Dear Readers,

FOP shares with you more articles that seek to contribute to climate justice debates. In the run up to Copenhagen, Joseph Purugganan writes about his recent interview with Ms. Ditas Muller, the country’s foremost expert on climate negotiations. Also in this issue, Walden Bello relates climate issues with the DOHA round, in his piece ‘Derail Doha, Save the Climate.’

This issue also includes summaries of two papers by Larry Lohmann of Corner House. Focus Philippines’ Deconstructing Discourse and Activist Retooling Program (DDARP) brings Larry Lohmann to the Philippines for a 3-week speaker tour in November and December 2009. For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Towards Copenhagen: Traversing a Road of Unfulfilled Commitments: Interview with Ms. Bernaditas Müller by Joseph Purugganan
Derail DOHA, Save the Climate* by Walden Bello
SNR Statement on Doha Negotiations and the WTO Ministerial by Stop the New Round Coalition
Larry Lohmann Papers: Summaries

FOCUS ON THE PHILIPPINES OCTOBER 2009

DEAR READERS,

THIS month’s FOP builds on last month’s climate justice issue, looking at it in relation to recent disasters that have hit the country. This issue includes the second part of Herbert Docena’s special report on the Clean Development Mechanism, as well as commentaries from Prof. Randy David and Kenneth Cardenas written in the wake of Typhoon Ondoy. 

CONTENTS:

THE CDM IN THE PHILIPPINES: REWARDING POLLUTERS (Special Report) / Herbert Docena
THE GIFT OF DISASTERS/ Prof. Randy S. David
WHO DO WE BLAME FOR UNTRAMELLED URBANIZATION IN MANILA? / Kenneth Cardenas
STATEMENT: ASIAN PEOPLES SOLIDARITY FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE
SAPAGKAT HINDI DELUBYO ANG KANYANG PANGALAN (Sa mga sinalanta ng Bagyong Ondoy)/ Emmanuel V. Dumlao
ONE TRIBE / Filomeno S. Sta Ana III

Dear Readers:

This month, FOP underscores the clamor for climate justice, as world leaders gear up for climate change talks at the United Nations in Bangkok. The issue includes Herbert Docena’s special report on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) money trail in the Philippines, which demonstrates the contradictions and failures of market-based solutions to address the climate crisis. The first part of Docena’s research uncovers a web of large conglomerates and “dirty” businesses controlled by a handful of Philippine elites, with the CDM feeding into mining, logging and power interests, rather than changing business and production practices that are detrimental to the climate. This month’s FOP also includes Isagani Serrano’s ‘Justice to Cool the Planet’ and a statement from Our World is Not For Sale, which sums up the key points in a forthcoming study on Trade and Climate Change that will be launched on October 2.

 Contents:

The CDM in the Philippines: Rewarding Polluters by Herbert Docena

Change Trade, Not Our Climate: Statement from the OWINFS Trade and Climate Working Group

Justice to Cool the Planet by Isagani Serrano

Dear Readers,

This month, Focus on the Philippines delves deeper into the Cory moment. Here, we gather pieces that do not stop at describing the sense of loss, grief, awe and gratitude that Cory’s passing has evoked in many of us. Going beyond mere eulogies, these commentaries show us that honoring the departed entails both recounting what has been achieved and remembering what still needs to be done. There is Edsa and there is Mendiola; the restoration of liberal democracy and the return of the oligarchs; People power, the death of dictatorship and the persistence of debt. Our contributors share how Cory has inspired us, but at the same time spell out where she has disappointed and failed us; Perhaps, to remind us of the limited legacy a single person can leave behind; the folly of pinning all our hopes on individual heroes; and the difficult and chronic challenges that only sustained collective intervention can surmount. Moreover, this period of contemplating Cory stresses the striking similarities between 1986 and 2010 as critical, historic junctures in the Philippines. Noting how Cory’s passing resulted in a ‘reawakening’, we also highlight how parallel conditions compel us to get out of our comfort zones and take action today, much like the grieving widow did in her time.

Cory Aquino can be regarded as a confounding contradiction, a symbol that captures our conflicted state as a people, an icon representing the many concerns and issues we still need to successfully confront, reconcile and resolve. Clearly, the struggles Cory Aquino waged, the movements she led, the causes she inspired were never hers alone.
Read on and reassess what Cory Aquino has left behind for you.

Contents:

CORY AFTER DEATH by Herbert Docena
CORY AND THE CREDITORS by Akbayan! Representative Walden Bello
A LEGACY OF UNFINISHED TASKS by Prof. Randy David
CELEBRATE WHAT CORY TRULY REPRESENTS by Emmanuel Hizon
THINKING ABOUT CORY AQUINO by Carolina Malay
FAREWELL TO THE MOTHER OF ‘PEOPLE POWER’ by Shiela Coronel
A NEW CORY by Men Sta Ana