MANILA, Philippines - If pails lined up in front of Quezon City Hall yesterday morning were to signify anything, it would be the presidential candidates’ ranking on their platforms for clean water.
Three groups conducted a survey to find out how candidates would tackle water pollution in the country.
In the survey conducted by Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the Ecowaste Coalition, environmentalist Nicanor Perlas topped the ranks with 8.7 points, followed by Sen. Jamby Madrigal with 7.8 points, and Sen. Richard Gordon with 7.2.
Eddie Villanueva placed fourth with 4.8 points, on a scoreboard of 1 to 10.
Senators Manuel Villar and Benigno Aquino III got 3.6 points, while councilor JC Delos Reyes got 2.7 points.
Former President Joseph Estrada and former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro received zero points for not answering questions sent to them.
The two groups said Perlas, Madrigal and Gordon got the highest points for their clear, comprehensive and progressive positions and plans on protecting water resources.
World Water Day
Greenpeace and Ecowaste undertook the activity yesterday morning to mark World Water Day, using pails to show how candidates ranked on “green topics.”
They conducted the Green Electoral Initiative survey among nine candidates, sending the questions until last February.
Candidates were asked questions such as: “If elected president, what specific steps will you take to ensure the availability of clean water sources in the country?” and “Are you for or against amending the Clean Water Act to incorporate and institutionalize a framework of Zero Discharge of hazardous chemicals from factories and domestic sources?”
“We would like to know their insights on their plans for the water issue, particular the problem of water pollution and the lack of clean water,” Manny Calonzo of Ecowaste said.
“This is the first in a series of ‘green’ rankings that we will release to inform the voters how those aspiring to lead our nation intend to tackle the country’s environmental woes such as the declining quality and quantity of our freshwater sources due to the continued generation and discharge of pollutants from household, agricultural and industrial sources,” Calonzo said.
He said many candidates focused on enforcement as key to addressing water pollution.
Perlas said it was urgent to have a comprehensive land use plan to delineate watershed areas.
Madrigal plans to enforce a system for managing water resources beyond setting effluent standards.
On the other hand, Gordon intends to implement the rainwater collection law and the provision of incentives for individuals to integrate rainwater storage into their houses.
LYFE survey
In another survey by the League of the Youth for the Environment (LYFE), Madrigal topped the “greenest candidate” for the May 10 election.
Loi Manalansan, group convenor, said the survey, dubbed “Environment Vote 2010: Who’s the greenest of them all?” aims to help voters choose the most pro-people and pro-environment political leaders.
“People have the right to know their candidates’ stand and track record on critical environmental issues to help the voters choose and put in office the most pro-people and pro-environment leaders,” he said.
Aside from Madrigal, Perlas and Villar ranked high in the list of green presidential candidates while Gordon, Estrada and Teodoro goton the “mean” list.
On the vice presidential bets, Legarda, Mayor Jejomar Binay and Perfecto Yasay topped the green list while Jay Sonza and Bayani Fernando were at the bottom.
A similar ranking for the senatoriables had Satur Ocampo, Liza Maza, Risa Hontiveros and Rizalito David in the green, while Kit Tatad, Ompong Plaza, Ralph Recto and Juan Ponce Enrile were in the mean list.
For those running for party-list, Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela, Kabataan, Katribu, Akbayan and Cibac landed positively on the green list.
The questionnaire was sent by e-mail, fax and via social networking sites to the presidentiables, vice presidentiables, senatoriables and party lists groups. Background checks were also done on all candidates with available on-line records for their positions on 10 major national environmental issues.
These questions range from the recommissioning of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, commercial logging, Mining Act of 1995, coal power plants, Visiting Forces Agreement, toxic waste, aerial spraying of pesticides on plantations, among others.
For every environmental friendly answer or record, the candidate or group was given one green bean point.
One mean bean (black) was also awarded for every environmentally destructive answer/record that they gave. The bean counts were added for the final tally to rank the candidates. - Reinir Padua, Artemio Dumlao, Perseus Echeminad.
Source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=560510&publicationSubCategoryId=68
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