Youth, sectoral groups, and the Catholic church flocked beside the San Sebastian Cathedral in Bacolod City March 6 and called for a coal and gas phaseout in the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP).
The call was made as the groups marked the sixth year of the historic win of Coal-Free Negros, a multisectoral movement that mobilized against San Miguel Corporation’s 300MW coal project in 2018, its press release said.
Then Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. signed Executive Order 19-08 on March 6, 2019, declaring Negros Occidental coal-free amid consecutive strikes led by the Youth for Climate Hope (Y4CH) and relentless pressure from civil society.
The groups highlighted increasing concern over the development of the fossil fuel industry in the DOE’s PEP, which includes rapid expansion of indigenous gas and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), adding that both fossil fuels are “as dirty as coal”.
The PEP, they claimed, also does not have a “fair and equitable fossil fuel phaseout”, which is critical to ensuring that the Philippines is aligned with the 1.5C survival pathway.
“Keeping to 1.5C affirms the rights of nature and of people to exist. This commemoration reminds us that the voices of the youth and communities can shift the tide amidst this worsening climate crisis. There is no place for fossil fuels in Negros, and there should be no place for fossil fuels in the entire country – the PEP should ensure its eventual phaseout ASAP, but instead gives it license to develop. It is the poorest of the poor who will suffer the consequences of their decisions,” Rev. Fr. Julius Espinosa of Caritas Foundation said.
Y4CH core member Kyle Villariza said the upcoming elections will also be a critical point in advancing a true fossil-free province and country.
“Many of the authors of Republic Act 12120 (Philippine Natural Gas Industry Development Act) are up for re-election despite their brazen betrayal of public interest. But this anniversary reminds us that if we can win the coal fight in Negros, then we can win everywhere.”
The authors of the Philippine Natural Gas Industry bill are senators Raffy Tulfo, Imee Marcos, Win Gatchalian, Chiz Escudero, Joel Villanueva, and Pia Cayetano, the Y4CH said.
“Marginalized groups, including the youth, are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. On the sixth-year-mark of Coal-Free Negros, the push for a just transition to renewable energy and the phase-out of fossil fuels remains strong in the province. We demand for more than survival. We demand a just and healthful ecology for all of us, and for generations to come,” the groups said in a joint statement. ||
