ELAC Joins Prayer Rally for Clean Governance and Safer Communities
Puerto Princesa City, Palawan — September 21, 2025.
The Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC) joined faith communities, civic groups, students, and concerned citizens in a peaceful Prayer Rally Against Corruption held at the open field of Seminario de San Jose. Clad in white and bearing candles, participants gathered at dusk to express a shared hope for transparent, accountable, and people-centered governance in Palawan.
Peaceful witness, clear message
The prayer rally featured collective moments of silence, Scripture and interfaith reflections, and simple petition prayers for truth, justice, and the protection of communities—especially those most affected by abuses of power and environmental harm. Families, youth, clergy, and lay leaders stood shoulder to shoulder as candles were lit and passed from hand to hand, symbolizing the spread of hope and the duty to speak out against wrongdoing.
Good governance is a life-saving measure. Flood control only works when plans are science-based, procurement is transparent, and agencies fulfill their mandates.
Why ELAC stands with communities
For three decades, ELAC has collaborated with communities across Palawan to enforce environmental laws, defend human rights, and conserve the island’s irreplaceable ecosystems. Corruption—whether in the form of opaque permitting, weak enforcement, or favoritism—undermines these goals. It distorts decision-making on issues such as land use, mining, quarrying, fisheries, protected areas, and public spending, often at the expense of Indigenous Peoples, small-scale fishers, farmers, women, and youth.
Clean governance is a climate and biodiversity issue. When private interests capture processes, environmental safeguards are bypassed, accountability is weakened, and the burden falls on communities that are least able to absorb the impacts.
Prevention first: forests, watersheds, coasts
Corruption thrives where shortcuts replace systems. Effective flood prevention is not concrete alone. It begins upstream:
- Protect forests and headwaters to slow runoff, stabilize slopes, and reduce sedimentation.
- Maintain riparian buffers and mangroves to absorb floodwaters and protect coasts and riverbanks.
- Plan with whole-watershed data (rainfall, soils, land use, biodiversity) before building.
When governance fails, risk increases
Where corruption or weak oversight creeps in, even well-intentioned projects can exacerbate flooding through poorly sited structures, substandard work, or neglected maintenance. Communities then bear the costs.
- DENR must safeguard forests, watersheds, and critical habitats, enforce land-use and permitting rules, and act on illegal extraction that degrades river systems.
- DPWH must ensure transparent procurement, proper siting and design, environmental compliance, and long-term maintenance of flood-control structures.
- LGUs and oversight bodies must provide open data, independent monitoring, and meaningful community participation from planning to post-audit.
What accountability looks like
ELAC echoes calls for:
- Immediate transparency on flood-control contracts—scope, costs, locations, contractors, and inspections.
- Independent technical reviews of at-risk or questioned projects, with corrective action and sanctions where due.
- Watershed-based planning that integrates forest protection, river corridor management, and climate risk.
- Community monitoring—citizen access to plans, budgets, and progress reports; open grievance channels; and whistleblower protection.
- No tolerance for environmental shortcuts that destabilize rivers (e.g., destructive quarrying, excessive bank cutting, or works that constrict natural flows).
Community first: A gentle reminder
ELAC supports community-initiated actions such as this prayer rally. ELAC does not initiate complaints on its own; there must be a community or habitat that is affected and seeking assistance and representation. Our role is to provide legal support, policy guidance, and documentation training so communities can assert their rights and steward their lands and waters.
“Ang liwanag ng kandila ay paalala: may pag-asa habang kumikilos tayong sama-sama para sa katotohanan at kabutihang-bayan.”
How you can help
- Participate in local dialogues on watershed protection and disaster risk reduction.
- Document and report irregularities using official channels; insist on open data.
- Support forest wardens, fisherfolk, IP leaders, women and youth groups who keep watch over rivers, coasts, and uplands.
Editor’s Note / Disclaimer
ELAC’s participation affirms our mission to support communities in protecting their rights and environment. We advocate for processes grounded in evidence, due process, and public interest—and for agencies to faithfully implement their mandates so that flood-control and other public works genuinely keep people safe.
