I started to get involved in climate and environmental activism when I was 15 years old. I had the opportunity to go around my province and saw how communities living in commune with nature are also being taken care of by Mother nature. My activism is inspired by this relationship and fueled by everything that I love – clean air and water, communities living in harmony with the planet, and the preservation of the pristine beauty of the Earth. That is why months into my activism, when a coal-fired power plant was introduced in my province,together with my peers, we organized fellow young people to work with the different sectors in society to campaign against the dirtiest source of energy and we were able to win a ban on coal in our province that also contributed to the national moratorium on coal for the entire Philippines months later.

Communities in the Philippines are in the frontline of climate impacts – from deadly heatwaves to devastating typhoons. Poor and marginalized communities who have long suffered the inequality of this world is now again suffering the most from the climate crisis they did not create. I am inspired to join and be part of the Make Rich Polluters Pay campaign because I believe that this campaign is correct, just, and necessary for my countrymen and the people of the global majority who are suffering from the impacts of the climate crisis. Despite our efforts to protect and conserve the environment and our natural resources, these efforts fall short because of the continued destruction of the environment at the global level and the impunity for those who caused it.
I am joining this campaign because climate justice is not only a tagline, but it must be a global aspiration and it will start when the people, institutions, and countries who has caused the climate crisis pay for the damages and help pay to address it.