PROTESTERS stormed Mendiola Street in Manila on Friday to condemn the Aquino administration’s slow response to the disaster caused by El Niño in various parts of the country.
The rally, which coincided with the celebration of Earth Day, was led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and environmental group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE).
Protesters came from Metro Manila, Mindanao, Batangas, Cavite and Laguna.
The Earth Day celebration was marked by the country’s signing of the Paris Agreement, a legally binding agreement forged between United Nations member-countries held in Paris, France, in December last year, to reduce carbon emission and limit global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje signed the agreement for the Philippines in behalf of President Aquino. The protesters blamed the environmentally destructive projects that contributed to the effects of the El Niño, which is strongly being felt in various parts of the country.
Pedro Arnardo of KMP-Southern Mindanao said the drought is aggravating the situation in the countryside, wherein farmers are already suffering from hunger and extreme poverty, particularly in Mindanao, where a bloodbath ensued as the police dispersed protesters to demand for government support.
“We still don’t have land to call our own, and seeds and water to start our farming again. Conversely, the government has provided full support, like irrigation, subsidies and land provision for foreign agro-corporations, like Del Monte and Dole, which already own thousands of hectares of land at the expense of our communities and forests,” Arnardo said in a statement.
The projects, the GAIA Environmental Information System, also made deforested areas and adjacent communities more prone to flashfloods.
GAIA said deforestation and land degradation are two of the major environmental issues in South and Southeast Asia. Conversion of forests into agricultural lands, urbanization, commercial logging and forest fires are among the major reasons for the degradation of natural resources in the region, it said.
Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE, said the Aquino administration should be held responsible for the crisis.
He noted that, as early as 2014, the country’s weather bureau already predicted that El Niño will cause intense drought, yet, the government failed to prepare adequately to mitigate its effects.
“The people have, thus, been yoked both by the extreme climate impacts and the long-standing conversion of vast tracts of forests into agricultural plantations, mining areas and logging concessions,” Bautista lamented.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has identified 21 provinces in seven regions in 2014 that will be badly affected and may result in water, food and power shortages.
This year the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said a total of six provinces, 12 cities and 17 towns have been placed under a state of calamity because of the drought.
As of March a total of 253,000 hectares of agricultural land were affected, resulting in a loss of 384,000 metric tons of agricultural crops, based on Department of Agriculture data.
Petti Enriquez of Bukal, Batangas, who is leading a campaign against coal-plant expansion in Batangas province, said: “Both drought and pollution bring more hardships to our communities.”
El Niño’s effect, she said, is being aggravated by the air and water pollution coming from coal power plants adjacent to communities.
“Our agricultural harvest is consistently on a significant decline. At the same time, there is an increasing incidence of respiratory illnesses, like asthma and cough, particularly among children,” she said.
Bautista added that, “until now, there is not enough relief given to the drought-affected areas and families.
“While the government said it has already released more than P1.2 billion worth of assistance, we have heard no food assistance has been given to the affected areas in Metro Manila and regions in Luzon and the Visayas. But worst of all, it continues to push for projects that will worsen the already climate-vulnerable situation of people in these areas,” he said.
Bautista said big-ticket projects, like the coal power plants in Batangas, Quezon and Palawan; reclamation projects in Metro Manila and Laguna; big dam projects in Rizal, Iloilo and Nueva Vizcaya; and expansion of large-scale mining in different areas, will not only bring more environmental devastation, and more community displacements, and worsen the country’s vulnerabilities to climate change.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez
3 comments
HINDI na BAGO ang mga PROPAGANDA ng mga Kumunista laban sa sistemang KAPITALISMO at ELITISMO ng gubyerno ng PILIPINAS…..CONSISTENT na ANTI-GOVERNMENT ang grupong Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas at ang Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE)… KONTRA sila at hindi sila nag-eengaged at lumalahok sa lahat ng PROGRAMA at PROYEKTO ng gubyerno…
Kahit na sinong Presidente ng Pilipinas ang maupo sa MALAKANYANG (from Cory, FVR, ERAP, GMA hanggang kay Noynoy Aquino), KONTRA ang mga Kumunista…
Thanks for your comment, neilabarca. Communist or not, we all need to look at how people in government runs our country. After all, we are all in the same boat and we have to make sure that our government is doing its best for the people.
Thanks for your comment, neilabarca. Communist or not, we all need to
look at how people in government run our country. After all, we are
all in the same boat and we have to make sure that our government is
doing its best for the people.