The Philippines joined the youth on every continent for the global climate strike last March 19, 2021 by coordinating various physical and digital actions across the country. Find out below how some Filipino climate activists spent their day that day.
In Makati City, National Capital Region, youth activists brought the fight to the doorstep of Standard Chartered and called for the immediate end of coal investment by the bank. Bank representatives received our demand letter, as well as a giant 60″ x 30″ check displaying the amount of funding provided by Standard Chartered to local companies involved in coal. So, you know, they don’t forget about us too easily. (Photos courtesy of 350 Pilipinas / Leo Sabangan)
Young residents of Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental also took part in the Global Climate Strike with their own witty placards and banners drawing heavily from hugot culture. No matter what our relationship status is, for sure we can all agree that big banks can do much better than their current toxic significant other.
We make our way north from Mindanao to Tacloban, Leyte in Visayas, where strikers held up signs with the calls #CleanEnergyNow, #RaiseYourStandards, and #DefendEnviDefenders. As we should recall, Tacloban bore the brunt of the devastation in 2013 from the costliest typhoon to ever hit the country, Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).
Student activists from Laguna took part in an action outside a university in Los Baños, where they distributed pamphlets on how exactly big banks are funding the climate crisis — a great way to get our message across to people outside our immediate social media bubbles.
Dagupan City, Pangasinan saw a climate strike conducted by the youth and other sectors of society, where they called for an end to coal as well as the rejection of proposed waste-to-energy plants in the province. Pangasinan is home to the largest coal plant in the Philippines, which is owned by San Miguel Corporation, which in turn is funded by — you guessed it — Standard Chartered Bank. Their program was cut short by the police, but thankfully no one was arrested. (Photos courtesy of Anakbayan Pangasinan)
And just look at what these Batangueños did — vibrant, wonderful, beautiful artworks. Our youth strikers from Batangas sure went all the way with their strike in terms of visuals.
We capped the long day off with a short online action featuring Nicole Rath from Urgewald and Eco Dangla from Pangasinan People’s Strike for the Environment as speakers. Participants got the chance to participate in the strike digitally and show off their homemade placards (and what wonderful placards they made, too).
Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines 