Kalikasan PNE condemns the recent harassment of four artists involved in the construction and burning of an effigy in line with the State of the Nation Address protests last July. The complaint, alleging that a violation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act took place with the burning of the effigy, amounts to nothing else but the weaponization of law against freedom of expression.
Effigy burning has been an aspect of civil society protests for years, as a manifestation of artistic expression. It is not carried out as a means of discarding waste, and is instead clearly a component of the artistic work that expresses the legitimate dissent of the people against anti-people and anti-environment policies of past and present administrations.
It is therefore alarming that the police are using this law now to harass and persecute activists for carrying out what is a longstanding practice in civil society expression in our country. This is undoubtedly connected to the broader trend of attacks, harassment, and killings of human rights and environmental defenders that have continued under the Marcos Jr. administration. The weaponization of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act only makes it clear that state forces are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to silence activism in our country.
Furthermore, it is hypocritical for state forces to come after activists using this law when it is in fact the state that has failed to carry out its mandate to implement the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. For example, the National Solid Waste Management Commission has failed to release a list of Non-Environmentally Acceptable Products and Packaging for over two decades since the enactment of the law, and in effect has failed to act on growing environmental issues like single-use plastic pollution. As such, the major producers of such pollutants such as multinational companies have continued their destructive practices without any repercussions.
We echo the calls of other progressive groups in demanding that the charges be dropped against Max Santiago and three other artists involved in the production and burning of the effigy. Even if we consider the pollutants generated over the years by effigies that have been burnt in militant protests, these are a drop in the ocean compared to the pollutants generated by the wasteful and ecologically-untenable business-as-usual practices continued by the Marcos Jr. administration on a daily basis. If the state is serious about clamping down on pollution, it should instead go after the major polluters — the companies and corporations behind massive plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in our country, as well as their backers in government.
