The Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI) is calling on President Duterte to uphold the constitutional mandate to protect natural patrimony and stop destructive development, foremost of which is the multibillion-peso Kaliwa Dam project and various land-reclamation projects in coastal areas.
The PMPI issued the call as the President delivers his Fourth State of the Nation (Sona) Address as he formally opens the 18th Congress on Monday, July 22, 2019.
“As he opens the 18th Congress, we urge President Duterte to take a decisive political action to reverse the continuing environmental degradation and the impending destruction of the environment and displacement of people brought [about] by its own development programs and the national and foreign policies that it has adopted [or the lack of it],” the group said in a news statement.
According to PMPI, the China-funded Kaliwa Dam to be built in Infanta, Quezon, would displace and further uproot the indigenous Dumagats from their ancestral land in the Sierra Madre mountains.
On the other hand, the aggressive push for the reclamation of Manila Bay to pave the way for corporate-led development will only heighten the vulnerabilities of about 3 million people in the municipalities along the bay area to the occurrences of floods and landslides, which could potentially damage agricultural, commercial, and residential areas and further, marginalize farmers and fisherfolk, the group said.
The PMPI also scored what it called “blatant acts of aggression” of China against Filipino fisherfolk at the West Philippine Sea (WPS) despite the favorable UN arbitral award to the Philippines, which the group said, remained uncontested by the Duterte administration. Such a stance has put fisherfolk in harm’s way and open up the fishery resources to China’s unbridled exploitation.
Rights of nature
PMPI in partnership with NASSA/Caritas-Philippines, environmental non-government organizations and sectoral representatives from indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, farmers, women and youth, has recently concluded a three-day People’s Congress for RON, or Rights of Nature, with a common resolve to push for the adoption of the Bill on RON law.
The adoption of RON law will mean that the ecosystems and natural communities have the right to exist and flourish, and people, communities and governments have the authority to defend those rights on behalf of those ecosystems and communities.
“With our partners in the Rights of Nature PH network and our communities in Metro Manila, we shall march to Batasang Pambansa to join the United People’s Sona, to condemn the ‘government’s unpatriotic and cowardly stance on the West Philippine Sea,’ and its decisions to pursue the Kaliwa Dam and Manila Bay reclamation projects. All three issues deserve a strong opposition given the impending damages it will bring not only to human lives but to the other species within these ecosystems. Let us defend Mother Nature, the source of all our natural patrimony and life of our people and communities,” PMPI said.
The PMPI and NASSA/Caritas Philippines, a tandem of faith-based social development and advocacy network with the social development, advocacy and humanitarian arm of the Catholic Church, is campaigning for the adoption of the ecological paradigm in all sphere of society’s life and pointedly, a legislative path that will provide Mother Nature its own legal rights and be recognized as a rights-bearing entity, just like humans and corporations, through a law, titled the “Rights of Nature” bill.
“If corporations were given rights by our legal system, why not give rights to the ecosystem? Corporations did not exist naturally; they were created by humans. Unlike corporations, environment and human persons are of the same stature, both human and nature came from the same source. They exist and coexist to fulfill their roles in the whole web of life. It is just but fitting to accord rights to nature too, just like humans,” Yolanda R. Esguerra, national coordinator of PMPI asserted.
This bill according to the group will add another layer of protection to existing ecosystems—oceans, forests, mountains, rivers, and seas that are being plundered by big corporations and humans. The current environmental laws will be strengthened and even enhanced by the passage of this bill.