Is there a ‘green vote’ in Palawan?

13 hours ago 2

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

MANILA, Philippines – Mamilmar Dubria Jr., 28, said he did not expect the barricade to last two months. It started on February 18, 2023, when the residents of Brooke’s Point in Southern Palawan — Dubria among them — camped on the road blocking the passage of mining trucks.

The locals were protesting against Ipilan Nickel Mining Corporation’s operations and their alleged lack of permits. The barricade was a test of principle, Dubria told Rappler. But provisions came their way. Supporters sent rice, porridge, bread.

Police forces dismantled the barricade in April. But their efforts were not wasted. According to Dubria, it ultimately led to talks about forwarding once again the mining moratorium in Palawan.

“Doon nakita ng governor at ng ilang sangay ng gobyerno sa Palawan na marami palang mga sektor ang pumuprotekta sa kalikasan…. Bakit tayo tumatanggap ng mining?” Dubria told Rappler in an interview.

(That’s when the governor and other branches of the provincial government saw that there are many sectors who are protecting the environment. Why are we accepting mining applications?)

Four years later after the barricade, on March 13, Palawan Governor Victorino Dennis Socrates signed the 50-year mining moratorium banning new mining applications in the province.

Socrates is seeking reelection, fighting head to head with San Vicente Mayor Amy Alvarez who hails from the prominent Alvarez clan of Palawan. She is the daughter of Palawan 2nd District Representative Jose Alvarez. The senior Alvarez is running for reelection. Meanwhile, Socrates’ sister Puerto Princesa Vice Mayor Nancy Socrates is also running for another term in city hall.

Dubria, a member of the Pelawan tribe and a youth leader, said they hope that champions of the environment will win in the 2025 midterm elections.

“Mahirap ipaglaban ang kalikasan, lalong-lalong na kung hindi natin kakampi ang gobyerno,” said Dubria. (It’s hard to fight for the environment, especially if we don’t have allies in the government.)

He said be believes there is a green vote, or that people will choose bets who have environmental protection among their priorities. After doing rounds in Brooke’s Point in April, Dubria said he listened to some residents talk about voting for candidates who can take care of the environment following their experience of massive flooding in the town.

Palaweños’ people power

For better or for worse, change is decided by those who are in the halls of power. The successful conduct of an election is a symptom of a working democracy.

But elections can prove to be quite limiting as candidates are often narrowed down to those who come from political clans or those with resources and the machinery to sustain campaigns, or both.

There have been rare instances, however, when ordinary people proved that they can defeat elected officials’ interests through the ballot.

In 2018, Congress passed the bill dividing Palawan into three provinces, which then-president Rodrigo Duterte signed into law months later. Groups opposed to the division went to the Supreme Court to question the law’s constitutionality, but to no avail. The only hope left was the plebiscite.

It took the advocates over a year to convince people to vote no, according to Grizelda Mayo-Anda, executive director of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center.

Their group, part of the Save Palawan Movement, argued that dividing the province would not ease poverty and would risk further exploitation of its natural resources.

“The argument of the environmental groups was, once you divide Palawan, madali na magmina (it would be easier to mine),” Anda told Rappler in an interview. There will be three governors if the division pushes through, said Anda. There will be no contests over territories.

On March 13, 2021, Palaweños voted no against splitting their province into three. The plebiscite took place in the middle of a pandemic. One of the division supporters was then-governor Jose Alvarez.

While the advocate emphasized environmental protection in their campaign against Palawan’s division, Anda, remained a bit hesitant to say a green vote can shape electoral results exists in the province. What she’s firm about is that there are strong anti-mining sentiments runs Palawan.

“But what I can say is from our own limited network of the Save Palawan Movement and the Church…na ‘yung boto na ‘yan, ‘no to mining’ votes ‘yan, One Palawan votes ‘yan (those votes are ‘no to mining’ votes, One Palawan votes),” she said.

Sixteen mining firms currently hold approved mining tenements and contracts in Palawan, according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

Voting green

Palawan’s beauty sprawls from ridge to reef. It boasts of Mt. Manalingahan, Tubbataha Reefs, nd the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park.

When someone says Palawan, a specific image quickly comes to mind: calm waters and overhead, towering rock formations. Lesser known but nonetheless as beautiful are swathes of mountain forests home to diverse flora and fauna.

Elroy John Hagedorn, son of the late Palawan politician and environmentalist Edward Hagedorn, said the people of Palawan are wired to take care of their province.

Palawan, he said, is a very narrow island. The mountains jut in the middle, barring from view the east side of the island from the west and vice versa.

“Kapag pinabayaan mo ‘yung bundok, una, sinira mo ‘yung kalikasan,” Hagedorn said in an interview. “‘Yung hangin mo, hindi na maganda. Tapos, kinalbo mo ‘yung bundok, ‘yung baha, ‘yung siltation na dadalihin niyan sa ilog, sa dagat, ikasisira ng mga corals.”

(If you neglect the mountains, you destroy the environment. Your air quality will deteriorate. When you denude a mountain, the flood, the siltation this will bring to the river, the sea will harm the corals.)

Hagedorn is running for Palawan 3rd District representative, a position held by his late father, a champion of the environment.

He said he wanted to continue his father’s legacy, to “protect the mountains as much as possible.” The elder Hagedorn cracked down on illegal loggers and banned kaingin or slash-and-burn farming.

The province’s economy is reliant on agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and quarrying. Governance in a province like Palawan is governance of natural resources.

Ronald Ona, dean of the College of Sciences at Palawan State University, said Palaweños’ environmental concern could be partly inculcated their culture because of the place they grew up in.

It is probably for this reason that the province bred staunch environmentalists like Anda, the late broadcaster Gerry Ortega, and Angelique Songco, known as the “Mama Ranger” of the Tubbataha Reefs.

Even the late former Puerto Princesa mayor Hagedorn, patriarch of another Palawan dynasty, was opposed to mining.

Ona said there may be a green vote in some towns such as Brooke’s Point, but not in the whole of Palawan. The island, after all, is not exempt from the political dynasties that pervade Philippine politics.

But sense of place remains strong in the province. And compared to other places in the Philippines, the message of environmentalism would resonate more woth the people of Palawan, especially those dependent on natural wealth to support their families.

It was proven in the 2021 plebiscite. Four years later, it’s been proven again by the provincial government’s mining moratorium.

“Pagdating doon sa mga magsasaka, mangingisda, at katulad naming mga katutubo, mas tinitingnan namin kung sino ‘yung mas makakapagprotekta sa kalikasan kasi mas ‘yun ‘yung kailangan namin,” Dubria said. “Kasi doon nakasalalay ‘yung hanapbuhay namin at pagkakakitaan.”

(When it comes to farmers, fishers, and indigenous people like me, we’re looking more at candidates who can protect the environment because that’s what we need. That’s where our livelihood comes from.) – Rappler.com

Read Entire Article