{"id":1141,"date":"2016-09-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/press\/1141\/green-advocates-remind-president-duterte-of-environmental-to-do-list\/"},"modified":"2021-12-01T20:40:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:40:09","slug":"green-advocates-remind-president-duterte-of-environmental-to-do-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/press\/1141\/green-advocates-remind-president-duterte-of-environmental-to-do-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Green advocates remind President Duterte of environmental to-do list"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a press conference held in Quezon City, environmental advocates united once more to remind President Rodrigo Duterte the list of environmental reforms he promised to initiate in the first 100 days of his presidency.The Green Thumb Coalition, the widest coalition of more than 40 national and local organizations advocating for a progressive environmental agenda, had previously held dialogues with then-presidentiable Rodrigo Duterte, where he clarified positions on several environment, governance and development issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cPresident Duterte has, in our engagements, professed his willingness to work with the environmental sector and the rest of civil society in responding to pressing green, climate and development issues,\u201d said Norie Garcia of the ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Inc. \u201cWhile we welcome a lot of developments which has already took place under his administration, a lot can still be done and initiated in the last 30 days of the first hundred days of his presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia noted that Duterte\u2019s progressive pronouncements range from themes of mining, biodiversity, renewable energy, climate justice, sustainable agriculture, national land use, people-centered sustainable development, waste and even human rights: the nine themes carried by the coalition during its campaign.<\/p>\n

Significant strides in mining lauded; climate justice, energy, human rights and other environmental concerns stressed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jaybee Garganera of Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) welcomed the mining audit led by Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR), which has already resulted in the closing of 10 mines in various areas affected by destructive large-scale mining.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Secretary Gina Lopez at the helm of the DENR, significant strides have surely been made in the issue of mining,\u201d Garganera further stated. \u201cHowever, a new framework of minerals management must be legislated to ensure long-lasting and sustainable progress in the extractive industry,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Garganera noted that the immediate passage of the AMMB can be realized if President Duterte certifies it as an urgent bill in Congress. Only stricter policies and regulations on the extractive industries will be safeguarded against the massive and continuing poverty and environmental-destruction created by large-scale mining.<\/p>\n

The creation of an \u201cEnvironment Task Force\u201d made up of various departments in the Duterte Cabinet was also welcomed, albeit with considerations. Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED) Convenor stressed the importance of incorporating energy in tackling issues of environment, and the apparent absence of the Department of Energy (DOE) in the task force.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ongoing energy review under President Duterte\u2019s administration must consider the environmental and social cost of dirty energy, and yet so far, the DOE has continually argued for the continued reliance on coal for the country\u2019s power mix,\u201d said Arances. \u201cWe must collectively recognize that allowing new coal mining and coal fired-power plants in the country will tie the Filipino people into a technology which is already being phased out internationally,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Arances cited the recent Oxford study saying that increasingly, coal-based technologies are deteriorating into liabilities rather than assets because of the risks they pose to the environment and the economy, and given that renewable energy is being pursued by more and more countries. He called on the President-elect to lead in the transition towards increasing the share of renewable energy in the power mix, which according to studies has decreased over the span of 8 years, even with laws like the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the affirmation of the President regarding the recent resolution from the Climate Change Commission to put under review new and existing coal plants, we call on his administration to implement a moratorium on the approval of new coal projects while the review process is being implemented,\u201d said Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) National Coordinator Ian Rivera. \u201cThis is in line with his agenda and commitment to stream-in renewable energy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this is a positive step as the Philippines is among the most vulnerable countries with regards to climate change and climate-induced disasters, we implore the President to join us in demanding reparations from industrialized countries for the disasters we continually face in the context of climate change,\u201d said Rivera, pointing out how the President Duterte has repeatedly recognized the larger role of rich, industrialized countries in contributing to climate change.<\/p>\n

Thony Dizon of the Ecowaste Coalition lauded the move by the Duterte administration to begin re-exporting illegal Canadian garbage shipped to the Philippines. \u201cWe welcome this development and want to ensure that all 103 containers of Canadian garbage will be re-exported, not just the 50 shipping containers specified by the Manila Regional Trial Court,\u201d Dizon said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dizon cautioned the Government into fast-tracking Waste-to-Energy incineration projects which goes against the incineration ban as contained in the Clean Air Act and Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. \u201cThe present \u2018Guidelines Governing the Establishment and Operation of Wate-to-Energy Technologies for Municipal Solid Waste\u2019 could open the floodgates for costly and polluting incinerators to burn wastes, which could be reused, recycled and composted instead of being burned,\u201d said Dizon.<\/p>\n

Developments \u2018useless\u2019 without human rights, groups say<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sanlakas Secretary-General Atty. Aaron Pedrosa raised the issue of people-centered development and human rights in the press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we recognize that there are many positive steps initiated by the Duterte administration, we cannot ignore the issue of human rights which has been a prevalent theme during the President\u2019s first one hundred days,\u201d Pedrosa said. \u201cEnvironmental rights are primarily, human rights. Positive environmental developments are useless if civil liberties and collective human rights are neglected. The Philippines currently ranks second in the list of countries with the highest number of killings of environmentalists,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Pedrosa noted that issues regarding charter change, federalism and other significant changes must be approached with significant consideration of the widespread poverty and the people\u2019s need for sustainable and people-centered policies. \u201cAt present, President Digong\u2019s plan for development still resembles his predecessor\u2019s development plan,\u201d Pedrosa said.<\/p>\n

Pedrosa encouraged the Head of State to review and revise his development plan to ensure that human rights, dignity and well-being will not suffer in favour of profit and a business-as-usual track of development. The Duterte Government is at present in the process of revisiting the country\u2019s Medium Term Philippine Development Plan.<\/p>\n

In addition to these action points derived from Duterte\u2019s favourable responses to issues of the environment, stricter policies on waste, land use and biodiversity has also been supported by the Duterte administration, as well as commitments on agriculture, fisheries and agrarian reform in favour of marginalized sectors in society.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDemand climate justice\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Filipinos are enduring the worst impacts of climate change, caused by greedy corporations. It’s time to hold them to account!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n TAKE ACTION\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a press conference held in Quezon City, environmental advocates united once more to remind President Rodrigo Duterte the list of environmental reforms he promised to initiate in the first 100 days of his presidency.<\/p>\n

The Green Thumb Coalition, the widest coalition of more than 40 national and local organizations advocating for a progressive environmental agenda, had previously held dialogues with then-presidentiable Rodrigo Duterte, where he clarified positions on several environment, governance and development issues.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":1855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[25,24],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-1141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-democracy","tag-activism","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11361,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions\/11361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}