Written by Francis Dave Orcio
Edited on August 27, 2021
This past few days, Metro Manila and other parts of the country has been experiencing constant rainfall due to Typhoon Fabian enhances by the southwest monsoon according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).
More than 35 flooding incidents were reported in Metro Manila as of June 25 according to Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and as per the NDRRMC, at least 14,000 individuals, where mostly came from flood-prone areas, were evacuated as of June 24. Even the infamous dolomite beach in Manila Bay is not an exception of the adverse effect of heavy rainfall as trash and water hyacinths were washed on its shore.
However, as much as the Filipino people would want to stay resilient in the face of disasters, the country will still experience more powerful tropical storms and are expected to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility in the coming months. On top of that, the country’s vulnerability to typhoon and long-term effect of its aftermath provides more reason to understand the crisis happening in our ecosystem and what are the problems that point to why is climate chaos, not just in the Philippines but in the global context, has deteriorates.
Environment exploitation
Quarrying projects, expansion of real estate projects, hydropower projects, and deforestation are some of the primary concerns that contribute to the deterioration and perishing of watershed, other land and marine reserves, and ancestral domains of indigenous people in the Philippines, mainly in Luzon. According to a Bulatlat report in 2018, Rodriguez and San Mateo, among the most affected by the mudflows triggered by excessive rains, lies within the Upper Marikina River Basin (UMRB) area. This watershed encompasses 26,126 hectares and five areas in Rizal province, namely: Rodriguez, San Mateo, Tanay, Baras, and Antipolo City.
As of June 30, 2021, at least 85 Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) permits were issued by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for quarrying firms in Region 2, 3 and 4A with a total of 130,876 hectares. Most of these firms are operating within the Sierra Madre Mountain Range – which is considered one of the most important of the protected areas system of the Philippines by UNESCO. The figure does not include illegally operating quarrying firms that does not have permits from the government.
The following are the list of quarrying firms as approved under MPSA that is currently operating within Tanay, Antipolo, Rodriguez, and Baras Rizal, and where the Upper Marikina River Basin (UMRB) is also located, as of June 30, 2021.
- Asencio Pinzon Aggregate Corp
- Vulcan Industrial and Mining Corp
- Rapid City Realty and Dev’t Corp
- Teresa Marble Corp
- Holcim Mining and Development Corp
- Golden One Incorporated
- Quarry Rock Group
- Island Quarry and Aggregates Corp
- Quarry Ventures Philippines, Inc.
- San Rafael Dev’t Corp
- Majestic Earth Core Ventures
- Quimson Limestone, Inc.
- Republic Cement & Building Materials
- Hardrock Aggregate Co., Inc.
- Montalban Millex Aggregates Corp.
- Rolando B. Gimeno and La Concepcion Construction and Dev’t Corp.
- Gozon Dev’t Corp
Further, in a 2019 report of Mines and Geosciences Bureau, P220 Billion of mineral exports earned by the Duterte administration. Copper, gold, and nickel are top mineral exports of the country that were delivered to large capitalist countries such as China, Japan, Canada, and Australia. In the same year, the total estimated production value for metallic minerals is P130.73 Billion, up by 7.03% or P8.59 billion vis-à-vis 2018’s P122.14 Billion and are being procured by private and foreign firms.
Recently, President Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) 130 lifting the 9-year ban on new mining agreements. The government’s economic managers said that mineral resources of the country could bring significant benefits to the shrinking economy brought by pandemic and public health crisis. The DENR is expecting P21 Billion that the government could generate from mining projects. As EO reads, the mining industry can also provide raw materials for the Build, Build, Build Program and other government projects amidst the pandemic.
However, according to IBON Foundation, an independent think tank, the bottom line of this mining program of the Duterte administration is not to help ease the economy but to expand foreign interests in mining. From year 2002 to 2020, the annual average contribution of mining to foreign direct investment (FDI) of the country has an insignificant 0.95% or only 39.7 Million USD.
“The gross value added of the mining and quarrying sector grew from Php54.4 billion to Php136.9 billion from 2001 to 2020. But its average annual share in the gross domestic product (GDP) has only been 1.02 percent,” said IBON.
Under other conditions of environment exploitation, a data from DENR shows that only 21 percent of Metro Manila land area considered as green space. Of the 55,922.22 hectares of the entire NCR, only 12,152.79 ha are green space.
Some of the major green spaces in Metro Manila include La Mesa Eco Park, University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City and the protected Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area.
The absence of green spaces in NCR contributes to the rising of temperature. As a matter of fact, the highest recorded heat index in this year 2021 in Metro Manila was recorded on March 19 in Port Area in Manila with 48 degrees Celsius. PAGASA said an area with a heat index of 41 degrees Celsius to 51 degrees Celsius is in the “danger” level as it could trigger cramps and exhaustion, which could result in heat stroke with continued activity.
Green space deprivation also plays a part in flooding of areas in NCR as the region lacks trees, nature reserves, forest that could prevent disasters. However, green spaces are replaced by commercial establishments, real estates, and industrial buildings in which primarily owned by property developers SM Prime and Ayala Lands.
With the escalating number of quarrying operations and other mega projects that are partly responsible for flashfloods, mudflow, and other related catastrophic disasters, areas within the vicinity of Metro Manila will continue to suffer from the effect of exploitation of the environment.
Capitalism as the root of climate crisis
Filipinos and other people around the globe are experiencing significant impacts of climate change. Constant raining, drought, and other catastrophic weather events are among the impacts of this global crisis. One of the driving forces of adverse effects of climate change is the greenhouse gas emissions from human activities that continue rising.
According to climate experts, the level of greenhouse gas emissions is at the highest ever recorded in history. The world’s average surface temperature is projected to rise even more during 21st century and is likely to surpass 3 degrees Celsius this century, and some areas of the world, including the Philippines, are expected to warm even more.
In a larger context, this activity occurs due to multiple productions of capitalist products that produce billions of tons of greenhouse gases creating an immense impact on our ecosystem. That is why the United Nations launches a global program to create a climate deadline on year 2030 to prevent catastrophic climate change that will surely worsen the state of the global ecosystem. The goal is to limit global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius by requiring countries to comply with the guidelines of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development under Paris Accord.
Capitalists are also responsible for issues of water scarcity and food insecurity around the planet. According to the United Nations, humanity’s access to sufficient food and water by the year 2050 will also depends on steps in fighting climate change, while around 2.7 to 3.2 billion people are at risk of facing water scarcity.
And by year 2050, number of people living under risk of flooding will rise to 1.6 billion, including the mean sea level along Manila Bay that is expected to rise another 50 centimeters by the same year.
Capitalism and overproduction
Overproduction creates more waste that pollutes our air and water. Overproduction can be defined as production of more products, commodities, or other substances than what should only be made by the power of labor force in accordance with the demand of the consumers. Thus, prices of commodities fell, capitalist market throws away excess products in the trash instead of giving away to someone who really needs it, industries have to shut down, or workers have to be laid off, which led to a seemingly endless cycle of poverty and capitalization.
Industries must think about what causes the overproduction that makes our environment polluted, and the sources or raw materials they use may be depleted.
The World Bank reports that the world produces 2.01 billion tons of municipal solid waste annually, with at least 33 percent of the waste are not managed in an environmentally safe manner.
The daily per capita waste generation in developed countries is projected to increase by 19 percent by 2050 as they have higher levels of consumption and production. Based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency report in 2012, the United States produces more waste than any other country in the world. The municipal solid waste (MSW) per person per day is 3.2 kilogram, fifty five percent of which is contributed as residential garbage.
The Philippines, among other least developed countries, endures overproduction and capitalization as developing countries only rely on imports of goods and services. Least developed countries produce lower levels of waste per capita. However, commercial and industrial wastes in developing countries have a higher proportion of municipal expenditure in waste management as labor costs are relatively low due to labor exploitation.
Into the bargain, the problem with capitalism is they make their consumers responsible for their overproduction of waste that contributes to flooding and other environmental degradation. The capitalist’s shenanigans to care for the lower-to-middle class by creating less expensive alternative of their expensive products is nothing but full of deception. Millions of Filipinos living in abject poverty has always been in the forefront of exploitation of the capitalist market. And this great treachery of promoting “green” practice adds up to their ingredients of exploiting the masses that also includes cheap labor, overproduction, and unfair labor practice. They exploit people by maintaining the low purchasing power of the labor force and blame them for polluting the environment and destruction of our ecosystem just for the reason that they can only afford retail products.
TNC of the North 