As the May 9 elections draw near, environmental groups under the Panatang Luntian launched on March 26 a fact-checking study to assess the positions and track records of candidates on Philippine environmental concerns.
“Our #EnvibeCheck is a research project that we made as a community to draw the line on who are the greenest and dirtiest candidates today,» Leon Dulce, head of secretariat of Panatang Luntian, said in a statement.
“We want to educate the public on how their vote can affect the lives of more than 40 million fellow Filipinos dependent on our environment and natural resources,” Dulce said.
Dulce, national coordinator of the Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE), said the research data challenged national candidates to do better by taking the pledge to uphold the pro-environment Pantang Luntian agenda.
The fact-checking study covered research on environmental pronouncements and track records of eight presidential and six vice-presidential candidates on issues surrounding extractive and destructive projects, waste management, just energy transition, green spaces and mobility, environmental defense, climate justice, and biodiversity and environmental conservation.
The full details of the study #EnvibeCheck is accessible for public viewing.
Why the need for ‘green’ candidates?
When asked why there is a need for green candidates, Dulce told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on March 30: “Pro-environment leaders in government help enhance and enforce our environmental laws that benefit more than 40 million natural resource-dependent Filipinos.”
He added: “A green leadership is crucial in the remaining eight years where the Philippines can make or break its urgent response to the ecological, climate, health, and human rights crises we face.”
According to Dulce, the next president must prioritize the immediate end to the extractive and destructive projects—like mining, dams and reclamation—that cause immeasurable damage to our ecosystems and depletion of our natural resources.
“They must nurture our watersheds, protected areas and natural resource corridors, and empower the various land and environmental defenders protecting them,” he said.
The leaders, he added, “must take drastic action in demanding just compensation from the top climate-polluter countries for causing widespread loss and damages to vulnerable nations such as the Philippines.”
According to Dulce, the next administration must usher in doable steps toward the just transition of the economy to clean energy, mobility, green jobs and urban renewal.
Mainstreaming environment in policy discourse
As the election noise intensifies, environmental groups noticed the environment and climate change concerns are seemingly being left out, if not sidelined by pressing social, economic and political issues.
Dulce said: “We are seeing less and less discourse over social media and coverage over news regarding the environment and climate issues.”
He maintained that environment and climate discourse is greatly lacking among candidates and the public.
“These issues are not considered gut issues [that is why] they are slow at the onset and infrequently [discussed] compared to daily economic hardships. The marginalized communities in far-flung, underserved areas who are the frontlines of these ecological impacts are unfortunately far away from public view and concern,” Dulce said.
Green deals, climate leadership
In the first 100 days of the new administration, Dulce said the country’s leaders must immediately set to work on implementing a moratorium on extractive and destructive projects.
“They must also pass a People’s Green New Deal that would inject emergency economic stimulus into green solutions for the persisting pandemic and climate impacts our countrymen are still suffering from,” he said.
Chuck Baclagon, the regional finance campaigner of 350.org, highlighted the need for climate leadership given the country’s status as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change effects.
“Climate leadership is of utmost importance in our part of the world given our status [being] among the countries that are at the frontlines of climate-induced disasters,» Baclagon told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on March 29.
He added that protecting the environment and responding to the challenges of climate change directly translates to social and economic benefits for the Philippines now and for generations to come.
Putting the green agenda forward
“We have less than a decade to get climate change under control. Our leaders need to do more on climate action. That is why we hope that the candidates vying for the highest position in this coming elections should put forward an agenda that puts communities and ecosystems ahead of corporate interests,” Baclagon explained.
Beyond the candidates, environmental groups and advocates are building up an informed electorate that votes for candidates based on their platforms as well as their track record of standing up for the interest of the people and the planet.
He said that as a climate-justice organization, 350.org believes that the most urgent task for the incoming president is about ensuring our country’s capacity to thrive amid the climate crisis.
“Our failure as a country to take decisive action on climate change sends a message that legitimizes the current inaction of big historical and per capita emitter countries,” he explained.
Sadly, Baclagon said that among the candidates only two, who have a proven history of being involved in environmental-justice work even before they entered the electoral race, have articulated clear programs of actions.
“But as far as the entire electoral discourse is concerned, we think more efforts should be done by the candidates to explore the intersectionality of democracy, human rights and economic development with environmental protection,” he pointed out.
‘Tragic’ reality
Baclagon described as tragic what is currently happening in the electoral debates with the environment and climate being sidelined in the electoral discourse.
However, he explained that the election is also happening under a unique set of circumstances where there are clear lines drawn between values translated into electoral platforms.
On the one hand there are candidates who instead chose to valorize through historical revisionism, a status quo that married crony capitalism with environmental plunder, undermine historical grievances that cost the lives of Filipinos and wrecked the Philippine economy.
On the other hand, he noted that there is also a pushback that champions active citizenship and restores governance that respect democratic institutions and fundamental principles like human rights, press freedom and defense of national patrimony.
Asked what are the most serious environmental and climate change problems the national and local electoral leaders should prepare for, he said it is the transition from fossil-fuel-based to clean, renewable energy sources.
“We believe that a government’s seriousness in climate action is best measured in its energy policy. We hope that whoever wins this election would build on the major wins that have been achieved by the campaign for energy transition during this regime, such as the Department of Energy’s recent moratorium on coal power plants,” he said.
According to Baclagon, securing a renewable energy future does not only limit pollution and mitigate carbon emissions. It also ensures stable and equitable access to power for an archipelagic country like the Philippines.
“Whoever wins the elections, it is incumbent on the new government to prioritize the provision of affordable and reliable electricity for all Filipinos,” he said.