HUMAN RIGHTS

From the Article III- Human rights of the Philippine Constitution, section 1 says that no person
shall be denied of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person
shall be denied the equal protection of the laws. Human rights obligations apply to the goals and
commitments of States in the area of climate change and require that climate actions should
focus on protecting the rights of those most vulnerable to climate change. Human rights
principles articulated in the Declaration on the Right to Development and other instruments call
for such climate action to be both individual and collective and for it to benefit the most
vulnerable. The second speaker of the symposium discussed about the justice for human rights.
He elaborates on the past events of the Philippine administrations that made great history of both
good and bad effects. Atty. Aaron speaks of the rights of every human being basically by a
Filipino youth, which one example was the Marcos regime that violated many rights of a person
specially their rights to exist. I was moved by the enormous number of injustices that happened
not just only in our country, but also to our neighboring countries and more.
It is hard to comprehend all the data presented to us at the symposium for it requires equal and
competent knowledge.

CLIMATE JUSTICE
According to some of my additional research to fill the other complex questions that further
branched out to certain extent of curiosity,

climate justice is defined as

form

of

environmental justice. Climate justice is the fair treatment of all people and freedom from
discrimination with the creation of policies and projects that address climate change and the
systems that create climate change and perpetuate discrimination. In the recent symposium
on climate justice and human rights held at Easter Visayas State Universitys auditorium on the
day of February 29, 2016 which the first speaker, Prof. Pascualito Ilagan talked and discussed
about the climate justice, he shows images of statistically based facts about the environmental
crisis we, the Philippines is currently facing which gives me enlightenment of how I, or we the
young generations of Filipino youth should see the things happening to our environment, our
lives, and specially our very own nature. He emphasizes that our very own president promised
to reduce or carbon emitting facilities by 70% to help and contribute awareness to climate
change. But ironically, he signed a contract when he went to Paris for certain reasons regarding
our crisis with power sustaining facilities that will build about 50 industrial coal mining plants
and has issued 118 coal-mining permits in the past five years.It is very sad to learn these events
the fact that we know that industrial coal plants are very harmful to nature due to its high CO2 e
mission. Environmental activists said coal plants could produce an estimated 60 million tons of
carbon dioxide per year. There are 14 coal-fired power plants operating in the Philippines,
accounting for 37 percent of the country's total power generation mix. At least 18 coal plantconstructions and expansions are in the pipeline. Thankfully we still have people like Prof.
Pascualito Ilagan of Philippine Movement for Climate Justice -Eastern Visayas chapter and
others to help raise awareness, unite our people and youth to do our part in helping our nature.

Reaction Paper
In
Soc. Sci 12

Submitted by:
Benmar A. Taladro
Submitted to:
Prof. Thomas Lyndon B. Blanco, LL.B.