| Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
While tropical cyclones have been whacking the Philippines in recent months, the nation’s poor are suffering greater poverty than ever before. The most recent typhoon has devastated the central Philippines, especially Cebu. Another is on its way. The human typhoon of corruption and dirty deals between politicians and contractors, where fake flood-control projects reportedly siphoned off a trillion pesos, according to reports. The Philippines needs a moral revolution, led by an independent movement of young, charismatic leaders with strong moral values, dedicated to justice and truth, to challenge the culture of corruption.
The unbridled corruption in the country has caused untold human suffering, property damage, and loss of crops. The politicians are investigating other politicians. Friends help friends to cover up crimes against the people. It is nothing new. Every year, there is an investigation into corrupt projects, and little comes of them as they drag on and are forgotten, while the wrongdoers make another payoff and are exonerated.
The Philippines is in dire political in-breeding as one dynastic family succeeds another and the oligarchy continues generation after generation. There seems to be no way to change the corrupt system where politicians steal billions of pesos and fund their ‘stay in power’through reelection campaigns.
The nation can never prosper and overcome the dire poverty of some 17.5 million Filipinos (according to government data). They suffer the worst effects of climate change, including the increasingly frequent and intense typhoons and widespread flooding. The awakening of the national conscience to change the system and the hope of a new moral force of socially and environmentally educated charismatic youth committed to justice, truth, and equality could ever rise as a moral, peaceful, non-violent force to change the course of the corrupt system that plagues the nation is far from reality. Powerful political families rule the country, and young, independent youth are blocked from ever rising to charismatic leadership.
“The nation can never prosper and overcome the dire poverty of some 17.5 million Filipinos (according to government data). They suffer the worst effects of climate change, including the increasingly frequent and intense typhoons and widespread flooding.”
The hope that the influential Church, with 85 bishops, would be the leaders in creating a more moral and just Philippines is dim, as only a handful of brave bishops, priests, and lay leaders have spoken out and taken action to challenge the systemic corruption, especially under the previous regime.
Poverty is worse due to climate change. In recent years, scientists at the University of the Philippines have shown that climate change is causing more intense and powerful typhoons with faster winds and slower movement, which linger longer and cause greater damage than ever. It is due to warmer ocean waters and a warmer atmosphere, which provide more energy and moisture for storms to form and intensify.
We have seen this most recently. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, leading to more intense rainfall and an increased risk of severe flooding and landslides during typhoons. The rising sea levels are a direct consequence of climate change, and in the years ahead, most of Manila will be underwater.
All this is due to global warming, the world economy’s reliance on burning fossil fuels, and the failure to quickly develop renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal power. The Philippines has an abundance of these renewable energy sources, but development is slow despite government incentives.
The COP30 (the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference), the leading, formal UN climate negotiation conference, will be held in Belém, Brazil, from November 10-21. They will try to persuade national leaders to reduce carbon emissions and slow global warming. However, in total contradiction to the conference’s purpose, the Brazilian government has cut down thousands of trees to make way for a new four-lane highway right through the rainforest to reach the city of Belem.
They want to make it easier for the 50,000 delegates expected to attend the climate change summit this November to travel. Many environmental defenders and conservationists are angry and outraged at the negative environmental impact the project is having on the forests. It is the contradiction. This deforestation damages ecosystems, wildlife, and the lives of the thousands of forest-dwelling people who depend on the forests for sustainable livelihoods.
The forests play a vital role in mitigating climate change by cooling the planet and absorbing CO2 that is warming the planet. The Philippines has only three percent of its original rainforest left. The very purpose of COP30 is to preserve rainforests, not to chop them down. But this is the weakness of human nature. The contradiction that we live with is causing our planet to overheat, bringing more deadly typhoons and massive destruction.
The Church in the Philippines is also challenged to care for Creation and help mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. Pope Francis, when he was alive, called for a global “ecological conversion” and a radical change in lifestyles, production, and consumption to “save the planet.” His core message, detailed primarily in his 2015 encyclical Laudato si’ and 2023 apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, is that the environmental crisis is a moral and ethical issue inextricably linked to social injustice and the “throwaway culture.” He urges the “progressive replacement without delay” of highly polluting fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) with renewable energy sources, of which the Philippines has great capacity.
In the coming week, we will witness debates and passionate speeches during COP30, but what is needed is direct action to stop burning fossil fuels, not more speeches. The multinational energy corporations are the villains in this story. They are doing all they can to stop the move to renewables. In the Philippines, the energy corporations filed for permits to build 20 more coal-fired power plants. They are on hold by the Department of Energy. Unless there is serious action to stop global warming beyond 1.5 degrees, the planet will continue to heat up, and the Philippines and many nations will endure more intense typhoons in the future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shay Cullen is a Missionary priest from Ireland, a member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, and the Founder and President of Preda Foundation since 1975.
