THE Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED), a sustainable think-tank, has called on President Duterte to address the inconsistency between his State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) pronouncements on the environment and the realities of environmental protection under his administration.
Duterte, in his address, declared that the responsible use of natural resources is one of his “non-negotiables.”
“Unless we are working on different definitions of the concepts of ‘responsible’ and ‘protection’ concerning the environment, there is a very big gap between what is happening on the ground, what his Cabinet members are doing, and what President Duterte said in his SONA,” said Avril de Torres, Research, Policy, and Law program head of CEED.
The President did not reaffirm his directive to Department of Energy Secretary (DoE) Al Cusi to expedite the expansion of renewable energy in the country, a directive which rang hollow as the department instead opted for its “technology neutral” approach.
“The President seemed content with his motherhood statement, but environmentalists and renewable energy advocates would not be satisfied. They were looking for reassurance that Duterte is still on the side of the environment through a reaffirmation of his directive to Cusi in the previous SONA, as well as a declaration of support for coal divestment. There was no concrete discussion on that matter,” said De Torres.
