David D'Angelo, Boses ng Kalikasan - Political Platforms

7 PRIMARY AGENDA

"D'ANGELO" ang dapat tandaan:

1. Declare a Climate Emergency with appropriate legislation. (Magdeklara ng Pambansang Pagtugon sa Krisis PangKlima)
2. Adopt Food Sovereignty (Pagtutok sa agrikultura upang makapagbigay ng sapat at murang pagkain sa lahat)
3. New Educational Reforms (Makabagong Reporma sa Edukasyon)
4. Green, renewable, and affordable Energy (Pagsasaayos ng pamamalakad sa kuryente at gawing mas mura ito at makakalikasan)
5. Enact Alternative Minerals Management (Pagbabago sa pamamalakad ng pamamahala ng mga mineral at likas na yaman ng bansa)
6. Legislate Rights of Nature and a Comprehensive Environmental Code (Pagbibigay karapatan sa Kalikasan at masusing pagsasakodigo ng mga batas pangkalikasan)
7. Oversee the adoption of green blockchain in governance particularly in government contracts, and elections. (Gamitin ang makakalikasang blockchain technology para sa halalan at pampamahalaang kontrata)

KALIKASAN (Environment)

1. Pass a law declaring a national climate emergency with key content as follows:
• Nationwide assessment of climate danger zones by the local disaster risk reduction councils
• Increase funding for research and development on climate crisis-related technologies including climate-resilient homes, organic farming and food security, transportation, etc.
2. Impose a moratorium on mineral mining–cause an evaluation of current mining contracts and assessment of their effects and commitment to environmental standards, and focus rehabilitation of current mining sites towards reforestation and food security initiatives
3. Increased funding for support to sustainable infrastructure and sustainable transportation
4. Setting as a priority an environmental law giving harsher penalties for environmental crime
5. Creating an environmental protection and enforcement bureau
6. Creating a stronger and national law on the protection of watersheds
7. Pass a national biodiversity restoration program
8. Pass a national land use law
9. Pass the Alternative Minerals Management bill
10. Introduce a bill regulating harmful refrigerants both in industrial and commercial applications, particularly the air-conditioning unit which emits harmful greenhouse gases– phase out the use of R22 refrigerant or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), instead use Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) i.e., R-32 and R-134 (D’Angelo specifically cites “as of now, the most environment-friendly refrigerants available for Air Conditioners in India are R-290 (Propane) and R-600A (Iso-Butane). The Global warming potential of R-290 is 3 and R-600A is 3, and both of them have zero impact on the ozone layer”)

KABUHAYAN (Jobs)

1. Strengthening security of tenure:
• Ending ENDO for major enterprises particularly those that are providing regular work
• Revisiting the law on labor and wages provides a way to make the minimum wage according to the situation in a particular community and with consultation with relevant sectors and stakeholders
• Protection and empowerment of labor unions
2. Repeal the Rice Tarification Law
3. Support and subsidy for the shift to 100% organic agriculture and food production with consultation with local communities and food producers
4. Subsidy, support, and tax holidays for green companies and green enterprises with particularly increased support for small and medium-sized green enterprises
5. Creating an incentivization system for those who are participating in green initiatives
6. Institutionalize a 20% reduction of on-site work and adopt remote work arrangement as we successfully adopted amidst the pandemic– 20% reduction means four days on-site work and one day work from home; work mobility will be lessened which translates to a lesser carbon footprint it contributes to the environment; measure also alleviates traffic congestion, minimizes exposure to air-pollutants as a health hazard, and averts vehicular incident and road accidents
7. Strengthening support for community and local enterprises, particularly cooperatives
   

KINABUKASAN (Policies for a Better Future)

1. Standing up for climate justice worldwide–GPP is part of the Asia Pacific Greens Federation and the Global Greens and this connection will be used to call on all greens to work towards the realization of the Paris Agreement and to be Carbon Neutral by 2030
2. Create a mutual protection agreement for the West Philippine Sea
3. Response to COVID-19 and future emerging diseases:
• Refocus funding towards enhancing health care system which includes better protection and salary/wages for our front liners; providing better facilities; and building new and fully-equipped healthcare facilities to fight the current pandemic and future emerging diseases
• Synchronize system on disease response through better contact tracing, alert level system, and quarantine protocols, among others
• Move towards lifting quarantine restrictions towards opening the economy
4. Subsidy and tax holidays for renewable energy sources and green enterprises
5. Legislating a policy on the medical use of hemp.
6. Green education:
• Strengthening environmental education for teachers
• Cooperation of teachers, parents, and students toward a green sustainable future
• Promote green consumerism, green enterprise, and green economics in the educational system
• Insertion of climate change lessons in the spiral curriculum progression
• Support for green infrastructure such as school green facilities, hanging gardens, solar roofs, sustainable roofs, and simple rainwater catchment facilities
7. Subsidy and support for research and development on the environment
8. Imposition of the carbon tax to encourage better and green enterprises
9. Improving education:
• Integrating arts and culture appreciation in all levels of education
• Creating a system that will integrate parent-student-community support
• Revising the current K-12 curriculum and shifting to an education that is focused on multiple intelligence and not just academics
• Ensuring equal pay, salary, and continuing education for teachers
• Improving the quality control on our books and reference materials
• Utilizing mass media as an extension of quality education and as part of their commitment under their franchise agreement
• Giving greater access to free education to indigent Filipinos
• Providing protection for academic freedom across all levels
• Creating greater supervisory power of the Commission on Higher Education and the education department on our educational institutions to ensure that all institutions are providing quality education and costs that are not exorbitant
• Empowering student councils as a partner in ensuring that educational institutions are operating for students’ welfare
10. Send an open letter to the United Nations calling on all member nations to commit to the Paris Agreement and Net-Zero by 2030
11. Support the establishment of South East Asia Green Cultural, Economic & Ecological Security Solidarity
12. Commitment towards global climate justice
    

SOCIAL WELFARE and HUMAN RIGHTS

1. Nationwide universal housing program–ensuring peoples’ access to affordable and cost-effective universal housing with support for livelihood and green housing
2. Amendment of the Anti-Terrorism Act
3. Amendment of the Cyber Crime Prevention Act
4. Support for the passage of the SOGIE Equality bill and the rights of the LGBTQ+ sector including the right to public union while preserving religious freedom
5. Support for the passage of a strict divorce bill, as a fundamental individual right without prejudice to religious freedom and beliefs
6. Separation pay for voluntary resignation of regular employees whose employment tenure is more than 10 years for all sectors and all positions.
7. Free medicine and lower costs of medicine for high blood and diabetes, together with strengthening preventive measures for the causes of high blood and diabetes.

GOVERNMENT REFORMS

1. Shift to a Parliamentary Form of government.
2. Strengthen local governance, and create a mechanism for government decentralization (bottom-up approach)
3. Streamline the electoral process utilizing a bottom-up electoral approach.
4. Strengthen political parties, and enact an anti-dynasty law.
5. Empower citizens in the electoral process and increase government subsidies during campaigns.
6. Shift to a well-being economic measurement from the current GNP/GDP model.
7. Use of blockchain in governance particularly in elections, and government contracts

COMMITMENT TO PANATANG LUNTIAN

I am committed to the 11-Point Agenda of Panatang Luntian as follows:

1. Institute a moratorium on large-scale mining, dredging, reclamation, plantations, mega-infrastructures, mega-dams, incinerators, fossil fuel and nuclear power plants, and other extractive and destructive projects being touted as economic or sustainable development.

1. Conduct a national environmental impact assessment on large-scale mining operations, mega-dams, reclamation, land use conversions, and fossil fuel and nuclear power plants.

2. Nationalize the mining and energy industries, prioritizing domestic needs and people’s rights, while incorporating and promoting sustainable indigenous knowledge.

3. Strictly implement ‘No Go Zones’ for mining and other extractive and destructive activities in key biodiversity areas, geo-hazardous areas, critical watersheds, protected land areas and seascapes, and ancestral domains.  

4. Ensure that community welfare and environmental protection is a central consideration in all land-use decisions. 

5. Prioritize the protection of a clean and healthy environment to safeguard both community well-being and the rights of all who depend on the environment for their livelihoods, such as small-scale miners, fisherfolk, and farmers.

2. Recognize, protect, and support environmental defenders and their communities.

1. Demilitarize the operations of extractive and destructive projects including mining, mega-dams, reclamations, plantations, mega-infrastructures, and energy projects.

2. Cease State military operations, especially bombings and military exercises, in key biodiversity areas, biodiversity corridors, protected landscapes and seascapes, and civilian communities.

3. Prohibit further conversion of communities and critical biodiversity areas into military sites and reservations, as well as military bases under the Visiting Forces Agreement and Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

4. Repeal repressive policies and the institutions that promote them, such as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (RA11479), the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act (RA10168), the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) , and Executive Order No. 70. 

5. Establish impartial mechanisms for redress, accountability, and justice for environmental defenders who have experienced various forms of human rights attacks and abuses.

6. Enact comprehensive legislation that protects environmental human rights defenders, recognizing their rights, defining state responsibilities, and establishing effective protection mechanisms 

7. Resume and support peace talks with armed groups to address the root causes of conflict, and secure the environment for environmental defenders to protect the environment without fear of reprisal and terror-tagging.

3. Ensure biodiversity and natural resources conservation towards the people-led protection of at least 30% of the country’s natural spaces.

1. Mainstream and prioritize biodiversity and ecosystem conservation in national and local planning processes.

2. Recognize and support the critical contributions of indigenous peoples, women, youth, communities, and LGUs to biodiversity conservation and build the capacities of local stakeholders.

3. Strengthen conservation research and expertise, including undertaking research on priority areas of concern.

4. Adopt existing sustainable technologies and develop new ones to reduce utilization of biodiversity resources.

5. Restore or rehabilitate degraded ecosystems and habitats using scientifically sound and appropriate site-specific technology.

6. Ensure the government's full compliance with the Convention on Biological Diversity, prioritizing the meaningful participation of local communities and civil society organizations in all relevant decision-making processes.

4. Ensure that the transition to a clean energy economy is socially just, equitable, and human rights-based by supporting community-led energy solutions and implementing safeguards in all stages of energy development and supply.

1. Ensure just energy transition, particularly concerning critical minerals mining, that prevents further environmental damage and human rights violations, and ensures community participation in decision-making and implementation processes.

2. Support community-led renewable energy solutions that are developed, owned, and controlled by local communities, with appropriate public funding, 

3. Ensure and respect the rights of women, children, the elderly, LGBTQIA+, and other marginalized sectors within energy planning and project implementation.

4. Promote decentralized, locally-initiated mini and micro-hydroelectric plants that sustainably produce electricity.

5. Prioritize local communities’ access to affordable renewable energy.

6. Developing a renewable energy education and training program to spread knowledge and promote national and regional training centers of excellence.

5. Scale up public investment in community-level zero waste management models and clean treatment, storage, and disposal facilities for toxic wastes.

1. Stop the construction of “waste-to-energy” facilities which are touted as a source of renewable energy.

2. Push for national banning of single-use plastics and corporate accountability on plastic production.

3. Include disposal facilities for electronic waste.

4. Ensure State support for local cottage industries/MSMEs for local & sustainable packaging & products.

5. Allocate subsidies among city and municipal LGUs on a per capita basis to deal with the plastic pollution crisis.

6. Conduct positive reinforcement schemes, educational programs, and media campaigns on ecological solid waste management.

7. Establish special treatment and disposal facilities using cleaner technologies in every municipality.

8. Institutionalize waste workers at the national level.

6. Subsidize healthy, equitable, climate-resilient, sustainable food systems through strengthening local food production and ensuring secure access or a claim to land, fisheries, and other productive resources.

1. Ensure free distribution of land to farmers and provide sufficient agricultural subsidies and support services on farm inputs and sustainable technologies.

2. Institutionalize a decrease in our dependence on imported food and agricultural produce, and strengthen local production to meet the population’s needs.

3. Implement a moratorium on agricultural land use conversions to commercial, residential, industrial, or other uses, and devote the remaining agricultural lands of the country to food production. 

4. Hold accountable transnational corporations that have caused pollution in agricultural areas including reductions in soil quality.

5. Support sustainable farming practices and agroecology such as banning the use of highly toxic chemicals in agriculture and consumer products.

6. Support the use of endemic/traditional seed varieties which are more climate-resilient, require less farm inputs, and ensure healthy soil quality.

7. Support urban agriculture to supplement incomes and food production of urban communities.

8. Provide alternative livelihoods to fisherfolk during the closed season. 

9. Halt the activities of abusive hoarders and middlemen who underpay farmers and artificially induce price increases of agricultural products.

10. Ensure access to clean, potable and affordable water for household use. Guarantee farmers' free access to water for irrigation.

7. Expand environmental and climate education and media towards inculcating a culture of care for nature and active citizenship to resolve the planetary crisis.

1. Implement a scientific, pro-people climate education curriculum that emphasizes the importance of calling for climate justice and just compensation for loss and damages caused by the climate crisis.

2. Ensure access to information on environmental matters especially for communities that are affected by certain projects to enable informed decision making.

8. Push for accountability and just compensation from government and companies, top polluter countries and carbon majors for the past, present, and future ecological and climate injustices suffered by the Filipino people and its environment.

1. Pass legislation that seeks to hold the government, top polluter countries, and companies involved in destructive projects that caused environmental damage, loss of livelihood and displacement of communities accountable.

9. Ensure urban planning that incorporates public mass transportation systems, green spaces and sustainable cities.

1. Stop projects such as PAREX that negatively impact urban ecosystems and green spaces, among others.

2. Develop the public mass transport system instead of encouraging private vehicle use. Ensure that this is not privatized, accessible, affordable and sustainable and made with the participation of relevant stakeholders.

3. Stop the PUV modernization program which is a false climate solution and will cause widespread unemployment. 

4. Ensure safe and protected bike lanes and encourage green transportation.

5. Improve urban development in general, making sure that mass transportation is incorporated into mass housing and local development e.g. affordable and accessible housing, green spaces and urban gardening.

6. Prioritize in-city relocation on the occasion that urban poor communities will be displaced, making sure that communities are not relocated in danger zones.

7. Increase public urban green spaces.

8. Ensure rural development through agrarian reform and national industrialization to lessen urban migration.

9. Promote pedestrian-friendly and accessible urban design to reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality, and create climate-resilient cities. Ensure walkable communities, barrier-free pathways, and inclusive infrastructure that prioritize persons with disabilities, the elderly, and other vulnerable groups.

10. Ensure the financing and fiscalizing of the environmental agenda.

1. Rechannel intelligence and confidential funds to environmental and social services.

2. Repeal the automatic debt servicing appropriations of the General Appropriations Act as a first step to more aggressive pursuit of debt relief and cancellation. 

3. Mandate business enterprises engaged in environmentally destructive large-scale mining, dredging, reclamations, plantations, incinerators, and fossil fuel power plants to allocate 1/12th of their annual gross income for insurance against environmental disasters and human rights impacts which could stem from their operations, as well as for separate funds intended for hydrometeorological disaster risk reduction and response, environmental rehabilitation, and human rights protection respectively.

11. Fast-track policy reforms that ensure environmental conservation and protection are founded on sustainable and socially just frameworks and responsive to the needs and interests of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups.

1. Junk the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 (RA7942) and enact the People’s Mining Bill (HB259).

2. Amend the  Small Scale Mining Act of 1991 (RA 7076) to ensure that these are truly beneficial and led by local communities as well as environmentally sound.

3. Reform the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992 (RA7586) to ensure stronger protection mechanisms, greater inclusion and participation of local communities and indigenous people, and ensuring there will be no displacement of local communities and loss of access to areas of livelihood.

4. Make the Writ of Kalikasan more accessible and effective by relaxing evidentiary requirements, providing legal and technical assistance, creating an environmental claims fund, strengthening environmental monitoring and enforcement, and designating environmental courts or specialized judges.

5. Recognize the rights of nature to provide stronger legal safeguards for biodiversity and ecosystem health.

6. Review the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA7279) which defines which areas are public and alienable.

7. Review/repeal the Indigenous People’s Rights Act that enabled the encroachment of biodiverse ancestral domains and has not enabled genuine free prior and informed consent. 

8. Enact the National Land Use Act, Sustainable Forest Management Act, Climate Accountability (CLIMA) Bill, Rights of Nature Bill, Human Rights Defenders Bill, Environmental Defense Bill and the House Resolution on the People’s Green New Deal. 

9. Review the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (RA9136), Renewable Energy Act of 2008 (RA9513), and other relevant laws and issuances to identify the reasons for slow progress in delivering affordable electricity, providing efficient services, and shifting to renewables, to ensure that their respective provisions are harmonized and consistent with declared economic and environmental objectives, and to ensure that they are responsive to changing conditions and evolving priorities.

10. Review and strengthen the ‘Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000’ (RA9003).

11. Reverse the Supreme Court ruling on allowing large-scale commercial fishing activities in municipal waters.

12. Review and reform the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement System Law  (PD1586) to ensure that it adheres to the strictest human rights and due diligence standards while prioritizing the inclusion of directly affected stakeholders, especially the most marginalized.