By Perfecto Raymundo, Jr./PNA
MANILA — A coalition of environmental groups on Friday called on voters in the May 13 mid-term elections to elect candidates who advocate environmental protection.
In a press conference in Quezon City, the Green Thumb Coalition (GTC) urged the electorate to support candidates whose platform includes solutions to issues on costly energy, waste management, comprehensive land use, mining, climate justice, biodiversity, human rights, and sustainable development.
The GTC, a network of 40 civil society organizations in different fields in the environment that are working on environmental policies, was launched in December 2015 and campaigned for “clean, green” elections in 2016.
In 2016, the GTC had 20,000 volunteers in 14 provincial sorties who campaigned for a “clean and green” polls.
“The GTC believes that the candidates’ commitment to advance policies promoting the environment, sustainable development, and people’s welfare is reflected in the kind of campaign of the candidates who are running,” Paeng Lopez of Health Care Without Harm and head of the GTC electoral campaign, said.
“Apart from their promises, their campaign practices reveal their loyalty — or lack of loyalty – to our environment and our people,” Lopez added.
Meanwhile, Tony Dizon of Ecowaste Coalition said on the eve of the elections, they see many candidates and their supporters engaging in wasteful campaign practices by using unsustainable materials, such as tarpaulins, and generating piles of campaign-related wastes during their sorties.
“This is not a good sign that such candidates, once elected, will truly fulfill their responsibilities as good stewards of the environment,” Dizon said.
The GTC also called on the candidates to commit a zero-waste election, urging them to produce less printed materials and other sources of trash, refrain from plastic streamers, and use other means of avoiding waste in their campaign sorties.
The group also appealed to the candidates to exercise transparency and honesty.
Alyansa Tigil Mina national coordinator Jaybee Garganera, on the other hand, cited the importance of political will in pursuing meaningful change in many areas of environmental policy.
“The protection of our rich ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as reforms in fishing, forestry, mining, energy, waste sector, and the entirety of environmental policy is not possible if we do not elect leaders who have the heart to end the suffering of farmers, fisherfolks, indigenous peoples, and communities who are most affected by environmentally-destructive practices,” Garganera said.
During “green sorties” in the provinces, the GTC gives the candidates the opportunity to present their platforms on environmental laws and issues.
