to the present, we have monitored at least 555 environmental defenders who have suffered human rights abuses.

Kalikasan PNE | Sep 22, 2020

Ka Randy and the path to peace and ploughshares

By CLEMENTE BAUTISTA JR. Bulatlat.com It was in 2011, during the first year of the Aquino administration, when I first got to work closely with peace builder and land defender Randall ‘Ka Randy’ Echanis, deputy secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas...

Kalikasan PNE | Aug 12, 2020

The Duterte era: A state of nature under attack

If we do not fight back, no one will be left to fight for us and the future generations. If we do not push back, the world that sustain our very lives will be pushed to the brink by tyrants and demagogues like Duterte.

Kalikasan PNE | Jul 25, 2020

Greta Thunberg and the DDS Playbook

The dangers have always been real. This aggressive troll offensive is trying to obscure the fact that the Philippines has been ranked the deadliest country in the world for land and environmental defenders just last year in an incisive report by international investigative group Global Witness.

Kalikasan PNE | Jul 16, 2020

The animal industry can be the next pandemic ground zero

Both influenza A (H1N1) and ASFV are not endemic to the Philippines. It has been established that the sources of these diseases came from imported meat or livestock.

Kalikasan PNE | May 29, 2020

Promote forests for health

Forest biodiversity plays a huge role in disease control by promoting good microbiota that compete with the disease-causing pathogens, and flora and fauna that compete with or predate on virus-carrying species to keep their populations in check.

Kalikasan PNE | May 22, 2020

‘Rigged’ hearing on Vizcaya mining, human rights violations assailed

With no substantive discussion on the broad array of Oceanagold’s rights violations of commission, omission, and lack of due diligence, the hearing resulted in a sham proceeding that served as nothing but the latest stunt of Oceanagold to worm out of its track record of violations and injustices. It became their platform to call for the renewal of its Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement, which expired eight months ago and its renewal challenged precisely because of the mine’s plethora of violations.

Kalikasan PNE | Mar 2, 2020

‘Tacloban 5’ imprisoned for still demanding justice 6 years after Typhoon Yolanda

The plight of the Tacloban 5 is but the latest case in a deepening human rights crisis faced by people working to protect their lands, the environment, and our climate. The Philippines was declared the deadliest country in the world for environmental defenders in 2019.

Kalikasan PNE | Feb 13, 2020

From fishing villages to Lumad sanctuaries, a war against nature continues to be waged

As with the Haran standoff and the tensions in Taliptip, state security forces were linked to at least 57 percent of the victims we recorded. It must be thus questioned why the military and other state security forces are zeroing in on these areas, with crosshairs trained at defenders. Are these really peace and order operations, or deadly investment guarantees?

Kalikasan PNE | Jan 29, 2020

The state of the Philippine environment*

"...[t]hese potentials are being challenged by different environmentally destructive projects and interventions and intensified extraction of natural and mineral resources. Our sovereignty over our natural resources is being bastardized. "

Bulatlat Contributors | Jul 25, 2019

Tuloy ang laban, Anna

Panata namin na wag magbitiw ng luha sa pagpanaw ni Anna Kapunan, huwarang maka-kalikasan, matapang na makabayan, at mapagmahal na ina, asawa, at kaibigan, dahil mahigpit na tagubilin niya sa amin na wag maging malungkot sa kanyang burol. Una naming nakilala si...

Kalikasan PNE | Mar 26, 2019

How Myanmar indigenous peoples defend their rights over natural resources

The peace park is an expression and integration of Karen people’s right to self-determination, natural resource management, environmental protection, and good governance.

Kalikasan PNE | Feb 14, 2019

Sampung pinakamatinding kampanya para sa kalikasan (Part 2)

Bibilib ka sa pagtatanggol ng PInoy sa kalikasan, sa kabila ng matinding kahirapan, lumalalang panganib para sa aktibismo, paglipana ng sandamakmak na buwitre at buwaya (pasintabi sa tunay na hayop) sa gobyernong Duterte, at tumitinding pakikialam ng mga dayuhan sa ating bansa.

Kalikasan PNE | Feb 2, 2019

Sampung pinakamatinding kampanya para sa kalikasan

Bibilib ka talaga sa mga Pinoy environmental defenders sa walang pagod at walang sawa nilang pagkilos.

Kalikasan PNE | Jan 7, 2019

People’s response to mining plunder

The people’s armed defense of their lands and national patrimony has been a recourse that must be recognized and respected in the context of deep-seated historic injustices and brutal suppression. The revolutionary armed movement in the Philippines led by the CPP-NPA-NDFP has maintained a strong opposition to destructive large-scale mining operations.

Bulatlat Contributors | Dec 13, 2018

Mining in the Philippines: The steep price our people pay to line the pockets of a few

Without a domestic industry processing our mining products to make our own metals, only the large corporations exporting it reap the most benefit, at the expense of the poor and the environment.

Kalikasan PNE | Oct 23, 2018

Four factors why #Habagat2018 became a flood disaster (Part 2 of 2)

The challenge to build genuine solutions to flood risk factors should not have been new to the administration of Rodrigo Duterte. These proposals were outlined already in the 2016 People’s Agenda for Nationalist and Progressive Change, a comprehensive 100-day agenda document hand-delivered to Duterte himself.

Kalikasan PNE | Sep 12, 2018

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