Year: 2019

Charter Change under Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and Speaker Gloria Arroyo

A Paper by Atty. Neri Javier Colmenares
DRAFT (December 21, 2018)

Introduction: Worst ChaCha Ever

The current charter change embodied in Resolution of Both Houses No. 15 is, in reality, nothing more than efforts of self-interested politicians to amend the Constitution to perpetuate themselves in power and at the same time further open up the country to rapacious transnational corporations and worsen poverty in the Philippines. Additionally, it deletes and dilutes social justice and human rights provisions while proposing a hybrid federal system which could wreak political and economic havoc in the  country.

Worse, there is a twist in RBH 15 that gives it a chance to be approved, even by the previously non-supportive Senate. Months ago, many were lulled into thinking that the moves to amend the 1987 Constitution is dead, until December 11 2018, when RBH 15 (mainly authored by Speaker Gloria Arroyo) was swiftly approved by the House of Representatives. 

The railroading of RBH 15 is the reason why we cannot be complacent with regards ChaCha even if some senators have proclaimed that “ChaCha is dead on arrival.” This Arroyo ChaCha is different because it contains provisions meant to entice the entire Senate into approving it. 

While RBH 15 professes to being about federalism, it does not actually prescribe a federal system but mainly focuses on provisions that Speaker Arroyo pushed during her three ChaCha attempts when she was President, namely: term extension through cancellation of election, elimination of term limits, and deleting provisions aimed at protecting the economy from transnational corporations and foreign control. Speaker Arroyo and her congressmen then made ChaCha more palatable to politicians by deleting the prohibition against political dynasties which is currently contained in the 1987 Constitution.

Speaker Arroyo, who has long-espoused deleting the provisions restricting foreign ownership of land and other natural resources, has finally succeeded in passing her proposals through RBH 15. This ChaCha will not only constitutionalize self-serving provisions but also take away our last constitutional defenses against countries like China from gobbling up our lands and natural resources. This attempt to force us to dance the ChaCha is serious and cannot be hastily dismissed.

RBH 15 enticing to Senators: The Need to Monitor the Senate

RBH 15 is a trap to entice all Senators, including those who initially opposed it, to approve Charter Change. The Senators who previously opposed ChaCha did so because of two reasons. First, because most of the ChaCha proposals asserted that both the Senate and the House vote jointly, and second, because these proposals practically diminish the power of the Senate by turning it into a regional forum of senators elected by region. One ChaCha proposal even abolished the Senate completely.

What RBH 15 has done is eliminate these obstacles to senatorial support, as it has deviously retained the same powerful Senate under the 1987 Constitution, and has agreed to separate voting by the Senators. RBH 15 also added icing to the cake it is serving the Senators by eliminating term limits, deleting the constitutional ban on political dynasties and opening up the possibility of term extension by cancelling the 2019 elections. All these moves aim to make RBH 15 irresistible to some senators. To cap the trap, RBH 15 does not contain any substantial provisions on federalism, making the Senators less wary of a sudden shift to a federal structure. 

Never has ChaCha been so near to approval than now, and it is wrong for us to assume that pro-ChaCha forces will not exploit this once-in-a-lifetime window of opportunity to change the Constitution.  These are the reasons why we cannot be complacent. We cannot dismiss this as something that will not pass in the Senate, because this is a different ChaCha from those the body had previously opposed. 

We need to monitor any ChaCha movement in the Senate during the period of January 14 to February 12 2019.  If there is a move to tackle Cha Cha during this period then we need to actively oppose this in the Senate. The truth is, if it manages to get Senate approval it will be difficult to battle ChaCha in the plebiscite — the resources of the administration of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte have been used to campaign for ChaCha (whatever proposal that might be) since 2016. Public officials down to the lowest municipal councilors will predictably support this, as it will mean staying in power until 2022. The current repressive political conditions will also undoubtedly make it difficult to campaign against ChaCha before the plebiscite. 

PMPI Statement | January 11, 2019

We, from the Philippine Misereor Partnership, Inc. (PMPI) along with our partner-communities struggling to halt active mining operations in their areas and demanding rehabilitation for abandoned mines, see 2019 as another challenging year in our battle against destructive mining.

During the Holidays, DENR Undersecretary Analiza was jovial announcing that a robust mining industry is in the horizon come 2019 with reference to possible lifting of moratorium on the issuance of new mining permits given the passage of House Bill 8400, a new mining law rationalizing mining industry fiscal regime.

 “How ironic,” said PMPI National Coordinator Yoly R. Esguerra. “How can the DENR Undersecretary be happy about possible upsurge of mining activities that destroy people, culture and environment, when she is from an agency that supposed to protect the environment.

House Bill 8400, An Act Establishing the Fiscal Regime for the Mining Industry shepherded by Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is sadly the first of the few signs that indeed 2019 will become an excellent year for mining companies, undeniably a backdrop of growing aggression against communities and the natural environment. Add to this is the planned TRAIN Law II or the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion dubbed as “TRABAHO” Law, purportedly seeking further rationalization and increase in revenue for the government.

The mining company ecstatically hailed these progressive moves in taxation; moves that will burden many people, moves that WE will not submit and succumbed to as trap.

The HB 8400 and TRAIN Law II for PMPI, are but a clear attempt by this administration to hoodwink the public to appear that a new comprehensive policy framework has been installed to guide the mineral extraction industry in the country. However, highlighting the increased revenues that these policies will generate, it is but a short-sighted intervention perhaps only to comply to a provision in Executive Order 79 Series of 2012 issued by the Aquino Administration that requires a new legislation on mining tax – “No new mineral agreements shall be entered into until a legislation rationalizing existing revenue sharing schemes and mechanisms shall have taken effect. The DENR may continue to grant and issue Exploration Permits under existing laws, rules, and guidelines.” (Sec. 4 Grant of Mineral Agreements Pending New Legislation).

Assuming both policies become effective at extracting revenues for the government, nowhere in the taxing scheme do we see payments for ecosystem services (e.g. carbon sequestration of forests) that will be affected by mining operations, nor just compensation for communities that will be forced out of their homes or for livelihood that will be lost e.g. Agriculture/Food production.

Indeed, 2019 will be a banner year for mining corporations if this government finally gives-in to the pleading and lobbying of the mining industry despite numerous statements by President Rodrigo Duterte that he is against open-pit mining and that the Philippines is better-off without mining. 

For PMPI and SOS Communities, our position remains the same, lopsided policies such as HB 8400 and the proposed TRAIN Law II are anything but money for the government and the mining industry, and continued development aggression against the environment and communities.    

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The Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI) is a social development and advocacy network of 250 plus Philippine church/faith-based groups, non-governmental organizations and people’s organization spread all over the country, in partnership with Misereor, a social development arm of the German Bishops based in Aachen, Germany.

“We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay… There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy. Worldwide there is minimal access to clean and renewable energy. There is still a need to develop adequate storage technologies.”

(Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ (LS), 165 & 26. Emphasis added).

Urgent Appeal for Climate Justice!

The Catholic Church supports the protection of our common good and our common home. We believe that progress can be achieved by sustainable and climate-friendly means. Hence, the Diocese of San Carlos is in opposition with the planned 300-MW coal plant of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) Global. We strongly appeal to them to invest instead their capital in “developing sources of renewable energy” (LS, 26), ever mindful that — if we do not listen to the earnest appeal of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, as quoted above — the most vulnerable victims of such decision with irreversible consequences to our environment are the poorest people.

The call to care for people on the margins of society and our responsibility to care for the diversity of life on Earth, including the ecological systems that support life, are integral to the living out of our mission as followers of Christ for there is a close bond between concern for nature and justice for the poor. These should also inform our considerations on how we ought to invest our God-given resources. As committed disciples of the Lord, we are seriously challenged “to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (LS, 49).

We need to point out the “double injustice of climate change” brought about by our lack of care for our common home — The poor who are more vulnerable to suffer the most from extreme weather events like floods, landslides and typhoons, increasing water scarcity, reductions in crop yields, and rising sea levels that impact coastal cities are the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions — for the fewer goods and services one consumes, the less greenhouse gas emissions one produces.

“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?” (LS, 160)

Philippines lies sixth on the list of most vulnerable countries in the Global Climate Risk Index of 2018. The country recently experienced some of the strongest typhoons in history – Typhoons Yolanda, Lando and Ompong, to which we lost thousands of Filipino lives and billions worth of damaged properties. Negros felt the wrath of these disasters in terms of livelihood, human displacement and agricultural loss.

Our government acknowledged the need to eliminate fossil fuels and fast-track renewable energy through RA 9153. It also ratified the Paris Agreement last year. This aims to limit global temperature rise below 2°C through low carbon development, adaptation and mitigation.

Department of Energy’s Philippine Energy Plan 2012-2030 is aligned with national development directives and global policy frameworks on energy such as the UN Sustainable Energy for All Initiative and the APEC Green Growth Goals. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrote in its 700-page most important scientific report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C released last October 7, 2018 that we have just 12 years left to make immediate, massive and unprecedented changes to global energy infrastructure to limit global warming to moderate levels because failure to do so would mean rising sea levels, more devastating droughts and more damaging storms resulting to famine, disease, economic tolls, and refugee crises. Meeting this goal demands extraordinary transitions in transportation; in energy, land, and building infrastructure; and in industrial systems. It means reducing our current coal consumption by one-third. Therefore, approval of a coal project in Negros will absolutely be in disagreement with these contracts, goals and findings.

Would the Claimed Benefits of Coal far outweigh Its hidden Costs?

San Carlos City was recognized by United Nations as one of the most livable cities in the world. It is  considered as the energy hub of the Philippines and Southeast Asia with its biofuel and solar energy, together with the entire Negros. Not only will a new coal plant stain these existing global recognitions and honors; it will pollute as well the commons (water, air, land), harm human health and downturn community resilience.

It is a human right to live in a clean, healthy and safe environment. All over the country, host communities of coal suffer from health crisis, including premature deaths attributed to currently operating power plants. Recorded attributable diseases are cerebrovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive heart disease, lung cancer and lower respiratory infections. These are caused by toxic heavy metals present in coal ash.

Moreover, the issue of coal is a financial and economic issue. The coal-fired power plant will also deprive residents from enjoying clean and cheap energy from renewable resources.

Fossil fuels expedite climate change. And the impacts of climate change are costly – more than what our country could afford.

Prof. Myles Allen, from Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, UK, made this valuable observation:

“One of the key insights to emerge from physical climate science over the past decade is the longevity of fossil carbon emissions. Once we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, its influence persists indefinitely, continuing to affect the weather and climate for thousands of years. So our emissions today will affect our great-greatgrandchildren, unless an intervening generation steps in and pumps that carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere and ‘refossilizes’ it, a process that would be formidably costly and may not be feasible at all.”

Then he asked a very disturbing and hard question: “But how do we weigh our responsibilities to our distant descendants, who will undoubtedly be living in a very different world to our own, socially, economically and environmentally, against our responsibilities to the poor who are alive today? On an even broader scale, how do we value harm done to the present generation against harm done to the next generation and generations to come?”

Our Pastoral Challenge and Collective Response

We call on the local government of San Carlos City and the provincial government of Negros Occidental to disapprove any proposal or application of SMC Global or any company at all for a coal-fired power plant project. We encourage Negrosanons and local business industries to continue their real efforts towards a more sustainable and cleaner environment. As stewards of the Earth and as individuals with common needs, it is our duty to take care of our home and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Our country, as signatory to the Paris Agreement, should consistently pledge for a greener future. Our national and local government institutions must start addressing climate change issues with solutions-based approaches in accord with the agreement. Locally, as a community of faith concerned for the future of our planet and people, we recommend the following:

• Pledge to reduce emissions, in line with keeping the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels; insist on rapid emissions reduction and peaking by 2030, in order to keep the 1.5°C limit within reach;

• Aim for 1.5°C, encouraging all efforts to reach this limit, which would mean more communities are protected, more people get to survive;

• Demand divestment in fossil fuels and transition to 100% renewables by 2050, and encourage our power sector in the business community to reinvest in renewables and alternative green solutions;

• Advocate the long-term adaptation goal to reduce the vulnerability and build the resilience of communities facing climate impacts, aware that many of our communities are vulnerable to climate related disasters;

• Commit to make San Carlos City an eco-sustainable city, rejecting profit-driven businesses in the guise of development (mining, coal-fired power plants, reclamation development, pollution causing factories and all others that can destroy our environment and communities);

• Involve our barangays for a better climate, for a better environment and for a better governance;

• Involve our communities, churches, schools, organizations and citizenry to be vigilant on environmental issues, promote integral environmental formation, and active mobilization for ecological engagement; and,

From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required…” – (Luke 12:48)

Dioceses of Bacolod, Dumaguete, Kabankalan & San Carlos

Negros Island is so rich in history, culture, and God-given biodiversity and natural resources, surrounded by an abundance of sunlight. Indeed, our island is a renewable energy hub, marked not only by solar farms but more significantly by the expansion of distributed renewable energy generation that truly gives – and brings – power to the people.

In his Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis calls for ecological conversion, for humanity to reduce consumption of coal and other fossil fuels that are major contributors to climate change, and to embrace an energy future that is clean, renewable, and equitable – for the health and well-being of our planet and for our future generations.

Our beloved Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has stated in no uncertain terms that poor people around the world suffer greatly from the climate crisis and fossil fuels are among the main drivers of this injustice.

We are one with our Holy Father in issuing the urgent call to ecological conversion.

Moreover, we recognize that this begins at home, and it begins with each and every one of us.

There are already 9 solar power plants, 8 biomass plants, and 10 hydropower plants in all of Negros with a combined capacity of 579.43 MW. In our dioceses, we are increasingly demonstrating that sustainable energy practices work for us and for our communities. Decentralized rooftop solar energy systems in the dioceses of Bacolod and San Carlos, for example, show how small-scale distributed renewable energy generation is climate-friendly, sustainable, and affordable. The local churches of Dumaguete and Kabankalan are equally committed to seriously implement the Laudato Sí Challenge of the Holy Father and are finding concrete ways to safeguard our environment. These are strongly indicative of the bright future of renewable energy all throughout the province.

In fact, Negros Occidental has been dubbed the Renewable Energy Capital of the Philippines. In 2015, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) stated that Occidental will have the biggest power supply in Western Visayas by 2016, even higher than that of the whole Panay Island.

Data presented by the transmission utility during the Power 102 Seminar and Project Promotion in Bacolod City on November 2015 showed that the province has a potential power supply of 1,028.2 megawatts (MW) for 2016.

Seventy-five percent of this projected power supply is contributed by solar power plants all throughout the province. The power demand of the Negros is reported to be 288 MW thus, there is a projected power excess of about 740 MW.

National Renewable Energy Board Chairman Jose Layug stated in 2017’s Negros Renewable Energy Summit that the region has biomass energy sources that can serve as base load on top of solar and hydro power. DOE also said that with Negros Island’s renewable energy sources, it is poised to become an entirely “green” region by 2030.

Not only is renewable energy functional and accessible, it is also competitive and more affordable. Coal-driven power will never truly be cheap, especially when we factor in the numerous environmental, social, and health costs associated with its usage. In fact, solar power is increasingly becoming the lowest-cost energy option. And with the continuing emergence of storage solutions, renewables will provide greater resiliency and energy independence, immune from the unpredictability of global commodity prices.

From the ground up, a global movement is spreading through major sectors – from banks that will no longer finance coal projects to companies, governments, and faith communities that are divesting from fossil fuels and investing instead in climate-friendly, renewable technologies.

Even entire countries such as the U.K, Canada, Marshall Islands, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and others have established a growing international alliance to phase out coal. Asia is on a similar path with China’s coal consumption continuing to fall as it invests increasingly in renewables, while India aims to install 100GW of solar energy by 2022.

And yet, the dark specter of fossil fuels remains with a proposed coal-fired plant in San Carlos City, hanging over our future, exacerbating climate change, threatening our resources, our environment, our health, and our sustainable development. This, despite the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence that led the U.N. Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC to urge the phasing out of fossil fuels, stating that coal-fired electricity must end by 2050 to address climate change and its dangerous impacts.

Moreover, a coal-fired power plant will take many years and millions to build, adding to our long-term collective debt, and with no accounting for all its social, environmental, and health impacts. Each year, coal-fired plants pump out 146,000 tons of PM2.5, a form of particulate matter roughly 40 times smaller than a grain of sand. They also pump out 197,000 tons of PM10 pollution, a form of particulate matter or dust that is small enough to slip through a typical mesh filter. Studies have long linked these forms of pollution with increased rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases, translating also into billions of pesos in health care costs and lost productivity.

Just recently, over 150 representatives from different sectors culminated a long process of meetings to map out the Negros Island Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to preserve our wondrous natural heritage. Around the same time, the governors of both Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental reiterated their categorical opposition to unsustainable coal-fired power plants.

Let us stand firm together in Negros — with each other and with our civic leaders — to oppose any new coal-fired power plants and to phase out those still in operation, collectively affirming the message of Pope Francis:

“Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments, and increased levels of poverty” (Pope Francis, 2018).

Let us safeguard the gains and success we have achieved so far in improving our

Renewable Energy sources and the huge projected excess power supply. We appeal to our Local Government Units and our electric cooperatives all over Negros not to entertain anymore any proposition of a coal-fired power plant in the province and elsewhere.

Let us work together to increase access to clean, renewable, and sustainable energy.

Let us affirm our commitment to stewardship and to a clean development path that says no to coal and yes to renewable energy technologies that are accessible to everyone, especially our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.

Let us heed the call to ecological conversion and to transformative, renewable power that is shared by all.

Let us live Laudato Si’ together with Mary our Mother and our Patron Saints: St. Sebastian, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Francis Xavier and St. Charles Borromeo.

We make this collegial declaration in preparation for the Solemnity of Christ the King this 23rd day of November 2018.

Signed by:

+MOST REV. GERARDO A. ALMINAZA, DD
Bishop of San Carlos

+MOST REV. JULITO B. CORTES, DD
Bishop of Dumaguete

+MOST REV. PATRICIO A. BUZON, SDB, DD
Bishop of Bacolod

+MOST REV. LOUIE P. GALBINES, D.D.
Bishop of Kabankalan

Appeal by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo – Incoming FABC President for Indonesian Tsunami Victims

RESPECTED YOUR EXCELLENCIES, YOUR EMINENCES, RESPECTED ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS AND FRIENDS,

 At the dawn of New Year 2019 we are horrified by the pre-Christmas tsunami tragedy that struck Indonesia. At least 430 people were killed on Saturday 22 December 2018 when the tsunami sparked by under water landslides from an erupting volcano — swept through the Sunda Strait, leaving about 1,500 injured and almost 22,000 displaced in villages on the Java and Sumatra coasts.

This huge tragedy make me recall the pain and suffering when Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar 10 years ago, some 140,000 lives were lost and 800,000 were displaced.

On the eve of the new year, my thoughts go out to the populations of Indonesia, affected by recent violent natural disasters, which have caused serious losses in human lives, numerous people missing and homeless, and extensive material damage.”

We mourn the numerous deaths and untold suffering the tsunami has left behind at the dawn of the new year 2019.

As a first step, let me invite my brother bishops, pastors and catechists, as well as all religious and lay sisters and brothers to join in praying for the victims and for their loved ones and express our spiritual closeness to those who are affected by the tragedy by imploring God’s consolation in their suffering.

Secondly, in my new year message I join pope Francis to make urgent appeal that these unfortunate brothers and sisters may not lack our solidarity and the support of the International Community.

Thirdly, let us collectively look for ways we could tangibly alleviate the sufferings of our Indonesian brothers and sisters.

1 January 2019
By LAIKO WARRIORS

Last December 11, the House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo approved Resolution of Both Houses No. 15 (RBH 15), which contains a draft Federal Constitution and seeks to shift to a federal form of government.

This draft Federal Constitution, also called as the GMA Federal Charter, contains at least twelve (12) dangerous, anti-Filipino, anti-youth, anti-NGO, and anti-democracy provisions, said the group called Laiko Warriors.

Laiko Warriors is a group of individual businessmen, lawyers, doctors, media practitioners, professionals, lay leaders from various lay and non-lay groups, among others.

Last December 19, or six days before Christmas, they gathered and met, with Manila Auxillary Bishop Broderick Pabillo in attendance. They want to specifically confront the issue of federalism, particularly the GMA Federal Constitution. The group believes that the GMA Federal Constitution, if put into effect, will have grave adverse effects on the lives of Filipino people, and would eventually destroy the nation.

After the studying the GMA Federal Constitution, the group was able to identify at least twelve (12) dangerous, anti-Filipino, anti-youth, anti-NGO, and anti-democracy provisions. These are – –