FARAH Gamalo, 57, reflects on her harrowing experience during the 2013 Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), which devastated her home city of Tacloban in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.
While she and her immediate family survived the storm, over 6,000 people perished, mostly from Tacloban and nearby towns.
She, along with her two sons, was inside a private hospital in Tacloban attending to her husband, who was suffering from a stroke, as the typhoon battered the city.
Eleven years later, Gamalo remains steadfast in her advocacy against fossil fuel projects in the country and around the world.
She argues that the government’s “false solutions” for energy sources have worsened people’s living conditions since Yolanda.
“We, small countries, are the ones suffering the most. Since Yolanda, we have been the loudest voice at the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP), demanding that global north countries be held accountable and pay up,” Gamalo, who now leads the advocacy group Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) in the Eastern Visayas region, told SunStar Philippines in an interview.
During this year’s 11th anniversary of Yolanda in Tacloban, dubbed the “ground zero” of the strongest typhoon in recorded history to make landfall on November 8, 2013, Gamalo joined other storm victims from poor communities in a fluvial protest along Tacloban’s coast, demanding a halt to fossil fuel projects across Asia.
The protests, part of the “Global Days of Action Against Gas Expansion,” are ongoing in the Philippines.
Gamalo and other climate campaigners are calling for an end to fossil gas projects as the 29th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP29) unfolds in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22.
“More than a decade since Yolanda, climate-vulnerable communities have become even more vulnerable due to a surge in large-scale infrastructure projects and dirty energy plants like coal and gas,” said activist lawyer Aaron Pedrosa, head of the legal team for the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ).
Pedrosa, whose home in Palo, Leyte, was destroyed by Yolanda while he was in Manila, noted that poor communities, including urban poor and fisherfolk populations, bear the brunt of worsening climate impacts.
Yolanda alone affected 13 million Filipinos along its corridor.
Earlier this November, Pedrosa traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for remedies for Filipino communities allegedly affected by the 19 coal plants financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private arm of the World Bank, through financial intermediaries.
On November 11, Pedrosa’s environmental groups, alongside the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), joined over 100 fishing boats in Batangas City.
They circled liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities to send “a strong message to world leaders at COP29 about the dangers of massive fossil gas investments.”
Similar actions took place in Quezon Province and Bataan, where residents opposed proposed fossil gas plants.
“We, from Global South movements, are united in making this clarion call at COP29. Continuing fossil gas investments endanger both people and the planet and contradict governments’ pledges to transition away from fossil fuels,” said APMDD coordinator Lidy Nacpil in a statement to the media on November 11.
“World leaders cannot ignore the undeniable impacts of fossil gas on health, lives, the environment, and future generations. We urge them to honor their decarbonization commitments, deliver climate finance, and invest in renewable energy solutions,” she added.
Alarming issues with fossil fuels
“It’s alarming that wealthy nations and big transnational banks continue to finance fossil gas expansion in Asia, Africa, and Latin America,” Nacpil said.
Advocates reject fossil fuel dependence and demand real, accountable commitments from economic powerhouses to transition directly to renewable energy systems.
“Every dollar spent on fossil gas could advance renewables like solar and wind, which can meet our energy needs without the dire consequences of fossil fuels. Gas is not a bridge or transition fuel—it’s a big blow to the world’s future,” she said.
Meanwhile, PMCJ National Coordinator Ian Rivera emphasized that fossil gas expansion poses extreme health risks to communities and is a significant environmental and climate threat.
“Choosing gas is choosing a future where no one breathes clean air and no community is safe. Gas accelerates global warming and intensifies the climate crisis,” Rivera said.
A 2024 study identifies Canada, South Korea, and Japan as among the “biggest backers of fossil fuel expansion,” providing at least $142 billion in funding for gas projects, according to Nacpil.
The World Energy Investment 2024 report predicts that upstream oil and gas spending will increase by seven percent by year’s end.
As the planet continues to warm due to rising fossil fuel consumption, advocacy groups reiterated that the Philippines, with its average of 20 typhoons annually due to its location in the Pacific Typhoon Belt, remains among the countries most affected by the climate crisis. (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)