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"We host dams, geothermal plants, and windmills, but we don’t even get electricity. The power is used for industries and businesses, not for our communities."
It will promise bold action and demand reparations and climate finance from the Global North while boasting about its role as board chair on loss and damage. Beneath this spectacle, the government glaringly tramples climate justice at home
Across the Philippines, many communities are losing their livelihoods and homes in the name of so-called development projects causing environmental destruction. With Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s presidency already at the halfway mark, the state of the Philippine environment is caught between lofty climate pledges and worsening ecological destruction.
“Quezon’s impacted communities and their supporters have spoken: we want a sustainable energy future, not coal or gas. Already, Meralco is facing much controversy for its skyrocketing electricity rates, unreliable services, and anticonsumer contracts,” said Gerry Arances, Convenor of national consumer group Power for People Coalition.
“Large-scale mining and energy projects are being rebranded as ‘green solutions.’ But the cost is high: massive excavation, deforestation, and the displacement of communities. These projects worsen landlessness and threaten food security."
The Cordillera region, with 5.5 million hectares of drainage area, is considered the "water cradle" of Northern Luzon. Its watersheds feed six major river systems, and have an estimated generation potential of 3,600 megawatts, according to the Department of Energy. With this substantial potential, the Cordillera region is again in the spotlight regarding dam-related conflicts more than five decades since the proposed Chico River Dams ignited popular resistance.
"A just transition to jeepney modernization entails putting critical infrastructure in place and empowering small cooperatives while developing renewable energy sources."
Upper Katablangan in Conner, Kalinga enjoys 20 years of nearly uninterrupted power supply from the community’s micro-hydro project this year. This remote community located 20 kilometers from its nearest neighboring barangay could be reached with an eight-hour trek up a perilous foot trail when it is rainy or two hours on expertly-driven motorcycles when the road is dry enough. It is one of the first barangays in Abra, Kalinga and Apayao provinces to build a micro-hydro power plant for electricity, a vital service often taken for granted in lowland communities.
It took the community four years to construct the dam and the canal towards the power station. Aside from their labor, the community cut trees for lumber as their contribution to the project. They built a cement platform for the machinery and a small building for the power station. The community’s remoteness prevented them from bringing motorized machines to help them; everything had to be done by hand.
It was an opportunity to see the scenery of the countryside in the provinces of Laguna and Rizal, to do kamustahan and exchange banter with local folks, and to see how far our rural areas have progressed.
Despite feasibility, more and bigger renewable energy production in Mindanao are being discouraged by several factors.
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