We hope prospective environment secretary Toni Yulo-Loyzaga will take urgent climate action based on the global frameworks and standards on disaster risk reduction and climate resilience in her exercise of leadership.
Being a former executive director of Ateneo’s Manila Observatory and current president of the National Resilience Council, Sec. Toni should understand well the rapidly closing window for climate action over the next three to eight years.
The country’s climate assessment reports themselves have pointed to mining, land conversion, and pollution, among others, as the key drivers of our forest ecosystem destruction and biodiversity loss.
She must stand against the various reversals of regulations on mining undertaken by former president Rodrigo Duterte and impose an omnibus moratorium on all extractive and destructive projects that have not undergone honest-to-goodness environmental due diligence.
The Tampakan Copper-Gold, Sibuyan Nickel, Didipio Copper-Gold, and Cagayan and Lingayen Offshore mining projects should all be put on hold until our minerals management policy framework is rationalized based on sound science and social justice.
Likewise, infrastructure projects such as the Manila Bay Aerocity, Pasig River Expressway, Kaliwa Dam, Gened Dam, Ahunan Hydro Power, and the Panay-Guimaras-Negros Bridge, among others, must cease and desist to address opposition by host communities, local environmental defenders, and independent experts.
The DENR under Sec. Toni can play a pivotal role in negotiating a concrete mechanism for just compensation over loss and damage in the upcoming UN climate talks. The Philippines must compel the top polluter countries and corporations to pay for the billions of dollars worth of extreme climate impacts we have suffered.
Having a background in civil society, Sec. Toni can also be the bridge to land and environmental defenders who are doing important frontline work across millions of hectares of besieged landscapes and seascapes. She must stand with the indigenous people, small farmers, park rangers, sea wardens, and active citizens who have suffered harassment, red-tagging, and deadly attacks for standing up for the environment.
Pundits have noted that Sec. Toni is a cousin of First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos. We hope this does not become an obstruction to the Ignatian values and scientific imperatives expected of her by the scientific, environmental, and climate advocacy communities.#
