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A popular quote thrown around to inspire the youth is Jose Rizal’s ‘Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan,’ but what will the youth do if there is no future to hope for—no planet to call home?
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.
A Filipina climate activist tells a British multinational bank: "Your money kills people, fuels the climate crisis, and destroys our homes."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
"...[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. "
The peace park is an expression and integration of Karen people’s right to self-determination, natural resource management, environmental protection, and good governance.
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.
Bibilib ka talaga sa mga Pinoy environmental defenders sa walang pagod at walang sawa nilang pagkilos.
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.
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.
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