ASEAN File

This year, as the chair of ASEAN, the Philippines has a unique opportunity to transform the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment into tangible progress. In October 2025, ASEAN reached a significant milestone by adopting this Declaration—its first framework to formally integrate environmental rights within the region’s human rights system. For the first time, ASEAN collectively recognised environmental rights, aligning itself with the United Nations’ earlier resolution. Although the Declaration is not without shortcomings and its language can be broad and ambiguous, it nonetheless represents a landmark commitment, particularly in the context of widespread environmental degradation and varied human rights records across the region. The Declaration highlights the shared responsibility of member states to harmonise their national laws and policies, advancing environmental protection throughout ASEAN.

Bringing true meaning to the right to a healthy environment entails recognising it as a fundamental human right—one that is indispensable for life, health, and dignity. It requires ensuring access to clean air, safe water, and thriving ecosystems, while empowering individuals with the right to information, meaningful participation in environmental decision-making, and access to justice when these rights are infringed.

To do so, the right must be embedded to the legal frameworks across ASEAN countries, and this legal foundation must not only underpin the entitlement itself but also provide essential protection for environmental defenders, including activists, indigenous peoples, and advocates, ensuring their efforts to safeguard the environment are supported and their rights upheld. Moreover, this right must serve as a critical policy framework, guiding climate action, pollution control, and biodiversity conservation by applying a human rights perspective to environmental governance and decision-making.

How can the Philippines, as chair, advance this Declaration?

By proactively addressing its own environmental justice issues, the Philippines sets a good example to other ASEAN nations. At the same time, by championing solutions to regional challenges, the Philippines—through its chairmanship—can give real and lasting impact to the ASEAN Declaration.

Plastic pollution, the reclamation of Manila Bay, and the release of GMOs into the environment—among other pressing environmental challenges facing the country—stand out as urgent areas where government intervention is needed. Addressing these issues in a way that fully embodies the essential elements of the ASEAN Declaration is critical for bringing its principles to life.

Plastic pollution in the Philippines is driven by the constant production of plastics found in sachets, labels, bottles, caps, and the packaging of consumer goods—far exceeding the nation’s environmental limits and recycling capacity. This issue is made worse by misleading claims about recyclability and so-called solutions like waste-to-energy projects, which actually encourage continued plastic use.

To set a good example, the government should enforce stringent regulations on recycling claims, recognising that most plastics cannot be genuinely and safely recycled. Instead of displaying recycling symbols and language on plastic packaging that mislead consumers into believing in recyclability, clear warnings about the environmental hazards of plastics—similar to health warnings on cigarette packs—should be mandated. This empowers consumers to make informed choices, allowing them to avoid products packaged in unrecyclable and unsustainable plastics. By upholding and strengthening the right to accurate information, as already guaranteed under the Consumer Act of the Philippines, the government can take meaningful action to tackle plastic pollution at its root.

The government should also avoid endorsing waste-to-energy (WtE) initiatives such as incineration, gasification, and pyrolysis, as these approaches carry substantial risks to both environmental and public health and are not genuine solutions to plastic pollution.

Research by organisations like the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) highlights that these processes release toxic pollutants into the air, soil, and water. These emissions are linked to serious health problems, including cancer, respiratory diseases, and hormonal disruption. Furthermore, WtE facilities are frequently located in low-income communities, exacerbating environmental injustice and exposing vulnerable populations to disproportionate harm.

Studies from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) demonstrate that WtE does not solve plastic pollution. Instead of reducing the production and consumption of plastics, WtE perpetuates a linear economy by incentivising continued plastic generation to feed these facilities. The government should instead prioritise upstream interventions—such as reducing single-use plastics, promoting sustainable product design, and regulating false and misleading recycling claims—to address the plastic crisis at its source. These will give life to the right to a healthy environment or the right to live and work in a safe, non-toxic environment, free from pollution and degradation, a key component of the ASEAN Declaration.

Zelda Soriano and Christian Robert Yalung are lawyers of Community Legal Help and Public Interest Centre, a non-profit organization that acts for the protection of human rights and the environment. Email: info@communitylegalhelp.org