SONA 2020: Towards a Green Recovery for the Philippines

Wazzup Pilipinas!

We live in unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic is an existential threat to human life, and has revealed to us the effects of our negative relationship with nature. There is opportunity for us to change, however. We must build a better, healthier, and greener normal, where we put science at the forefront of decision making, policy development, and infrastructure planning.

We urge the government, and all Filipinos, to protect our natural resources, to pursue sustainability in our food, water, and energy systems, and to promote local, indigenous production to reduce our reliance on external sources. We must work together to #ChangeTheEnding on this and future crises. Our Green New Recovery must start today.

As we all strive to address the immediate needs of this pandemic, we should not lose focus of the long-term needs of a sustainable Philippines. We need proper integration, implementation, consultation, and engagement in bringing economic, health, and environmental plans to fruition. Robust financing from local implementers and the banking sector can push positive environmental impacts even further. Transparency and alignment between national and local policies is needed to assist cities and municipalities in developing plans that protect their people. Through nationwide alignment, we can address our health and economic needs with nature-based solutions amidst this pandemic.

We need policies that integrate sustainability practices in the systems that provide our basic needs. National agencies must engage LGUs and the private sector for solutions that ensure resources are sustainably-managed and accessible to all, especially during these challenging times. Communal farms, watershed management activities, and distributed renewable energy solutions can ensure resource security. Filipinos have a right to nutritious food, clean water, and sustainable energy. It is imperative that we begin developing better resource systems.

We must create platforms and programs that will enable the youth to participate in governance and develop them as sustainability champions. We recommend the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into our curriculum. We can train more future leaders by instilling sustainability principles in educational materials and making them accessible. Teachers and community leaders are allies in advocating for the environment, and we must train them to educate students, families, and communities on sustainable development.

We urge the government to promote low-carbon living and the establishment of safe, inclusive, and sustainable mobility solutions that are accessible to all. We need to pursue the development of bike lanes and pedestrian areas, to reduce our carbon footprint while allowing Filipinos to travel freely. We ask that the government ensure the protection and rehabilitation of our country’s carbon sinks. Safeguarding our forests and reefs and promoting circular solutions to address plastic pollution can pave a way toward a low-carbon future for the Philippines.

We ask the government to engage in efforts to improve societal health and resiliency. We need more public spaces that can adapt to the needs of communities, especially those that are marginalized. Long-term societal health must be explored as well - the development of green spaces and infrastructure can make our cities healthier and more livable.

Finally, our relationship with wildlife must change if we are to prevent future pandemics. Studies show that closeness to and consumption of wild animals leads to global pandemics such as the current one. Through stricter penalties on illegal wildlife trade and by educating communities on the dangers of wildlife consumption, we can better safeguard endangered species and our own health. Meanwhile, strong policies that combat environmental degradation can protect our ecosystems. Multi-stakeholder approaches are vital to ensure our health, and the health of our environment.

This pandemic will not be the last if we do not take serious action now. We need to build resilient post-pandemic communities to combat resource overconsumption and wildlife exploitation as we pave the way toward a green and just recovery. We recognize the impact COVID-19 has had on our country, and only through nature-based solutions can we start down the road of green recovery. We urge the government, and all Filipinos, to protect the environment today, so that we and future generations may enjoy a healthy tomorrow. Together responsible, together possible.

Matteo Guidicelli Rewarding Himself with Popeye's After a Workout

Wazzup Pilipinas!


Should bloggers/vloggers be considered among the influencers or is there a specific definition of influencers as pertaining only to those celebrities or mainstream-popular personalities?. There is such a thing as macro and micro influencers, wherein bloggers/vloggers, may they be newbies or with small followings, are accepted as micro influencers.

People who brand themselves as influencers where you mostly just see them smile, flex a muscle, show off their cleavage, and look cute infront of the camera to pose for a photo or video ops or on their mobile phones to do a selfie with the products are what is prominent on mainstream media and online or social media. They will argue that it is very rare for consumers to read anymore, and pretty faces with short captions are enough to persuade their fans to patronize a product or service. Most are just reacting immediately on clickbait headlines or titles and would rarely click on a link to read more content about the story.

Is content no longer king and nowadays you just need a pretty face, a well-endowed physique, and willing to flex those abs, expose those cleavages, show off those sexy moves, etc. to sell a brand?

The recent video advertisement of Central Delivery with Popeye's resto shows Matteo Guidicelli doing his workout at a gym with so many of Popeyes logo placements printed in packages well-placed at prominent places at the gym, then ends with him at a push down slanted position probably sipping a cola or iced tea with the Popeyes logo on the cup, and then a photo of several Popeyes products - fried chicken, burger and fries, come out trying to bring that message of rewarding yourself.


We never heard anything about what makes Popeyes different or special compared to other brands. All they showed was Matteo doing his workout.... or was the ad only to inform us about Central Delivery as an alternative food delivery option.

Which makes no sense. After all that sweat working out, you'll gain back all that fat with those junk food.

We're you convinced to run over at the said resto or order food for delivery at Popeyes via Central Delivery?

How about with Matteo's unboxing of the PS4? We're you convinced to buy a Playstation and show a better unboxing? Lol

If you were, then substantial content is indeed no longer a priority.

It's like another Piolo Pascual and Derek Ramsey with their Dunkin Donuts promotion. These two celebrities are known for their fit and fab bodies but it is very unlikely that they would waste all their efforts by eating those sugary donuts....even as occasional rewards to themselves. For celebrities, their physical appearance is an investment that they should maintain well to remain an eye-candy for their fans.

Now there are several more examples of how influencers seems to be just paid endorsers that do not really embody truthfulness and realism as actual patrons of the products they are endorsing. But it would make this a very long article.

Should brands collaborate with bloggers/vloggers instead? Are they more credible when it comes to reviewing or featuring brands? That is open to another argument on its own.

Break the cycle of stunting in children - Save the Children Philippines

Wazzup Pilipinas! Save the Children Philippines has raised the urgency of diverse and immediate implementation of social protection, health and nutrition programs for vulnerable families to end stunting among children that remains unresolved for decades. The child rights organization made the call in time for President Duterte’s penultimate State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, where he is expected to report on the country’s status and the government’s agenda on COVID-19 pandemic response. “As the Philippines marks the 30th year of ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a huge number of children still languish in prolonged hunger and undernutrition worsened by the present health crisis,” said Atty. Alberto Muyot, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Philippines. The convention respects and fulfills the rights of every child to survival and development, to be protected from discrimination and violence, and to be given a platform to speak up and be listened to by adults and the government. Meanwhile, the World Bank’s Systematic Country Diagnostic report in June 2020 described the overall child nutrition picture in the Philippines as a puzzle where the country’s stunting rate stagnated between 2000 and 2015 despite the improvement of health and economic standards. It cited that 11 of the 17 regions expose up to 50 per cent of children to stunting due to high incidence of poverty. Save the Children Philippines, in its almost forty years of operations, has been addressing issues on malnutrition and stunting among Filipino children through its different health and nutrition support programs. In 2016, Save the Children Philippines began to implement Project NURTURE (Nutrition among Urban Poor through Unified Response) in eight deprived barangays in Navotas City. Now, it has expanded to Villareal, Samar on July 6, 2020 to protect deprived and marginalized children from chronic and acute malnutrition, as part of its COVID-19 response. It advocated for the enactment of the First 1,000 Days Law (Republic Act No. 11148 or Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act) in November 2019 that seeks to reduce malnutrition rates by focusing on high-impact and evidence-based nutrition interventions and programs to children and lactating mothers. Both World Bank and Save the Children Philippines consider stunting as cyclical because women who were themselves stunted in childhood tend to have stunted children. Good health and nutrition in the first 1,000 days from conception to the first two years of a child have the greatest power to break the vicious cycle. “The Philippines is one of the countries in the world with the highest number of stunted children. We hope that as we face the global pandemic as one nation, the government will put a premium on child protection against hunger and sickness to ensure their survival,” said Muyot.