Today, youth, faith-based groups, fisherfolk and other impacted sectors, civil society and people’s organizations, academe, and many others are taking a stand against fossil gas and LNG developments in Batangas.
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From left to right: Youth advocates gathering to learn about VIP and fossil gas; Fisherfolk from all over Batangas forming a coalition to protect the VIP; Filipino climate and environmental advocates participating in the Defund Climate Chaos day of action with a mobilization at the Makati office of Standard Chartered for its role in supporting fossil gas in the VIP.
In the Philippines, the Protect VIP campaign network assumes its place at the forefront of the resistance and the fight for energy transformation. Civil society groups from across the globe are also in solidarity with the fight to #ProtectVIP:
Lao Fisherfolks Organization | SOS Earth
The struggle against this dirty fossil fuel, however, goes far beyond the VIP, as LNG and fossil gas projects attempt to creep into coasts all over the country. Project proponents, with San Miguel Corporation taking the lead, are empowered by our very own Department of Energy (DOE) putting forward its vision of turning the Philippines into an LNG hub in the Asia-Pacific.
VIP is but the tip of the iceberg in massive destruction threatened by new fossil gas and LNG. Similar threats will be mirrored by the coastal communities to host the proposed fossil gas projects across the country, many of them thanks to energy giant San Miguel Corporation: a 300 MW LNG plant in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental facing the Tanon Strait; a 600 MW LNG plant in the coastal and agricultural municipality of Tabango, Leyte; and a monstrous 12-unit, 6,492MW LNG facility in the country’s fishing capital, Navotas, to name a few.
Today, there is 29.64 GW of new fossil gas capacity in the pipeline - nearly ten times the Philippines’ existing 3.42 GW. 9 new LNG import facilities are also planned.
Wherever fossil gas goes, however, it will be met by Filipinos fighting for clean air, a healthy environment, ecological and climate justice, and the hope of a sustainably powered future from genuinely clean energy from renewables.
Photos: Youth in the Philippines’ renewable energy capital Negros Occidental rejecting a proposed LNG power plant of SMC; Urban poor groups resisting a proposed massive fossil gas project in Navotas by pursuing their own renewable energy initiatives; Local stakeholders expressing their dissent at a public scoping for an LNG power plant in Leyte.
