Press Statement
September 17, 2024
The weather is getting warmer, many University facilities are being flooded, students are being disadvantaged and in communities whose homes are sinking under the worsening climate crisis. As carbon emissions rise due to the unrelenting use of fossil fuels by large countries like the United States; The impact of the climate crisis on our country has also increased and what is the government doing to address it?
The failed flood control projects and the continued environmentally harmful activities are being granted permits from the Government and Department of Environment and Natural Resources that make large-scale mines, dams, quarrying, and reclamation legal. They failed to address the root of the youth’s basic problems: the lack of academic space, the decaying public service, protection of the environment, and the lack of free and accessible education for all.
Over time, the government’s response was: First, militarization in the countryside that drives the Moros and Indigenous peoples out of their ancestral lands, Second, militarization in communities in both rural and urban cities where schools and universities are bombed, surveilled, and forced students to become brain soldiers and puppet of the state as the main objective of the Mandatory ROTC, and lastly to fascinate those who speak in the real conditions of our society from laws such as the Anti-terror law and the No Permit No Rally policy under Batasang Pambansa 880. Thus, the funds allocated to disaster and education are not enough. However, the budget allocated to the military is much larger than we have expected.
Today, as we commemorate International Students Day and Global Day of Action against the climate crisis and war. We once again call on all young people that we have no future to enjoy under Marcos and his master United States. Meanwhile, now that Typhoon Pepito has entered the country, a new typhoon, we expect many young people like us to spend the night on the roofs of their homes, study at the blinking lights, dream while their bodies are buried in the flood and we hope that we will be able to rebuild our homes through immediate efforts to save ourselves from the climate crisis from donations and “volunteer-based” help. How long will we be able to do this kind of thing as ordinary citizens who are taking steps that the government should take? How long will we be able to make donations?
The world we want is a world that is a disaster-free society, able to adapt, and enjoys nationalistic, scientific, and mass-oriented education. That is why a call to every youth to use our talent and strength to forge a society that puts the interests of the people and planet first. Let’s use our minds to think critically and not be afraid to speak out on what we know is right. The country remains the most dangerous place in the world for environmental defenders because it proves that apart from the climate crisis and the education crisis the worst disaster the Philippines has is the continued plunder of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism in the future of the Filipino youth.
Fight against the climate crisis! Fight for peace! Fight for a Higher Budget for Education! No to Mandatory ROTC!
Photos from PUP Sentral na Konseho ng Mag-aaral
Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines 