Civil society organizations, churches, and environmental groups in the Visayas mobilized recently for the annual Global Day of Action for Climate, calling for an end to the country’s fossil fuel dependency that contributes to worsening climate disasters and the suffering of ordinary Filipinos.
The five simultaneous candle-lighting actions from areas in the Negros Island Region, Central, and Eastern Visayas are in coordination with a national effort across the country for the Global Day of Action, in response to a global call in the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“Most areas in the Visayas have experienced one or more life-changing climate disasters. You might expect that communities would eventually learn to recover faster, as typhoons are common in a country like ours. However, with the worsening state of our climate, incoming typhoons are not only increasing in frequency but also intensifying in strength,” Power for People (P4P) Visayas representative Griderick Alila said in a statement.
In Bacolod, the Negros-founded Youth for Climate Hope held a street mural activity and a candle-lighting and prayer circle at the Pope John Paul Tower, one of the city’s Catholic landmarks.
The Diocese of San Carlos, headed by Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, also organized their symbolic candle-lighting and ringing of cathedral bells, resonating their “shared call for climate justice”.
“Our world is desperately trying to juggle two things, trying to provide for all of us and getting our full attention. The five consecutive storms recently are desperate pleas of our hurt Earth, and today, we answer to Earth together,” Alminaza said.
“We are here, and we will be fighting with, and for you. My prayer, alongside others, is that this nationwide effort changes our Philippine government’s mind when it comes to welcoming more fossil fuel in our country. Look at all our brothers and sisters’ eyes, the very vulnerable to the climate crisis, and tell them they will have a just and clean future, rid of profit-driven dirty energy projects,” he added.
In Eastern Visayas, fisherfolk communities gathered for a candle-lighting activity at Pope Francis Village in Diit, Tacloban City, one of the relocation sites where fisherfolk were resettled after the devastation of Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013.
Advocates also staged mass action in two areas in Central Visayas: Toledo City and Bohol.
In Toledo, communities held their candle lighting near the Therma Visayas Incorporated (TVI)’s Units 1, 2, and the Unit 3 expansion coal-fired power plants. This was followed by a ‘sticker bombing’ activity on Colon Street, Cebu City, with statements against the Aboitiz-TVI coal-fired power plants and calls to end fossil fuels.
During the culmination of their school event, Bohol’s mass action had their candle-lighting activity inside the Holy Name University Campus grounds, with “fossil fuel phase-out now” as the activity’s main call. ||
