37
Climate change also impacts the mental health of individuals and communities. It
has been reported that “people who experienced the loss of homes or loved ones or
were exposed to life-threatening situations faced higher risks of developing stress and
anxiety-related conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.”166
Finally, climate change also causes the collapse of all determinants of health “such as
food and nutrition, housing, access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation,
safe and healthy working conditions, and a healthy environment.”167
In the Philippines, Article II, Section 15 of the Constitution protects and promotes
the right to health of its people. Yet, climate change has and continues to impinge
on the Filipinos’ right to health. Filipinos suffer from illnesses resulting from severe
temperature increase, extreme weather conditions, air pollution, food and water
shortage, and population displacement. Water and food-borne diseases and vectorborne and rodent-borne diseases have also increased.168 Heavy rainfall during the wet
season,169 combined with the shortened incubation period of viruses due to elevated
ambient air temperatures during droughts,170 has multiplied the incidence of dengue
in the Philippines.
In August 2019, the Philippine Department of Health declared a national dengue
epidemic owing to the 98 percent increase in cases from January to July 2019.171
There was also an emergence of Chikungunya, a vector-borne disease which may cause
debilitating symptoms for up to around three months, in the southern Philippines
just months after Typhoon Haiyan (local: Yolanda). Dr. Jonathan Moses Jadloc,
National Chair of the Climate Change Committee of the Philippine College of
166
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Outcome of the Panel Discussion
on the Adverse Impact of Climate Change on States’ Efforts to Progressively Realize the Right of
Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health and
Related Policies, Lessons Learned and Good Practices: Summary Report of the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/32/24 (2016).
167
Id.
169
Precipitation value and incidence of dengue have been trending together positively (citing Asian
Development Bank, Accounting for Health Impacts of Climate Change, Figure 3 [Monthly Rainfall and
Number of Cases of Dengue Fever in the Philippines, 2009-2008] (2011), at 5).
168
170
171
Exhibit JJ to JJ-8, Printed PowerPoint Presentation of Dr. Molina. Victorio B. Molina, PhD, an
Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, College of Public
Health at the University of the Philippines-Manila.
Assaf Anyamba, Jean-Paul Chretien, Jennifer Small, Compton J Tucker & Kenneth J Linthicum,
Developing Global Climate Anomalies Suggest Potential Disease Risks for 2006–2007, 5:60 Int. J.
Health Geogr., doi:10.1186/1476-072X-5-60 (2006).
Oscar M. Lopez Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Foundation,
Inc. & Climate Change Commission, 2017 Philippine Climate Change Assessment: Impacts,
Vulnerabilities and Adaptation (2017), available at https://climate.gov.ph/files/PhilCCA-WG2.pdf (last
accessed Nov. 20, 2019) [hereinafter PhilCCA WG2].
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