These laws were designed by the Duterte administration to spread public fear, legitimize human rights violations, and undermine democracy and freedom of the press. Therefore, SENTRO believes that the response to climate change, labor rights violations, imminent dictatorship and recent epidemics are interrelated.
The Philippines has one of the lowest carbon dioxide emissions in the world. However, as an archipelago between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, it is often affected by extreme weather events such as typhoons.
cooperative
When the typhoon struck, transmission lines and distribution stations were severely damaged, and it took three to six months to recover—a period that hindered the provincial economy.
However, the current energy supply still relies heavily on coal as its main source of power generation. The long-term Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) has been criticized for its “lack of focused” clean energy.28 In particular, the Malapaya gas field operated by Shell is expected to be depleted in the next four to five years.
SENTRO has been mobilizing other movements to put the Philippines on the path of clean energy.
This includes working with the Philippine Climate Justice Movement to mobilize against coal-fired power plants, working with ATM (a coalition to stop mining) to end mining and open-pit mining, and acting as a Philippine Greenpeace organization against carbon polluters such as Chevron and Caltex. The petitioner and Shell in the open case.
SENTRO also resisted the corporatization of power cooperatives. For 40 years, the public-funded power cooperatives have provided electricity to 13 million households, including rural areas.
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The privatization of these cooperatives means that consumers have to pay higher electricity bills-the highest in Asia, frequent power outages, unstable supply, and many people still have no electricity. For workers, this means layoffs and increased reliance on contract workers with lower wages and no benefits.
In 2013, after five years of worker boycotts, San Miguel Energy Company privatized the Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO). High rates and inefficient services have caused many people in the community to refuse to pay their bills.
The company cut off electricity services to consumer members, and they supported the strikers and boycotted the payment of electricity bills.
On the other hand, the striking workers reconnected the electricity service to the disconnected community members. Due to unstable power supply, SENTRO introduced a pilot area for renewable energy, concluded a collective bargaining agreement, and created the Climate Justice and Just Transition Commission.
strength
However, currently, nine power cooperatives are under threat due to a corporate franchise bill pending in Congress.
As long as the privatization of the power industry is allowed, attempts to decarbonize will only maintain business as usual-the transition to renewable energy and green jobs will be controlled by market-oriented policies, which will harm workers and their communities.
Therefore, the challenge facing the union movement is to boycott, recycle and reorganize the power industry in order to achieve energy democracy. This means public control and democratic governance of the power industry.
If we are to change power relations and change the wrong solution to climate change, we must build a united global trade union movement.
This author
Vicente P. Unay, Jr. is the Secretary-General of the National Power-Sentro Union (Power-Sentro) in Quezon City, Philippines.
