Government inaction on climate crisis: Media highlight primary concerns

By Leah Perez

Without understanding the urgency of the challenge, there is only the slightest possibility that Filipinos can depend on this administration to provide measures to mitigate the effects of these disasters. 

ORDINARY PEOPLE have little control over climate change and its impact on their lives. Confronted with multiple crises in recent years, some communities dealt with disaster after disaster resulting from severe weather phenomena. 

The Philippine archipelago lies on a major frontline of the global climate crisis. The Pacific Ocean is the “largest climate determinant on earth.” The currents of this body of water, the wind and rain that rise from its surface influence the flow of the seas and rivers in Asia and shape its weather patterns. 

But our islands and communities bear the brunt of the Pacific’s first strike. In 2022, super typhoon Karding (Noru) and tropical cyclone Paeng (Nalgae) killed hundreds of Filipinos and rendered many more homeless, unable to rebuild what shelter they had. 

On this front, there is little that individuals and communities can do on their own to alleviate the constant danger. Affecting everyone, these challenges test individual capacity to respond. It is a realm in which close interaction between the people and government is a necessary ingredient that makes it possible to reduce the threats that lie ahead. 

The Office of the President (OP) was woefully unresponsive to disasters when these struck. When he did attend the scene, the newly-elected Ferdinand Marcos Jr. seemed a bit at a loss about what the government should do, what short- and long-term measures he had to consider. 

With little official action to follow, most media were left to track disaster stories on their own. Local government units now hold primary responsibility over their communities when disaster strikes. But this means that those responsible are just as vulnerable as the rest of their constituency. When afflicted themselves, these officials may not be able to fulfill their responsibilities — a situation that has happened frequently enough for it to be noted by national agencies.

When disasters strike, the media would be the first on the ground. Beyond disaster statistics, journalists have begun to project and flag the national impact of disasters in various sites on food production and other services and supplies. 

Meanwhile, a corps of journalists did their part to cover the climate-related issues and the larger narrative arc of the global climate crisis. 

Climate as an election issue


CMFR cheered freelance journalist Jhesset Enano for her report that highlighted the lack of discussion of climate change in the current election campaign despite the magnitude and urgency of its impact on the Philippines. Her piece in OpinYon reminded voters to consider the capacity of candidates to address this challenge.

Marcos’ 100 days

CMFR cheered freelance journalist Jhesset Enano for her report that highlighted the lack of discussion of climate change in the current election campaign despite the magnitude and urgency of its impact on the Philippines. Her piece in OpinYon reminded voters to consider the capacity of candidates to address this challenge.

COP27

On the international stage, as the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) pursued ways of compensating countries most affected by climatic disasters, Philippine representatives were called back home to defend the budget of the Climate Change Commission (CCC). While the media did cover the COP27 and budget deliberations; ANC stood out for interviewing Lea Guerrero of Greenpeace Philippines who said the CCC as an attached agency to the OP has received “peanuts” for its funding despite the strong need to amplify national issues in the international stage.

People in the forefront

Throughout 2022, CMFR cheered news accounts that focused on the perspective of indigenous people (IP) and small communities most affected by climate change. Notable reports include the following:

 

  • Philstar.com, Bulatlat, MindaNews, and Rappler published timely in-depth stories on IPs and their struggles that should have been discussed in the recent COP27. 
  • Rappler highlighted how plastic pollution and inadequate government support left vulnerable communities around Tañon Strait in Cebu province with no choice but to find their own solutions to urgent, long-standing problems. 
  • Philstar.com’s series pointed to the Philippines lack of commitment to “green recovery” as coal is still the country’s major source of power. The report took its readers on a journey with Teofilo Tredez, an environmentalist who wants to stop the construction of DMCI Power, a new coal plant in Palawan. 
  • TV5’s Frontline Tonight aired a two-part report that underscored the urgency of the climate crisis and its impact on the Philippines, most especially to farmers’ crops and fisherfolks’ coastal areas.

Government’s overdue actions, challenge to the press

As President and concurrent Agriculture Secretary, Marcos Jr. appears disturbingly clueless about climate-related crises and its broad impact on food production. His remarks sound as though he has yet to wrap his head around the reality of climate change and its connection to floods or droughts. 

Without understanding the urgency of the challenge, there is only the slightest possibility that Filipinos can depend on this administration to provide measures to mitigate the effects of these disasters. 

This lack of leadership calls on the media to become more proactive, amplifying the voices of those who know and the advocates who have been staunchly defending the environment. 

Climate change news requires a novel and revolutionary approach on the part of the mainstream press. They must learn to join their forces and work together, set competition aside and sustain a flow of news on policy talks, on action on the ground, identifying models and initiatives that could prove responsive to the crisis’ many requirements. 

Working together as teams, members of the press from national to regional desks could prod the government to uphold interdepartmental cooperation and collaboration — the whole of government approach that could make the difference for any effort to succeed.