Beyond its homilies and demonstrations, the Church continues its relentlessness campaign against coal-power plants, this time by going after the investors of the controversial energy facilities.
During a press conference on Thursday, Caritas Philippines, the Diocese of San Carlos and the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) announced that the institutions of the Church are mulling over pulling out their fund deposits in banks, investing in coal plants.
This will serve as the Church’s last resort in case the banks refuse to “divest” their investments from firms behind coal-power plant operations to more sustainable sources of energy.
The three proponents of the recently launched Malinis at Murang Kuryente for Filipinos (MMK) campaign said this is their response to the appeal of Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si, which calls on the faithful to shun dirty, destructive and costly energy projects, such as coal plants.
Ongoing talks
Bishop Gerardo A. Alminaza of San Carlos, Negros Occidental, said they would initiate talks with the banks, which have Church funds.
“Our first step is we will make our intention clear to them and appeal to them to divest…our next move will depend on their reaction,” Alminaza told reporters in an interview.
In his diocese, he noted he already sent feelers with officers of the banks to discuss the issue.
Citing the report of Global Coal Exit List, Caritas Philippines Executive Sec. Edwin Gariguez disclosed that coal developers have loans and underwritings with three banks.
The banks are Banco de Oro-Unibank with P1.3 billon; Bank of the Philippine Islands with P1.2 billion; and China Banking Corp. with P1.1 billion.
“We, therefore, call on these banks to consider the environmental, social and economic impacts brought about by their continued coal support, and begin to move away from giving financial support to such projects,” Gariguez said.
Joint action
The position, Alminaza said, has already been approved in principle by the majority of the members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in their last plenary meeting.
He said they hope the CBCP will be able to come out with an official position paper on the matter on their next plenary meeting on July.
“Before we also made the same move for gambling and mining, but this will be the first time we will come out with a explicit message on the issue,” Alminaza said.
GCCM-Pilipinas National Coordinator John Din said a similar action plan is currently being discussed among the religious orders in the country.
“We have 85 to 86 dioceses, but we have more religious congregations than that. Imagine if just one congregation has P1 million as an investment, you can imagine the power and pressure to the banks to divest from bank investments,” Din said.
Government role
Gerry Arances, one of the civic leaders pushing for coal-free Philippines, said there are currently 28 coal-power plants operating in the country, and another 30, which are now in the pipeline.
Since they started their anti-coal campaign in 2012, Arances said they were already able to “freeze” the operations of coal plants with energy capacity of 6 gigawatts.
But he noted more must still be done, particularly from the government side, to completely stop the operation of coal-power plants, since it is a threat to public health and the environment.
He explained this was the reason they are opposing Executive Order 30 of President Duterte and the pending Murang Kuryente Bill in the Senate, which, he said, promotes inefficient sources of energy like coal plants.
“As long as the government supports it and the policy is still in place, then that will serve as a market signal for investors to ahead with it,” Arances said.
Image credits: CBCPNews