photo from DavaoToday.com
With over 16 million votes garnered in the 2016 elections, presumptive president-elect and outgoing Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte captured the pulse of protest of the Filipino people. Riding on firebrand criticism against the elitist and anti-poor Aquino administration, Duterte has garnered the largest number of votes in the history of Philippine elections.
We in the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment welcome the Duterte administration’s call for change. We challenge the new President to break free from the anti-environment and anti-people policies of the past Arroyo and Aquino administrations that have resulted in the massive destruction of our ecosystem, rapid depletion of our natural resources, and heightened repression and impunity against the people.
In the recently concluded Green Vote electoral platform campaign, we identified positive track records of Mayor Duterte on environmental protection. I personally witnessed how Mayor Duterte engaged and supported environmental activists in their cause against large-scale mining, toxic aerial spraying, and various land grabs of the ancestral lands of Lumads. Davao City is only one place in the Philippines that bans large-scale mining and aerial spraying. We counsel him to replicate his good deeds at the national level.
But with the pros come the cons. We know Mayor Duterte was an unapologetic supporter of Aboitiz coal-fired power plant project in Davao City. He also welcomed the establishment of vast tracts of agri-industrial plantations. Mayor Duterte rationalizes that these would bring progress to Davao City and would outweigh the negative environmental impacts, a justification used time and again for various forms of ‘development aggression’.
“We did not see any substantial policy platform on the environment during Duterte’s campaign trail and we have not seen them until now “
This time of transition period is especially of concern, where the Duterte camp begins to flesh out the strategic direction of the new presidency. We did not see any substantial policy platform on the environment during Duterte’s campaign trail and we have not seen them until now.
Will there be a change in institutional policies leaning towards the protection of our environment, wise utilization of our natural resources, and comprehensive rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems? Or will his administration just continue the destructive policies of the past administrations? The protection of the environment holds much of the fate of the people, especially the poor. We will hold the new president accountable to his words and promises, to embody the title of his long-running news program, Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa—from the masses and for the masses.
There is already much anxiety and doubt among environmentalists upon learning who are closest in Duterte’s circle of power. Among Duterte’s economic team are corporate loggers and miners Tom Alacanara, Paul Dominguez and Carlos Dominguez, who are part owners of Sagittarius Mining Inc. (SMI). SMI owns the controversial and much reviled $5-billion gold-copper mining project in Tampakan, South Cotabato.
Carlos Dominguez, likely a candidate to the cabinet, was the president of the Lafayette Mining Philippines that caused massive fish kills and a health crisis in the island of Rapu-Rapu, Albay. Paul Dominguez and Tomas Alcantara are owners of Alsons Consolidated Resources (ACR), which has major stakes in large-scale mining, logging and power mostly located in Mindanao. They own the 210-megawatt coal power plant in Maasim, Sarangani province. The Dominguezes and Alcantaras were one of the financiers of the Duterte presidential campaign.
Worse, when the economic team of Duterte laid out their eight-point agenda, it reiterates that it will continue to give more privileges to foreign corporations to entice them to invest in the country. Economic charter change was also an immediate deliverable they promised.
Duterte’s first hundred days, or less, in Malacanang will show his mettle if he will stand for the people and the environment. With his newfound authority as the most powerful man in the land, we environmentalists challenge Duterte to take on the ‘Eco-Challenge’ of 12 immediately doable actions for the environment:
These are doable and achievable, and the Duterte administration can at least make public pronouncement with regards to these issues. Tough-talking Digong Duterte can and should rise above traditional politics and walk his talk, especially on these urgent environment issues.
Clemente Bautista is the national coordinator of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, one of the convening organizations of the Green Vote 2016 election campaign
