“There was no electricity, no fuel, no internet, or any other way to communicate. There was a severe shortage of all kinds of commodities.” This was how the lawyer Byron Bocar, who was in Eastern Samar when Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) made first landfall in Guiuan in the early hours of Nov. 8, 2013,...
Category: Environment
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Environmental concerns stall wind farm expansion in Panay natural park
Had the rain still poured last Sept. 3 when volunteer inspectors arrived at a rugged hilly portion of Panay’s northwestern mountain range, a government-declared protected area, the road being carved out would have become messy swathes of uprooted grasses and shrubs, fallen trees, mud pools and protruding rocks. The earth-moving activities pushed on despite the...
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Plastic producers should help Philippine towns, cities pay high cost of waste management
(Second of two parts) The Philippines is finally going after plastic producers, but some companies are not cooperating Tucked in a corner of the Dultra family’s garage are sacks full of used plastic packaging. There are water bottles and bubble wraps—remnants of the family’s daily living consumption. “Our family has made a practice of keeping...
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The Philippines is finally going after plastic producers, but some companies are not cooperating
(First of two parts) Environmental groups in the Philippines have long advocated for a single-use plastics ban, and hundreds of proposed laws and resolutions were filed in Congress in the past decade to support the call. Nothing prospered. Instead, Congress required the country’s biggest plastic-producing companies to pay to collect and recycle their materials. The...
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Green currency in the ‘era of global boiling’
Green currency serves as a means of exchange at a new park in the central business district (CBD) of Alabang, Muntinlupa City, to propagate trees and plants and promote recycling at the onset of what the United Nations chief calls “the era of global boiling.” UN Secretary General António Guterres’ declaration that “the era of...
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‘Green lanes’ directive seen to speed up $1.2-B floating solar project
SunAsia Energy Inc. and its partner and investor Blueleaf Macquarie Capital have been recognized as the first beneficiary of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order No.18 “constituting green lanes for strategic investments.” At the ceremonial launch of the green lanes attended by the President and held at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila last July 13, the...
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‘Delikado’: forest defenders in the line of fire
The earth’s last remaining forest cover cleans the air we breathe, purifies water systems, provides habitat for plants and animals, and even helps slow down climate change by removing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It benefits everyone, but what happens if trees are indiscriminately cut for the high-value wood, if the most profitable minerals...
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Contract awarded for world’s largest floating solar project
The government has awarded to SunAsia Energy Inc. and Blueleaf Energy the contract to build and operate the world’s largest floating solar project in the Philippines. The project has a cumulative capacity of over 750 megawatts (MW). The move is viewed as a milestone in the Philippine energy sector, with the Department of Energy (DoE)...
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Poachers stepping up hunt for critically endangered animals in Panay
LIBERTAD, Antique—Not only have poachers trespassed on the lush forests of northwestern Panay to cut down rare agarwood trees and collect their precious resin, they are also hunting critically endangered animals, like the Visayan Warty Pig, according to wildlife field researchers. In months-long trips, the research team in the Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park (NPPNP)...
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There’s such a thing as a Rainwater Collection Law
Ever wonder what happened to Executive Order No. 26, which then President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law on May 16, 2017? It was practically a nationwide ban on smoking, with strict guidelines similar to what were imposed in Davao City when Duterte was its mayor. What about Republic Act No. 10913, or the Anti-Distracted Driving...