By Wilson Fortaleza*
The Philippines’ contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG)
emission does not even reach one half of one percent of the world’s total, but
Filipinos are paying a hefty price for the massive loss of lives, injuries,
loss of jobs, and the physical destruction of shelters, farms, and government
infrastructures. While those who pollute
the planet most, the filthy rich capitalist countries and their transnational corporations
(TNCs), wallow in wealth in the safety of their highly-secured havens.
The grim images of every typhoon’s aftermath show not
only the horrors of devastation but also the cost that come hard to
imagine. Costs are enormous, but do we
have any idea how much they are in peso or in dollar terms? And who, by the
way, are paying those bills and at what cost?
Storm leaves a price tag
Damage from “Ulysses” (Vamco) as of this writing
remains partial. Preliminary estimates as of November 13, 2020 by the
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) placed damages at P4.254B ($88.29M). Damage from “Ulysses” is believed to be far-reaching than “Ondoy”
(Ketsana) as the former brought more areas under water, including Cagayan, when
big dams up north released waters that exceed their holding capacity.
There are conflicting reports in terms
of the number of fatalities as government agencies issue contrasting figures. The NDRRM counts 42 in its latest report. The
police count is 53. Ondoy, which hit mostly
the eastern and southern part of Metro Manila and Central Luzon, left 747 dead in 2009. Its damage to agriculture was
estimated to have reached P3.1B ($64.3M).
Another report estimated Ondoy’s total damage to have reached $1.09B.
“Ulysses” came just several days after
two powerful typhoons, “Rolly” (Goni) and “Quinta” (Molave) hit the southern
part of Luzon. News reports said the combined damage to agriculture from both
is estimated to reach P4.6B ($95.46M). Total cost of damage from ‘Rolly’, the
strongest as of date for 2020, was P11B ($228.27M).
In
2016, the Philippine government has conducted an official accounting of the
total damages from natural disasters that hit the country from 2006-2015. The 2016 Compendium of Philippine Environment Statistics
(CPES)
came up
with the total of P374B ($7.76B). It includes damage to agriculture worth P225.63B ($4.67B),
infrastructure P81.97B ($1.70B), and private property at P66.598B ($1.38B).
But
another study indicates that damage from the 2013 “Yolanda” (Hyan) alone, the
strongest typhoon on earth ever which killed 6,300 people, injured 28,688, left
1,062 missing persons, 16,078,181 affected
persons, and damaged 1,140,332 houses
have reached P571.1B ($11.85B),
according to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).
In a separate report the International Labor Organization (ILO) said some
6 million jobs were affected in areas hit by “Yolanda”, while another 800,000 were
destroyed by typhoon “Hagupit” (Ruby) a year later.
Who’s footing the bill?
The
PIDS report said the Philippines, based on catastrophe modeling, faces an
annual average of P133.2B losses due to tropical cyclones and P43.5B from
earthquake. Now, how do we fund regular disasters which price come higher than
this average as we have shown above?
The
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRRMF), commonly known as
calamity fund, and the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund
(LDRRMF) have been created for this purpose. Over the last 3 years, however,
their allocation suffered funding cuts when they should be increasing amidst
the intensifying climate crisis. The NDRMFF fund was raised to P38.9B in 2016
from P6B in 2011 but it was cut to P15.755B in 2017. A P30B calamity fund was
proposed for 2019 but it was cut again by Congress to P19.6B. The fund for 2020
was reduced again to P16B. The allotment for the proposed 2021 budget is P20B, only a billion higher
than the newly-concocted P19B fund for ending the local communist insurgency.
Evidently,
this level of funding never meets even the most immediate post-disaster needs
of Filipinos, notwithstanding the bottlenecks and issues of corruption in the response
process. In other words, most of the post recovery efforts come from the people
themselves and, in the case of businesses where 99 percent are micro in scale,
the resiliency of enterprising Pinoys.
For
ordinary workers who earn $6 only in the daily average wage, this glorified
concept of Filipino resiliency is nothing but a leveled up sacrifice in the
face of ever-increasing neglect and hostility by the ruling elite. This resiliency,
I hope, would later advance into a level of resistance; otherwise, the working
class is locked inside this cycle of permanent sacrifice.
The
Filipino people have been making a lot of sacrifices from climate crisis. And government funds regularly allocated for
disaster response are money taken out from the much needed social services. We
should assert that funding for climate change damages must come from external
sources, particularly from Annex 1 countries. Officially, the country
has also been committing significant emission reductions targets (70%) in
climate negotiations. Yet those who are assigned to foot the bill, the highly
industrialized countries, are failing in their financial obligations.
Climate reparation
As the
current climate change narrative departs from natural to man-made causes, so
must the consciousness of the working class is on this issue. For what we seek is
no longer which between the natural and man-made phenomenon has a greater value
in the climate change debate, but who among the most responsible have the
greatest price to pay for the bill for climate damage.
Climate
scientists have closed this ‘natural’ vs ‘man-made’ debate several years back
when they all pointed to industrial activities over the last 50 years or so
which cause the rapid increase in GHG emissions, thus, the rise in global
temperature. In short, capitalist countries which own those great carbon
emitting industries owe developing countries like the Philippines billions of
dollars in climate debt. And since they were responsible for the climate crisis,
they earn a price to pay for the climate damage that is happening in poorer and
most vulnerable countries.
There
is mounting cry for climate justice from the South. There must be reparation
from the North.
But
victims have climate obligations, too, in ensuring reduction in carbon
emissions. Workers do understand this duty as more jobs and sources of life
will be destroyed as the planet keeps on warming. Moreover, we truly recognize
that the only way to stop the planet from heating up further is by shifting the
production and consumption processes in favour of low-carbon economic
activities.
The Philippine labor agenda on recovery
COVID-19
merely compounded these pre-pandemic problems. But decoupling climate from the
health crisis, which the Duterte government consciously does in terms of
emergency response and recovery program, is ignoring the interconnectedness of
these crises and rejecting the viability of nature and employment-based strategy
for recovery in favour of market-based, business-as-usual solutions.
It
is for this reason that workers organizations in the Philippines affiliated
with the broad labor coalition Nagkaisa (United) are pushing for a labor agenda
on recovery which includes demands for income and employment guarantees to address the
deteriorating jobs crisis. Our demand for employment guarantee contains a proposal
for the creation of climate jobs in renewable energy, housing and building
sector, transportation, and nature conservation.
We are advancing this climate jobs agenda based on the principles
that recovery should not just heal but also make people more healthy and
secure; that it does not simply restore lost jobs and free markets but one which
creates green, decent jobs and a sustainable future. We also campaign for a tax on wealth
to finance the recovery and development agenda.
Needless
to say, that recovery from COVID-19 and the transition to a safer and better
world can be made faster and viable when binding climate justice and reparation
obligations replace the menial act of donations and loans coming from the rich
capitalist nations. ###
