FILIPINO advocacy groups on Monday, October 21, 2024, joined Asia-wide protest movements calling for “sustainable, climate-resilient food systems” amid the intensifying impacts of climate change.
"As governments prepare to negotiate a new climate finance goal, campaigners emphasized the need for adequate, public, and non-debt-creating climate finance to support adaptation plans for food and agriculture,” said Lidy Nacpil, regional coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD).
Labor leaders Leody de Guzman and Atty. Luke Espiritu, along with over 700 protesters, marched to the Department of Agriculture (DA) headquarters in Quezon City to stress the urgency of their call for “adequate and affordable food for all.”
Some of the protesters’ demands included the “return of food, land, and water systems to the people, reparations for decades of harmful policies, and the cancellation of unsustainable and illegitimate debts to free up fiscal space for climate action and essential services.”
The October 21 mass actions coincided with the first day of the UN Committee on World Food Security’s annual plenary session.
“This year’s plenary session also marks the 20th anniversary of the Right to Food Guidelines, a framework adopted in 2004 by member states of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to ensure access to adequate and sustainable food,” APMDD said in a statement.
“This year has been devastating for the farmers and fisherfolk on the frontlines of the climate crisis," Nacpil said.
The APMDD leader recalled that in September 2024 alone, Typhoon Yagi killed over 800 people in Southeast Asia and caused over $15.8 billion in economic loss and damage.
“Earlier in the year, El Niño resulted in 9.89 billion pesos worth of agricultural losses for the Philippine government, with rice accounting for 48% of those losses. By the end of the dry season, nearly 200,000 farmers and fisherfolk were affected, requiring 8.59 billion pesos worth of financial aid," Nacpil added.
In addition to the Philippines, similar campaigns were also launched in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. (SunStar Philippines)