DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 12 May) — Extreme weather changes are greatly affecting Mindanao’s water basins and its agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors, an official from the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said.
These sectors are dependent on weather conditions in Mindanao, the country’s “food basket” and the second largest island in the country, Romeo Montenegro, MinDA Deputy Executive Director, said.
He cited the flash floods and landslides back in January followed by heat index reaching as high as 50 degrees Celsius due to El Niño. He said this poses a risk on the island’s natural water-food-energy resource value chain, he said.
“Sixty percent of Mindanao’s economy is attributed to the agriculture value chain. Six out of ten jobs in Mindanao are attributed to the agriculture value chain according to the World Bank… this is our comparative advantage (among other islands in the country),” he said.
.Montenegro emphasized that cacao and coffee, two of the top five export crops of the island, have high water requirements – with nearly 20,000 liters to process a kilo of cacao and nearly 19,000 liters to process a kilo of roasted coffee.
The El Nino phenomenon is affecting water supply
Montenegro also said the lack of value-adding in select products, such as seaweeds in Tawi-Tawi, can affect their accumulated sales as well.
Citing statistical data, Montenegro said the persons who will be most affected by the climate crisis are the farmers and fisherfolk who are already the “poorest of the poor” in Mindanao.
“Up to this day nganong pobre atong farmers and fisherfolk? It’s because some of them wala’y kuryente, wala’y facility for them to be able to value-add, for them to arrive at an economies of scale to warrant the viability of investing in these facilities, because they are fragmented,” the director added.
Addressing these problems, Montenegro said there is a need for Mindanao to transition to a 70 percent renewable energy – enabling farmers and fisherfolk to get sustainable energy from solar, wind, and water sources rather than from coal, oil, and burning fossil fuels.
He also said MinDa sees to it that their food, water, and energy-related projects must be interconnected, answering the question “will it have an impact on agricultural productivity?” given that Mindanao is the country’s “fruit basket.”
Montenegro was among three speakers at the May 12 forum at the Holy Cross of Davao College, to celebrate World Press Freedom Day (WPFD). This year’s theme is “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the environmental crisis.
Dr. Dennis John Sumaylo, chair of the Department of Humanities at the University of the Philippines-Mindanao (UPMin) and author of the book “Engaging Isolated Communities in Disaster Preparation and Communication in the Philippines” shared his disaster, risk, and cartographic communication strategies and challenges when dealing with people from geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs).
Sumaylo suggested a framework which can help visualize awareness and help locals living in the GIDA, preventing them from being left behind in disaster preparedness.
He said the media’s role is important in spotlighting GIDAs needs and to help the authorities and government visualize what they need for their disaster preparedness and awareness. He also said a “transformational” community engagement is a must to highlight a certain narrative.
Sumaylo’s book was first launched in Australia in December last year. It had its Philippine launch in Davao City on May 1.
For National Anti-Poverty Council (NAPC) secretary Lope Santos III, climate change can greatly affect Filipinos’ way of life as he reminisced his experiences back during the typhoon Washi, locally known as Sendong in 2011 until the recent January landslides and flash floods in Davao de Oro areas “which caused billions of damages in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, affecting the ordinary citizens”.
Santos also said flooding may worsen further if there are no synchronized “mitigation adaptation measures” for the government and the stakeholders.
Part of NAPC’s mandate, he said, is to monitor poverty reduction projects, guides on policy-making and coordination with other government offices with the implementation of social reform and poverty alleviation agenda.
“The government has put up several mechanisms from national to local-based agencies concerning disaster preparedness and response, but the question is always, why climate change effects always happen despite the supposed country’s preparedness on policy-making and institutional mechanisms. Sometimes, implementation is lacking,” Santos III said in Filipino.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has vowed to reduce poverty incidence from 18.1 percent to 9 percent by 2028.
Santos said the media has a very important role to play. “Your stories might affect powerful individuals or politicians, might threaten your security, but you, as acting as a check and balance for the government and stakeholders… your role to well-inform the citizens is important.”
The forum was preceded by a nationwide updating via Zoom of representatives of the nine media-citizen councils that the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) helped to establish in Aklan, Batangas, Central Luzon, Iloilo, Eastern Visayas, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur and host Davao City.
The forum that followed was a collaboration of PPI, the Davao City Media-Citizen Council, the International Media Support and Media Educators in Mindanao.
Induction of the members and officers of the DCMCC was held after the forum. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)
