Politicians urged to have ‘green’ campaign

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista appealed to politicians to make the electoral campaign environment-friendly as aspirants for elective posts started filing their certificates of candidacy (COCs) yesterday.

Earlier in the day, Bautista met with representatives of environmental group EcoWaste Coalition outside the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila.

EcoWaste national coordinator Aileen Lucero told Bautista that the common scenario during the election season is that piles of garbage are left behind.

Bautista said they support the group’s advocacy.

“We also believe that we need to take care of our environment, our natural resources,” he said.

He urged candidates to think of the environment when coming out with their campaign paraphernalia, saying it would be best if flyers would be made of recyclable materials.

In a letter, EcoWaste asked Bautista “to take proactive steps to safeguard not only the sanctity of the ballot, but also to protect the environment from being degraded further due to irresponsible campaign activities for the 2016 polls.”

The group requested Comelec “to exercise its authority to enjoin candidates and their campaign machineries to commit to a ‘green’ campaign and do away with the traditional ‘guns, goons, gold and garbage’ that have long typified our vibrant but ecologically flawed democratic exercise.”

“We need to change the way we conduct our elections as the country’s environment degenerates due to ever increasing resource extraction and pollution from chemicals and wastes,” said EcoWaste Coalition’s Zero Waste campaigner Christina Vergara.

“Greening the campaign track from the filing of COCs to post-election cleanup is not rocket science. What is needed is for the candidates and their supporters to turn apathy towards the environment into simple acts of compassion for Mother Earth, such as by not littering and burning campaign materials,” she said.

“The entire nation should rally behind the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) and make the elections less wasteful and kinder to the environment,” Vergara added.

The group said the Comelec, with its legal and moral authority, should throw down the gauntlet to presidential bets like Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sen. Grace Poe and former interior secretary Manuel Roxas II and other aspiring public servants for them to embrace ecologically responsible campaign activities that meet the minimum requirements of the country’s electoral, health and environmental laws.

The group’s recommendations for the “greening” of the 2016 polls include updating, re-issuing and enforcing Comelec Resolution No. 9615, which “encourages parties and candidates to use recyclable and environment-friendly materials and avoid those that contain hazardous chemicals and substances in the production of their campaign and election propaganda.”

The group also urged Comelec to re-issue the Memorandum Circular on “Basura-Free Elections” that it released along with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of the Interior and Local Government in 2013 to, among other things, “reduce the amount of generated waste during the campaign, election and post-election periods.”

EcoWaste proposed to the Comelec to consider requiring all individuals and groups running for election to sign a memorandum of agreement stipulating the obligation of candidates to comply with lawful and environmentally friendly campaign practices, including a mandatory post-campaign clean up. – With Rhodina Villanueva