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SPAC Watch
SPAC Watch Research: Philippines
Accountability
• SPAC is not a specific strategy or a goal under the Philippine Agenda 21 . However, changing consumption patterns is recognized as a cross cutting issue. The Chapter "Financing means and strategies" deals most closely with the Filipino approach to dealing with unsustainable production and consumption patterns. "A mixture of market-based instruments and command-and-control measures should be adopted to set into motion financial flows that would help achieve the goals of Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21). The strategy aims not only to mobilize funds to support PA 21 activities, but more importantly, it aims to help induce changes in production and consumption behavior in favor of sustainable management of the earth's resources." [i]
Responsibility
• "The issue in the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is not simply leveling the playing field, according to IBON Research Director Antonio Tujan Jr. He argued that even if rich countries reduce or eliminate their farm subsidies and tariffs, the imbalances in world agricultural trade would still remain. Even if the US or the European Union (EU) comply with their commitments, cutthroat competition in world agricultural trade will still be to the gross disadvantage of the Philippines. This is because there is an uneven development of agriculture in rich and poor countries, Tujan said. Philippine agriculture, according to Tujan, is primarily subsistence, household, and backward. On the contrary, First World agriculture is highly commercialized and industrialized." [ii]
Implementation
• Local Agenda 21 - Memorandum Order no. 27 "Strengthening the operationalization and localization of Philippine Agenda 21 and monitoring its implementation" [iii]
• Philippines is the first country in the world to ban incineration of waste [iv]
Endnotes
[i] Section 3.3 "Implementation: Philippine Agenda 21" < http://www.psdn.org.ph/agenda21/implemen.htm >
[ii] Agriculture trade reforms and concessions in the WTO are not enough" IBON Foundation, August 2003 < http://www.cyberdyaryo.com/press_release/pr2003_0912_04.html >
[iii] < http://pcsd.neda.gov.ph/mo47.htm >
[iv] "Biggest day of action ever against incineration", Greenpeace Southeast Asia, 2003 < http://www.greenpeacesoutheastasia.org/en/seanews56.html >