OUTDOOR PLAYTIME A child of a fisherman at Barangay Lazareto in City of Calapan spends her free time along the shoreline in this photo taken on Monday. The girl is unmindful of the oil spill that hit a large part of Oriental Mindoro in February, with fishers still reeling from its effects. —MADONNA T. VIROLA
Environmental groups lamented that President Marcos’ second State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday only broached the topics of climate change, disaster response and resilience, and the so-called circular economy but failed to address major environmental issues facing the country.
Fr. Edwin Gariguez, lead convener of the Protect Verde Island Passage (Protect VIP) movement, said they were “surprised” that the President chose not to mention the first major environmental disaster under his term—the oil spill off Oriental Mindoro in February.
“Is the plight of more than 24,000 fisherfolk not worth mentioning or is the oil spill now a crisis forgotten?” Gariguez said in a statement.
He noted that the Philippine Coast Guard had already declared the oil spill recovery operation “complete” despite traces of oil on the coasts of Pola and Pinamalayan towns.
Protect VIP recalled that Mr. Marcos had committed to resolve the spill, which came from the sunken tanker MT Princess Empress, in under four months since the Feb. 28 accident off Naujan town.
Water quality
“We take its absence in his speech as his admission of failing to meet his own deadline,” it said.
“President Marcos wants to incorporate and strengthen science-based analysis in the fisheries sector, but this is a contradiction to the real state of affairs in the oil spill-affected waters of the Verde Island Passage,” it added. (See related story on Page A7)
Based on the rapid water quality assessment conducted by Protect VIP on July 17, five out of six marine-protected areas (MPAs) failed to meet the water quality standards for oil and grease after registering a concentration of more than 1 milligram per liter.
“The only MPA that is within the standards of water quality in terms of oil and grease is the Bacawan fish sanctuary in Pola. With this, the pollution level for the five MPAs is high and could ultimately impact the ecosystem within the established MPAs,” the assessment read.
In his second report to the nation, Mr. Marcos stressed that the economic agenda “will not ever be incompatible with our climate change agenda.”
“Climate change is now an important criterion in our integral national policies, in planning, decision-making, up to the implementation of programs. The potential advantages of such enlightened policies extend to jobs and livelihood, with the unlocking of the development of the green and blue economies,” he said.
Mr. Marcos, in his Sona, however, did not mention specific steps to address the climate crisis but noted receiving comments that “sometimes we are overprepared for such natural disasters.”
Reacting to this, Greenpeace Philippines said: “The fact that [Mr. Marcos] was proud of the country being ‘overprepared’ in response to natural disasters shows a lack of awareness of the reality on the ground.”
“When people and the local economies suffer after every major typhoon, that is not preparedness. Data also shows that [many] of our coastal cities stand to lose billions [of pesos] from sea-level rise. We have yet to see a clear government plan to address these climate impacts,” it added.
“Climate agenda? But no word on stopping disastrous mining, reclamation, logging, other oligarchic and foreign companies’ businesses,” said think tank Ibon Foundation.
Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines-Mindanao, for its part, said: “There was no mention [in the Sona] of the reclamation projects throughout the country that not only pose environmental risks but also entail significant social, economic and cultural losses to the communities that will be affected.”
READ:
‘Comprehensive, forward-looking’: Senators pleased with Marcos’ 2nd Sona