GREEN JUSTICE | Environmental groups decry Duterte’s neglect in protecting environmentalists

December 8, 2021 , 04:05 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(December 8, 2021) – Environmental groups on Wednesday called out the Duterte administration for failing to ensure justice for the killings of environmental rights defenders in the country, considered one of the most dangerous countries for environmentalists in Asia.

Observing the upcoming International Human Rights Day on Friday, Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) is holding President Rodrigo Duterte and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) accountable for failing to implement environmental laws and defending environmental defenders.

“The very people who are sacrificing their lives for the sake of preserving the environment are the ones who are being killed,” ATM national coordinator Jaybee Garganera said in a forum. “This is the height of injustice as environmental rights defenders neither harm nature nor communities.”

A report from rights organization Global Witness last September found that 29 out of 227 lethal attacks against environmentalists across the world occurred in the Philippines alone, making the country the third most dangerous in the world for green advocates.

“What is more disconcerting is that the killings are directly related to the protection of forests and natural resources of local and indigenous communities,” Garganera said.

In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), Duterte assured that addressing the climate crisis will be his “top priority” under his administration, although he said that this won’t come at the expense of the country’s industrialization.

Duterte had appointed the late Regina Lopez, a staunch anti-mining advocate, as the environmental secretary until she was removed in less than a year. He has since reversed the agency’s mining policy under her term, lifting the moratorium on mining applications earlier this year.

Myrna Duyan of Tuwali indigenous women and human rights group Bileg Dagiti Babbe shared that their community barricade in a mountainous town in Nueva Vizcaya was violently dispersed last April by over a hundred police personnel. The barricade was set up to stop mining firm Oceana Golds from further operating.

“An indigenous leader was stripped of his clothes, handcuffed and beaten, and illegally detained by the police,” Duyan said. “Indigenous women leaders and community members also suffered physical injuries, and psychological and emotional trauma.”

Garganera decried the “shrinking democratic” space in the country due to the Anti-Terrorism Act and the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), exposing environmental defenders and indigenous people to harassment.

“Just like anyone else’s, the human rights of environmental rights defenders should be upheld and protected by the State. But the grim reality is: we, who struggle for the rights of our communities and the environment, are the ones being harassed, our rights violated,” he said.

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