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“Mr. Duterte’s order to lift the mining agreement moratorium will be a disaster upon disaster because the Mining Act of 1995 is still in place. We cannot allow this deluge of destructive large-scale mining when communities are still suffering from the converging pandemic and climate crises.”
A Filipina climate activist tells a British multinational bank: "Your money kills people, fuels the climate crisis, and destroys our homes."
“It is not enough that people are able to rise above the rubble. How can we build back better if we were never in a good situation to begin with? The kind of resiliency we want to see is where people have access to social services and can enjoy their rights.”
A recent study found that the “mountains, slopes and watersheds in the whole Cagayan Valley have been stripped of native trees that hold soil and regulate water release.”
The national government is not only guilty for its criminal neglect of the Filipinos ravaged by the typhoons. It is also guilty for deliberately defunding the 2012 Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH), which was supposedly aimed to develop technologies and enhance efficient disaster mitigation plans.
Due to the typhoon, Bicol farmers have lost yet another opportunity to make ends meet. They were supposed to harvest their produce in the months of October and November only to find their palay buried deep in flood waters.
The Center for Environment Concerns – Philippines (CEC) recognized the valiant environment defenders who put their lives on the line against large-scale mining. They include the late Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez, residents of Didipio in Nueva Vizcaya and community organizers.
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.
These companies represent the last link in the global supply chain between Philippine natural resources and foreign markets. Meanwhile, Filipinos are kept out of any profits and instead get grief, disease, and harassment thrown their way.
The coastal monitoring initiative has exposed the worsening levels of pollution in Manila Bay which no white sand can ever cover-up.
The annual report also noted that mining-involved killings are highest in the Philippines. Named as “deadliest sector,” it killed 50 defenders worldwide, of whom 16 were from the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte will deliver his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 27. Bulatlat examines Duterte's policies on the economy and foreign policy, his COVID-19 response and track record on human rights and the attacks on press freedom and expression since the lockdown.
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 proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 undermines constitutionally protected rights to political expression and dissent by equating activism with terrorist activities that are defined under the law.”
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.
“It is infuriating that the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has done more to care for large-scale mining corporations than to respond to the millions of Filipinos becoming increasingly facing starvation, police brutality, and unchecked contamination of the COVID-19 virus.”
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