CLIMATE justice advocates across Northern Mindanao, including communities in Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte, joined a Global Day of Action on Saturday, Nov. 15, to protest what they call systemic government failures that leave vulnerable Filipinos suffering the harshest impacts of the climate crisis.
The activists’ protests, staged in solidarity with global demonstrations ahead of the UN’s COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil, carried the unified call: “Climate action, not corruption! Declare a national climate emergency now!”
Their actions highlight deep local frustration over the government’s continued reliance on fossil fuels and policies that activists say undermine the transition to renewable energy.
Local communities hit hard
In Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, a town long burdened as part of the so-called “Coal Corridor,” the Barug Villanueva for Climate Justice Movement and Y-CORE (Youth Organizers for a Resilient Earth) staged an indignation protest.
They demanded a just transition to renewable energy and an urgent coal phase-out.
“Their unified voice, raised in solidarity with the upcoming COP30 discussions in Belém, Brazil, underscores the critical role of grassroots and youth-led action in confronting the fossil fuel legacy and shaping a resilient, sustainable future,” said Maty Lyn Amor Sabellano, PMCJ Villanueva Campaigns and Community Engagement Staff.
Further west, the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) Lanao Team led a lightning protest in Kauswagan and Linamon, Lanao del Norte, joined by fisherfolk, farmers, and urban poor groups.
Tresito Fiel, PMCJ Iligan-Lanao del Norte team leader, said the protests strengthened the awareness of participants and onlookers that the “earth heat is already extreme” due to the “proliferation of fossil gas based energy worldwide.”
“The government’s commitment to shift to renewable energy by 2030 has failed because of extreme corruption of the people in power,” Fiel added.
National policy and finance under fire
Nationally, the protest was led by the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and the PMCJ.
Ian Rivera, national coordinator of PMCJ, directly criticized the national government for ignoring calls for a “genuine” energy transition, pointing to the earlier signing of the Philippine Natural Gas Industry Development Act (RA 12120).
“These run counter to the real solutions we are demanding. Communities are losing lives, and their livelihoods are being dismantled. We don’t want any more detours,” Rivera said in an emailed statement.
On climate finance, Ellenor Bartolome, PMCJ senior executive officer on policy, campaigns, and communications, called the $300 billion climate finance target agreed at COP29 a “very bad deal.”
Bartolome noted the inadequacy of the global response, saying: “Even the underfunded and operationalized Loss and Damage Fund proves this gap: a $250 million call for proposals and the lengthy process are meaningless when one super typhoon in the Philippines causes more damage and cannot be accessed in real time for emergencies.”
Laica Rayel, PMCJ’s head of Food, Land, Water, and Climate campaign, rejected the national government’s consistent narrative of Filipino “resiliency.”
“We are in a state of emergency where resiliency is more of a setback than a positive trait,” Rayel added.
The coalition demanded a rapid and just phaseout of fossil fuels, an end to the elite and corporate capture of climate policy, and the upholding of human rights.
