PMCJ on International Human Rights Day: The rotten system is the seed of human rights violations
- Media Communications
- Dec 9
- 3 min read
Quezon City, Philippines — The state of human rights in the Philippines remains bleak. People are left to suffer in the middle as a political battle among the country’s elite, political dynasties, and ruling class ensues. As crooks and thieves in power try to push for which pockets get filled the most, the rights of the majority of Filipinos remain denied and abandoned.
Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) report in 2024 shows that serious human rights violations persisted despite slight improvements from previous years. Extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and harassment and intimidation of government critics continued with impunity. The country also remained the worst in Asia for the killing of environmental defenders. In 2023, the report recorded 17 such killings, the majority involving defenders’ opposition to mining and other extractive activities.
Filipinos are likewise denied their right to a safe and sustainable environment. In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly declared that a healthy environment is a human right. Yet this right is directly ignored, even actively violated, through the continued expansion of fossil fuels, destructive mining and reclamation, and the failed climate change mitigation measures of the government. These actions serve only the interests of the Philippine government and the country’s elites, for profit and power.
The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) has consistently raised alarms about the dangers and adverse effects of the continued use of fossil fuels, not only on the climate crisis but also on the local environments where these dirty energy facilities are located.
In Batangas, PMCJ interviewed residents living near the coal-fired power plant in Calaca, who reported declines in the condition of their environment, as well as harassment from the local government unit for expressing their dissent against the plant’s pollution. Fossil gas plants in Batangas City have also alarmingly increased the number of cardiovascular and respiratory health issues to 10,315 and 17,803, respectively, according to the City Health Office’s 2024 data.
The Department of Health, despite the call for an independent body to investigate the spike in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, remained unperturbed. Exactly denying the right to clean air and a healthy environment. Precisely, the same situation occurs among communities affected by coal-fired power plants.
These environmentally destructive fossil fuel plants are also linked to other activities that outrightly destroy the environment or violate the human rights of communities living in the area. The coal plant in Masinloc, Zambales, has displaced people upon its construction, as well as drastically reduced the fishing yields of fisherfolk in the area. Recently, a dredging operation near the coal plant further affected the fisherfolk who catch fish in the area. In Cebu, residents are harassed and red-tagged for standing against reclamation and defending mangroves against reported cutting by government projects.
Environmental destruction always involves violations of people's and communities' rights. Red-tagging and harassment are routinely used to silence community resistance and quell community outrage over ecological harm. These abuses ultimately serve one purpose: to protect and preserve the ways and means by which corporations and politicians profit from the suffering of communities and environmental devastation. In truth, the most toxic pollution in the country is the rotting system of greed that permeates every level of society.
This systemic pollution requires a massive, urgent cleanup. PMCJ demands justice for all the victims of the system and the rights violations that spring from this rotting system. Though justice for all of us remains elusive, the fight continues for the rights of Filipinos to live their lives on a free, equal, and healthy planet. ###
FOR INQUIRIES:
Christian John P. Argallon
Junior Media and Communications Officer
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
Sheila Abarra
Senior Media and Communications Officer
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
Viber: +639916692356
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