Duterte Gov’t Should Take Decisive Action On ASEAN Calls – CSOs

Civil society organizations (CSOs) said that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s calls for people-centered COVID-19 response and stronger action to combat climate change before leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to be matched with concrete action. Pres. Duterte delivered his calls to the 37th ASEAN Leaders’ Summit which concluded last weekend.

“The president’s words are empty if the government’s militarist COVID-19 response isn’t changed to a unifying national effort that encourages civil society and doesn’t treat people as the enemy,” said Ms. Rochelle M. Porras, Vice President of the Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG). She also challenged the government to “declare a climate emergency and act on the people’s demand for climate justice”.

“COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease transferred from animals to humans and habitat destruction from deforestation, large-scale mining, large dams and agribusiness plantations by big corporations is the root cause of the pandemic,” said Ms. Lia Mai Torres, Coordinator for the Asia-Pacific Network for Environmental Defenders (APNED). She stressed that “governments should rethink development programs that compromise the ecological balance and worsen climate change while exacerbating poverty, hunger and inequality”.

Ms. Jazminda B. Lumang, Secretary General of the Philippine-based regional CSO the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) meanwhile declared: “We reject the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement that ASEAN leaders signed. RCEP is only the latest one-sided free trade agreement (FTAs) that benefits corporations including in large-scale extractive activities and cheap labor-driven export firms. RCEP is profitable for corporations at the expense of the people”

Rahmat Agijuna from the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty–Asia (PCFS-ASIA) and Chairperson of the Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA) based in Indonesia added that “RCEP increases TNC-control of agriculture by promoting patented, commercial and genetically modified seeds and replacing farmers’ traditional seeds. This will mean more expenses and greater bankruptcy and poverty for farmers”.

Ms. Porras also said that “Continuing with neoliberal development programs and unfair trade agreements will only worsen the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.” She also stressed: “Civil society can help Filipinos recover from the pandemic, but the closing of civic spaces stops the nation from uniting to recover quickly and for all.”

Civil society groups participated in the ASEAN People’s Forum, a parallel forum to the ASEAN Leaders Summit, to discuss urgent issues affecting ASEAN peoples including people’s COVID-19 responses and closing civic spaces amid intensified human rights violations under increasingly authoritarian governance, ecological and corporate capture of development. Among the most affected are indigenous peoples across Southeast Asia. "Across the region, we have witnessed how governments have weaponized COVID-19 to further their neoliberal agenda that placed profit over the welfare of our people. This pandemic has become an instrument to accelerate resource plunder in Indigenous territories as well as criminalization and terrorist tagging of IP human rights defenders,” said Naw Wahkushee, Karen Peace Support Network.

CSOs joining ASEAN People’s Forum included AGRA, APRN, APNED, CPDG, Center for Environmental Concerns, Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community, Federation of Free Workers, IBON Foundation, Ibon International, Indigenous People’s Movement for Self Determination and Liberation, International Trade Union Confederation-Asia Pacific, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, PCFS, Reality of Aid-Asia Pacific, Serikat Perempuan Indonesia.

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