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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.”
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.
"...rather than give firefighters guns, it would be better if they are given better fire fighting equipment against forest and industrial fires."
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.
"More importantly, Tampakan's continuing lack of social acceptability from LGUs and especially from indigenous Lumad communities should have been basis enough to finally discontinue the mine."
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