The Philippines needs a moral revolution

By Fr. Shay Cullen

While the Philippines is being whacked by tropical cyclones 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 the politicians and contractors where fake flood control projects syphoned off a trillion pesos, reports say. The Philippines needs a moral revolution where an independent movement led by young charismatic leaders with strong moral values and dedicated to justice and truth can challenge the culture of corruption.

The unbridled corruption in 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. This is nothing new. Every year, there is an investigation into corrupt projects and little comes from them as they are drawn out and forgotten, and 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 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 with the constant, more intense typhoons and widespread floods. 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 up as a moral peaceful non-violent force to change the course of the corrupt system that plagues the nation is far from reality. The nation is ruled by powerful political families and young independent youth are blocked from ever rising up to be charismatic leaders.

The hope that the influential Church with 85 bishops would be the leaders in creating a more moral and just Philippines is a dim hope as only a handful of brave bishops, priests and lay leaders have spoken out and taken action to challenge the systematic corruption especially in the previous regime.

Poverty is worse due to climate change. In recent years, scientists at the University of the Philippines showed that climate change is causing more intense and powerful typhoons with faster winds and slower movement causing them to linger longer, bringing greater damage than ever. This 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 is a direct consequence of climate change and, in years ahead, most of Manila will be underwater.

All this is due to global warming and the reliance of the world economy on burning fossil fuels and the failure to quickly develop renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and geothermal power generation. The Philippines has an abundance of these renewal energy sources but development is slow despite government incentives.

The COP30 (the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference), the main, 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 purpose of the conference, the Brazilian government has cut down thousands of trees to make way for a new four lane highway right through the rain forest to reach the city of Belem.

They want to make it easier to travel for the 50,000 delegates that are expected to attend the environmental climate change summit this November. Many environmental defenders and conservationists are angry and outraged at the negative environmental impact the project is having on the forests. This is the contradiction. This deforestation damages the ecosystem, the wildlife, and the lives of the thousands of forest dwellers who have sustainable livelihoods in the forests.

The forests have a vital role in controlling climate change by cooling the planet and absorbing CO2 that is heating up the globe. 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. This 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 the Creation and help mitigate the negative 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.

Father Shay Cullen is an Irish Columban missionary priest and a prominent international human rights activist who has worked in the Philippines since 1969. In 1974, he founded Preda Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating sexually abused and trafficked women and children, and campaigning for social justice.