Environmental groups, scientists, and community advocates called for stronger government motion on climate change, biodiversity protection, and environmental governance ahead of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), while expressing hope that greater public participation will help address the country’s ecological challenges.
On the “Plundered, Not Poor: State of the Philippine Environment 2026” forum held on Friday on the University of the Philippines Diliman, the speakers highlighted concerns over environmental degradation, extractive projects, and the protection of environmental defenders, while emphasizing the role of residents and communities in advancing sustainable development.
Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC) executive director Mattie Balagat said environmental groups remain critical of the administration’s performance on environmental issues.
“4 years into the Marcos Jr. administration, the decision of the environmental movement is definitive: it’s a failure. We see no real climate motion—only the worsening commercialization of our patrimony, the masking of corporate destruction as ‘green solutions,’ and the violent silencing of our defenders,” Mr. Balagat said.
Living Laudato Si’ Philippines executive director and national convener of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas Rodne R. Galicha said stronger implementation of environmental policies and science-based decision-making are needed to enhance climate resilience.
“Corruption in environmental governance has many faces. It isn’t only bribery or stolen public funds. It also happens when political influence overrides science, when environmental laws are selectively enforced, when public resources finance projects that weaken climate resilience, and when communities bear the environmental costs while a couple of enjoy the advantages,” Mr. Galicha said.
Speakers also raised concerns in regards to the effects of large-scale projects on biodiversity and native communities. Representatives from mining-affected and Indigenous communities called for greater protection of natural resources and ancestral lands.
“I do hope and pray that if you happen to imagine that our forest is value protecting, if you happen to imagine our rivers need to remain clean, that farmers and fisherfolk deserve a future, and that our kids need to inherit a rustic wealthy in life, not only on a matter of resources, stand with us on this fight,” said Zesirie G. Enggo of the Kasibu Inter-Tribal Response towards Ecological Development (KIRED).
KATRIBU secretary general Funa-ay Claver said the shift to renewable energy must also uphold Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
“The transition to renewable energy isn’t ‘just’ if it follows the identical model of land grabbing, rights violations, and company plunder as seen in extractive projects. A really just transition is rooted in justice and respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights to ancestral land and self-determination,” Ms. Claver said.
The proposed Waste-to-Energy project in Smokey Mountain also drew criticism from environmental advocates, who called for greater investment in zero-waste initiatives.
“The federal government must strictly implement RA 9003 and RA 8749 moderately than funding toxic and destructive incinerating false solutions. We demand immediate investment in community-based and humane Zero Waste systems that uplift our marginalized families as an alternative of displacing them. True environmental justice empowers communities to administer resources safely, moderately than burning our future to ashes,” said Shey Levita of Plastic Free Pilipinas under the EcoWaste Coalition.
The forum likewise highlighted the situation of land and environmental defenders. Emmanuel Acosta, convenor of the Defend Negros Network, called for accountability in cases involving human rights violations.
“The federal government’s attempts to cover up the killings and other human rights violations against land and environmental defenders expose its deep complicity in silencing dissent. As Marcos Jr. prepares to tout gains in agriculture and counterinsurgency efforts in his upcoming SONA, the general public must do not forget that the food on our tables has too often been produced at the price of farmers’ blood, spilled within the pursuit of justice,” Mr. Acosta said.
Closing the event, IBON Foundation executive director Jose Enrique “Sonny” A. Africa stressed that development should profit each people and the environment.
“Upper middle-income status from growth that plunders our land, waters, and mountains to complement a couple of while making communities poorer isn’t progress. Our hope for more democratic politics, sustainability, and real development lies within the people, not with the trapos and capitalists who cause the issue to start with,” Mr. Africa said.
Despite the concerns raised, participants expressed optimism that stronger public engagement, accountability, and cooperation amongst communities, scientists, and advocates will help advance environmental protection and sustainable development within the country. — Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba