PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) represented a “missed opportunity” to effectively address the climate crisis and the nation’s energy woes, according to the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ).
Sheila Abarra, senior media and communications officer for the group, said the President's reliance on private investment in the energy sector, including fossil fuels, signals a “flawed and inherently bound to fail” strategy.
The SONA came at a critical juncture for the country, now halfway through Marcos Jr.’s term and facing a heightened climate emergency marked by recent typhoons, recurring blackouts and high electricity bills for communities, Abarra noted.
The Philippines is also hosting the Loss and Damage Fund Board and heading into COP 30, where climate accountability will be a key focus.
The recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed that negligence in climate response could be considered a criminal act, strengthening calls for accountability, she added.
While the President acknowledged public frustration over basic services, Abarra said he “placed his bets on the same failed strategy: inviting big businesses to lead the development.”
Abarra argued that viewing energy transition and critical minerals as mere investments is “inherently flawed.”
She criticized Marcos Jr. for not addressing “the elephant in the room: a planned and managed phaseout of fossil fuels.”
While Marcos Jr. highlighted plans to accelerate electrification for four million households and establish one million solar-powered home systems, Abarra said this is “not enough.”
Access would not be equitable “if electricity remains unaffordable, unreliable, and controlled by the big energy power players protected under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act,” she said. She dismissed the lifeline rate subsidy as merely a “band-aid solution” that sidelines structural inequalities.
The PMCJ urges the President to address “the real challenge” of changing systems that perpetuate “extractivist models of development and structural inequalities.”
The group demands “a transition that upholds human rights, strengthens local economies, and restores our planet’s ecological balance,” emphasizing a shift that “goes beyond infrastructure and profits.”
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Amnesty International said they are disappointed at the lack of addressing the political harassment the state has been dishing out to human rights defenders and political activists.
“Government authorities, particularly through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), have increasingly subjected political activists, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and government critics to red-tagging,” the Amnesty International statement reads in part.
This state-facilitated public vilification, which critics say is promoted by harmful legislations and administrative inaction, has disproportionately targeted students, indigenous peoples, LGBTI activists and other members of vulnerable groups.
Red-tagging tactics, advocates say, range from online harassment to offline intimidation, surveillance, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
“Press freedom in the Philippines has been severely eroded,” according to Amnesty International, which notes the country remains one of the most dangerous places globally for journalists.
Leaders and members of Indigenous communities have seen an escalation of killings and other violent attacks. Complex and tedious ancestral domain claiming processes, compounded by corruption, bureaucracy and corporate presence, contribute to life-threatening situations for Indigenous peoples.
With the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) now under the Office of the President, advocates urge the legislative branch to fully exercise its mandate to protect and uphold indigenous peoples' rights.
The Philippine National Police recorded 11,585 violence against women (VAW)-related cases in its Crime Information Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS) for 2023, slightly increasing to 11,636 cases in 2024. Rights groups contend these numbers are underreported.
