In this episode, we meet Derek Cabe, coordinator of the Coal-Free Bataan Movement, as she continues the work of Gloria Capitan, a murdered activist who was campaigning against coal plants in Bataan province. The Coal-Free Bataan movement opposes a coal storage facility and power plants which they believe polluted their town, sickened families, and covered the coastline in ash.
Derek Cabe is an activist in the Philippines who is continuing the work of her murdered friend and fellow campaigner Gloria Capitan. Gloria, a 57-year-old grandmother, was shot dead in the Lucanin village in the Bataan province of the Philippines.
In the weeks running up to her death, Gloria Capitan had been repeatedly threatened and intimidated. But she refused to be silenced. Derek Cabe continues the environmental campaign, organizing communities against coal plants and speaking out against a government disinformation campaign targeting legitimate protestors and environmental human rights defenders.
The episode features Derek Cabe, Gretchen Malalad, a freelance journalist based in Manilla who works mostly with Agence France-Presse, Al Jazeera, and the BBC, and Leon Dulce, an organiser with the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment.
Defenders of the Earth captures the gripping and inspiring stories of activists around the world who are taking on powerful interests to protect our planet. Our presenter is Vanessa Nakate, climate justice activist from Uganda. Our episodes profile activists in Russia, Liberia, Honduras, and the Philippines.
As climate activist and journalist Bill McKibben wrote in Last Line of Defence, a report from Global Witness released in September 2021, land and environmental defenders ”are at risk, in the end, not just because of another local person who pulls the trigger or plunges the blade; they’re at risk because they find themselves living on or near something that some corporation is demanding.”
In 2020, 227 activists were murdered for taking a stand to defend human rights, their land, and our environment. Over a third of the attacks were reportedly linked to resource exploitation — logging, mining, and large-scale agribusiness — and hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure. And that number is likely to be higher due to poor reporting.
Defenders of the Earth is produced by Global Witness and Whistledown Productions. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts.