Crimes Against Humanity, the ground for the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court last March 11, are certainly not all the misdeeds that can be slapped on the former Philippine president. In other courts and in the arena of public opinion, the others can be far from insignificant.
As environment is this column’s lens, Iet me point to some lead issues where he seriously harmed the country, its ecosystems and some communities.
WEST PHILIPPINE SEA
Philippine president (2010- 2016) Benigno Aquino III asserted the country’s territorial and maritime rights on the part of the immense China Sea which is its exclusive economic zone, first at the United Nations then at The Hague, Netherlands where it eventually won its case against China in the landmark arbitral ruling in 2011. It was a victory globally lauded but successor Duterte instead extended his friendly hand to Xi Jin Ping’s communist government who wouldn’t accept the verdict. That practically gave China a free pass to mock our sovereignty, bully our fishermen and coast guard. and shrink our food security with the bounties of fish and other marine resources in the zone. The suspicion that the former president must have “sold” that EEZ to the very interested party still floats.
BUILD, BUILD, BUILD
Bannered as the centerpiece program of the Duterte administration, the country saw the mushrooming of high-rise buildings and road infrastructures that gave a pretty picture of a country now finding a berth in the Asian region’s meteoric growth. The negative impact became clear later with the ballooned foreign debts for investment and preference for China suppliers which reeked of corruption, and the prioritization of large-scale projects to the detriment of local communities. One glaring delusion is the massive reclamation in Manila Bay which decimated fishing communities in the area and reduced the metropolis’ buffer against natural calamities.
KALIWA DAM
Despite loud and long protests from the area’s indigenous people and non-government organizations, Duterte approved the construction of a large dam (area of Kaliwa) in the rich forest reserve of the Sierra Madres mountains spanning the provinces of Rizal to Quezon for the purpose of ensuring water security in the lowlands especially Metro Manila and its vicinities. The project, costing 12.2-Billion pesos was awarded to two companies owned by the Chinese government with construction starting in 2022 and for completion in 2028. More than the huge indebtedness, there is a more lasting and irreparable loss that the project will incur: the damage to the forest which is a natural protection against calamities, the decimation of its rich biodiversity important for food and water security and ecosystem balance, and the destruction of IP communities (lives, livelihoods, homes and culture).
On the whole, the Duterte governance was marked by a low regard for life, which sadly, he may just see now as justice knocks at the door of his solitary detention cell at The Hague in the Netherlands.