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"This is the time to look into what the government owes the people of Mindanao after years of warnings, repeated tragedies, and missed opportunities to center human rights in governance and public service."
Pamalakaya said there are several reclamation projects that continue to move forward despite the government’s announced suspension on reclamation activities in 2023.
From an ecosystem service and climate mitigation perspective, mature trees cannot be treated as equivalent to newly planted seedlings.
"Unlike industrial polluters and corrupt politicians, the Greenpeace activists inflicted no harm to the planet, people, and wildlife with their peaceful, non-violent action.”
The organization condemned the detention and called for the immediate release of the activists, saying communities across Southeast Asia continue to suffer from landfill collapses, toxic fires, polluted air, and plastic pollution linked to unsustainable waste systems and fossil fuel dependence.
Jorge Emmanuel, a chemical engineer, cautioned that all waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies emit toxic substances, making them a questionable solution.
Experts and citizens continue to express concern over the resumption of the Binaliw landfill, citing unresolved issues that remain unaddressed by Prime Waste Solutions.
“Placing ancestral domain administration under the DENR will only fast-track corporate access to indigenous territories — streamlining plunder, not stopping it."
“We followed their procedures but they backed down. This is long overdue."
The report highlighted how BACIWA - National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU) denounced the illegal termination of over 59 employees, alongside residents’ complaints that the water they were getting was “dark, smelly, and contaminated.”
A big part of Belen’s recovery was her positive attitude and her determination to move forward.
Cordillera’s rich natural resources have attracted local and international companies eager to profit from them. But for the Indigenous Peoples of the region, everything is interconnected. The destruction of their land means the destruction of their life, culture, and identity. Their resistance to so-called development projects has spanned many decades.
They committed to holding a prayer every first Saturday of the month to pray for justice for the victims amid all the calamities that hit the province.
For environmentalists, the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 only enabled both foreign and local corporations to plunder natural resources through large scale-mining, displaced Indigenous and farmer communities while having no significant contributions to the national economy.
The group called it a “terrible” policy.
“There’s no way that I’ll exchange my son’s life for just mere money. I told them they just need to find my son no matter what.” – a father of one of the missing individuals
International League of Peoples’ Struggle - Philippines warned that the agreement would be used not only for renewable energy but also for “advanced weapons systems and artificial intelligence” to serve as part of the US “imperialist agenda” in a critical minerals race against China.
While groups welcomed the suspension, they criticized the reason for it.
“The government is presiding over the extinction of a profession,” said Hernandez. “We are not just losing fish. We are losing an entire industry and culture.”
The advocacy group said Shell’s profit is a stark reminder of how fossil fuel companies continue to earn money while many people suffer, highlighting that Shell was one of the top 20 highest carbon-emitting entities in 2024.
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