By MELVIN PURZUELO
Green Forum-Western Visayas
ILOILO CITY. — Voters here urged candidates to fight pollution and protect the environment, making the issue central to the local electoral race.
The election this year is seen as an opportunity to push for political will and accountability from elected officials.
Local candidates joined 150 people, most of them young, who took part in an early morning walk from Molo Plaza to the Iloilo River on Earth Day.
Party-list Rep. Walden Bello (Akbayan) and city council candidate Jason Gonzales led the signing of a declaration urging officials not to tolerate violation of laws on clean air, biodiversity and coastal resource management.
“Human activities like the emission of greenhouse gases from transportation and power plants and the destruction of forests by mining and conversion to other uses contribute significantly to the heating of the Earth’s atmosphere,” the declaration read.
Global warming leads to more frequent flooding, landslides, droughts and other extreme weather events, now among the gravest threats to the world’s population.
Officials were urged to take swift action on clean energy, climate change and disaster risk management.
They were also asked to implement environmental laws on ecological solid waste management, work for the democratization of ownership of public utilities on water and electricity, and submit themselves to public performance evaluation after six months in office to assess their compliance.
Pavia council candidate Jo Jan Paul Penol (Independent), 19, the youngest contender in the May 10 elections, also joined the fun walk organized by the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines and Akbayan Youth.
Meanwhile, around 100 individual bikers from 23 bike clubs committed themselves to efforts aimed at minimizing air pollution in the city.
The event called the “Ipot-Ipot Brigade,” was organized by the Freedom from Debt Coalition-Iloilo. It was inspired by Manila’s Firefly Brigade which initiates the annual Tour of the Fireflies.
“Ipot-ipot” or “aninipot” is firefly in Hiligaynon language, hence the tag Ipot-Ipot Brigade.—With a report from Ted Ong, Freedom from Debt Coalition-Iloilo