Greenpeace Southeast Asia


BP Deepwater Disaster and Gulf Oil Spill by Chuck Baclagon

The Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster unfolding before our eyes. Eleven lives were lost in the initial explosion, and that incalculable loss is compounded daily as oil continues to flow.

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Updates From the Dam to the Farmlands by ocho

As I walked in the 5 hectares of land in Brgy. Mangumbali, Candaba Pampanga, I can feel the land crumbling under my feet. The land is so dried that Mr. Numeriano Alabado was not able to harvest any rice crop that he planted in his area. His fields are now full of bigcracks that if you’re not cautious, the soil might collapse.

Their water source is from UPRIS-Upper Pampanga River Irrigation System.Pantabangan Dam is the main source of their irrigation system, because the dam has stopped supplying water due to drought; their rice lands have been destroyed. Almost all the farmers in this town have lost their income due to extreme drought. All of them we’re saying that this was the first time that they’ve experienced this kind of phenomenon.

The local government provided them aid by giving them STW or Shallow Tube Well but its already late to be use for this season because of lack of water. For them, only rain could restore their devastated lands.

A.C. Dimatatac


Up North: Still No Water by ocho

We’re on our last day of our travel in the drought affected lands of Central and North Luzon. We went to Brgy. San Isidro in Naguilan, La Union wherein we met some farmers who are members of Pakisama, an organization which is into sustainable agriculture and supports capacity building of  farmers in the North.

Mr. Ronaldo B. Calica, a farmer whose crops are mainly corn, said that this is the worst drought ever. The sources of water in their area are the small creeks nearby and they are mostly dependent to rain. According to him, the last rainfall they had was when typhoon Pepeng hit the country last October 2009. After that, they didn’t experience any rainfall at all. He normally earns around 10 to 15 thousand pesos from his 1 hectare of corn but now it’s zero balance. He spent too much for the gasoline of his water pump and fertilizers but it was all for nothing because his land got dried up due to insufficient supply of water. He showed us his corn crops that are so small he can no longer use it. Continue reading



Chernobyl Day by Chuck Baclagon
April 26, 2010, 6:35 am
Filed under: Greenpeace, Stop climate change, End the nuclear age | Tags: , ,

From the Nuclear Reaction blog

Twenty four years ago today, the Number 4 reactor exploded at Chernobyl. It was the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen.

chernobylnuclearexplosion.jpg

Two people were killed in the explosion. Thirty-seven died of acute radiation sickness soon afterwards. According to engineers who were there, dozens were killed while building the reactor’s concrete sarcophagus. More than 2,000 villages around Chernobyl were contaminated by radioactivity. More than 330,000 people were evacuated and relocated. Statistics predict approximately 270,000 cancers and 93,000 fatal cancer cases will be caused by Chernobyl. At least three million children required medical treatment. The effect on the health of the survivors and their children has been devastating: accelerated ageing, cardiovascular and blood illnesses, psychological illnesses, chromosomal aberrations and an increase in foetal deformations.

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Earth Day 2010: Love and life by Chuck Baclagon

Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.

22 April 2010: Earth Day

It is almost midnight.

Earth Day is only minutes away from being over. Another day, has passed and like in so many things that are subject to time, this day now becomes part of  my memories and are now recorded as a chapter in my life.

I am more than glad that this remembrance of Earth Day was done with the celebration of the life of a dear person with whom I count myself fortunate to have as a friend .

Perhaps it is safe to say that in as far as speaking about Earth Day and the need to uphold the urgent struggle of safeguarding the environment, the celebration of Earth Day and the work for those in the environmental movement must always be reflected in the context of love for life –and I am not talking here about token sentimentally about Mother Nature, nor am I simply being a bleeding heart for the cute and cuddly animals, nor am I romanticizing my love for the outdoors –far from it!

While it is true that the aforementioned things are part of the things that bear weight in my decision to commit myself to my work with Greenpeace, a larger part of me recognizes the resolute urgency of taking action for the environment lies in the love that can be found in life that is shared in relationships –relationships that can be found in that of parents, grandparents, children, siblings, relatives friends, comrades, kindred spirits and lovers.

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From the dam to the farmlands… by ocho

Day 1-19 April

Bgy.Caingin San Rafael

After 8 days of camping out in Angat Dam to monitor the fast receding rate of the water levels, Water Watch Project takes on the surrounding agricultural lands.

The first farmland that the team head on is Barangay Caingin San Rafael, Bulacan. For those farmers who started planting rice last January, their farmlands have already been affected by El Niño. Mr. Leoncio Hernandez, a farmer with 3 hectares of land relay his story by showing his green fields in which the land is starting to dry up due to the scarcity of water. He said that rice crops can still be harvested but it will be mostly just ipas or empty shells. The water source of their farmlands comes from Angat Dam but since the dam stop supplying water for irrigation their rice land now suffers more. During the first week of April they were trying to save their fields by pumping what little water they can from a small creek nearby. But now even the creek is drying up. He said that if they won’t still have water this week, they won’t be able to save their rice crops.

A.C. Dimatatac


Run for Trails 2010 by Jenny Tuazon

It was 14 degrees Celsius up here in Baguio City when we arrived to join the University of the Philippines(UP) Baguio Mountaineers Trail Run 2010 this morning. The cool temperature suited the runners’ mood for a 13-K run for trails which kicked off at Scout Barrio. The event started at exactly 8 AM after the briefing and orientation, with more or less 80 participants. Greenpeace supports the 7th Edition of the Run for Trails 2010 which is an annual run organized by the UP Baguio Mountaineers to highlight the importance of conserving our forests and promote trail running as a sport. Continue reading



Greenpeace boat team: Saan galing ang tubig na iniinom nyo? by Chuck Baclagon

Greenpeace boat team members, Tomas and Moss show us where our drinking water comes from.

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Water Watch: Day 5 by Chuck Baclagon

When the GMA news crew arrived at camp today, we had to make some quick decisions whether it would be prudent to bring them along with us to try and cross the Kamanoyo mountain to get to the main body of Matulid River on the other side.  According to the AWAT rangers, it usually takes Dumagats around 30-45 minutes to cross the forest. But Dumagats are fairly known to move like Spiderman even on the sheer slopes of Angat.  We were also told that the last time a band of AWAT personnel crossed Kamanoyo, it took them seven hours, but they didn’t have a Dumagat guide with them that time. Continue reading



Can you count how many they are? by Chuck Baclagon

View of the night sky from the Water Watch Campsite.

Astronomers say that on a clear, moonless night in a place far away from city lights, you should be able to see about 2000 stars. The darker the skies, the more stars you can see. Astronomers have calculated that there are about 6,000 stars potentially visible with the unaided eye, below are images of the night sky at the Water Watch camp, could you count how many stars there are in the pictures?

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