Prefatory Statement
“Ito na lang ba ang aming kauuwian—ang magbilang, o
mapabilang, sa mga biktima ng climate change?”1
In asking for available remedies, Ms. Derek Cabe2 raised this concern at the Forum on
Human Rights and Climate Change organized by the Honourable Commission on Human Rights
(Commission or CHR) in cooperation with Greenpeace Southeast Asia on May 12, 2015.
We, the Petitioners (the parties filing this petition), trust that the Honourable Commission
understands the context of this question, considering the abundance of country statistics and
reports of disaster-related casualties. For example, despite forecasts and warnings provided days
in advance, super-typhoon Yolanda killed more than 6,000 people, affected millions of others,
and devastated areas in central Leyte in 2013. According to the World Bank, the EMDAT
disaster database shows that between 2000 and 2008, weather-related disasters accounted for
98% of all people affected and 78% of all the people who died due to disasters in the
Philippines.3 The World Bank also stated that annually the country has to spend 0.5% of its GDP
on natural disasters.4 Between 1998 and 2009, the country had to deal with costs of up to
US$24.3 billion (23.9% of GDP) due to storms, exposing 12.1 million people.5
The various possible factors contributing to the occurrence of super-typhoons like
Yolanda and other extreme weather events now include human-induced climate change. Natural
variability is now occurring on top of, and interacting with, background conditions that have
already been altered by long-term climate change. According to scientific experts, “[w]hile
natural variability continues to play a key role, climate change has shifted the odds and changed
the natural limits, making certain types of extreme weather more frequent and more intense.”6
In the era of climate change, we feel that the real value of the statistics and reports of
disaster-related casualties has not been given adequate expression. The real life pain and agony
1
English translation: Will this be our fate---to just count the victims of climate change or be counted among them?
Ms. Cabe is a representative of Nuclear Free Philippines (Bataan).
3
Ancheta, Christopher; Bojo, Jan; Dato, Victor; Heister, Johannes; Kariuki, Mukami; Morton, John; Trohanis, Zoe;
Tuyor, Joe; Villaluz, Maya; Virtucio, Felizardo; Wedderburn, Sam; Zhang, Yabei. 2010. A strategic approach to
climate change in the Philippines. Washington, DC: World Bank p. 6. Available at
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/04/15198885/strategic-approach-climate-change-philippines.
4
Id.
5
IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects.
Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, Small Islands [Barros, V.R., C.B. Field, D.J. Dokken, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, T.E. Bilir, M.
Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R.
Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY,
USA, pp. 688, at 1638.
6
Climate Communications, Overview: Current Extreme Weather & Climate Change,
https://www.climatecommunication.org/new/features/extreme-weather/overview/ (last accessed Sept. 15, 2015).
2
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