Environmentalists on Monday claimed the Philippines remains Asia’s deadliest country.
The international human rights and environment group Global Witness said the Philippines is still the worst place for land and environmental defense in Asia.
“Global Witness data demonstrate that the murder of environmental defenders doubled under the Duterte government compared to its predecessor,” Leon Dulce, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) national coordinator, said.
“We clearly need a new leadership that will protect our nature’s front-liners and stop destructive projects that aggravate our country’s ecological, climate and human rights crises,” Dulce added.
Kalikasan PNE is a leading partner of Global Witness in in the documentation of environmental defender killings.
A Global Witness report entitled “The Last Line of Defence” showed a total of 227 environmental defenders murdered across the world, the deadliest year on record.
The Philippines ranked third overall with 29 killings, trailing behind Colombia, 65 and Mexico, 30, making it the country with the highest figures outside the Americas.
The report said the worst massacre on record occurred in the Philippines was when nine indigenous Tumandok tribe leaders and members were massacred on Dec. 30, 2020, during which 17 other indigenous people were arrested for their opposition against the Jalaur mega-dam project in Panay Island.
It noted that a total of 166 land and environmental defenders were killed until the end of 2020, which is double the number killed under the previous regime.
Dulce urged the government to adopt the recommendations made by Global Witness to address the unabated killings of land and environmental defenders.