Wetlands International Philippines

15/08/2026

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟕 𝐁𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 '𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.' 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐓 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐑 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐄?

The 2027 proposed national budget, the National Expenditures Program (NEP), is now public. A Super El Niño, super typhoons, and worsening climate impacts are already bearing down on Filipino communities. So the question isn't rhetorical: where is government money actually going, and is it enough?

Here's what the numbers say. Let's go through the analysis and the figures below, which are drawn from Aksyon Klima Pilipinas' breakdown of the 2027 National Expenditures Program (source: Aksyon Klima Pilipinas)

The topline climate-tagged funding is proposed at PHP 692.7 billion for 2027, up from PHP 648.7 billion in 2026. That sounds like growth. It isn't. As a share of the national budget, it's a 0.07% increase. Nearly flat, in a year when the climate risk curve is not flat at all.

𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇?
WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO? BY THEME Under the National Climate Change Action Plan, the 2027 NEP splits climate funding across seven thematic areas. Two numbers stand out:

"Sustainable energy" still eats the largest share, at 44.4% of climate-tagged funds (down slightly from 45.3% in 2026), but as the data itself flags, it is not really renewable energy; it's more on road projects. New infrastructure is booked here, so a category that sounds like solar and wind is, in practice, substantially highways and more concrete.

"Ecosystem and environmental stability," the theme that will most likely directly fund nature-based solutions like mangrove and forest rehabilitation, watershed protection, and coastal ecosystem work, gets just 0.3% of the 2027 climate budget, or PHP2.8 billion. That's down from 1.3% (PHP8.2 billion) in 2026. At a time when nature-based adaptation is being pushed globally as one of the most cost-effective climate resilience options available, funding for it is shrinking, not growing.

Meanwhile, "climate-smart industries" (27.5%) and "Water sufficiency" (17.1%, which absorbs flood control) round out most of the rest.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO? BY AGENCY (Agency and adaptation/mitigation figures below are likewise as reported by Aksyon Klima Pilipinas.) The agency breakdown tells a sharper story. Across all climate-tagged actions, DPWH, the Department of Public Works and Highways, receives 83% of the 2027 allocation, up from 71% in 2026. DENR, the agency literally mandated to protect the environment, gets less than 1%, down from 2%. DOTr drops even further, from 10% to under 1%.

Split by adaptation versus mitigation, the picture diverges sharply:

On MITIGATION, the spending is at least distributed across agencies with direct environmental or energy mandates: ALGU (28.7%), BSGC (24.3%), DENR (14.1%), DOE (13.1%), DA (6.5%), and DOTr (7.3%).
On ADAPTATION, DPWH alone takes 83.9% of the pie. DA gets 10.4%. Everyone else, DENR, DOH, ALGU, DOTr, DepEd, and SUCs, is fighting over scraps in the low single digits or less.

In short, when it comes to helping the country adapt to a warmer, wetter, more disaster-prone future, the government's default answer is INFRASTRUCTURE, not ecosystems, not health systems, not local government capacity, not education.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐆𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓?

Line items and percentages are only half the story. Two things deserve harder scrutiny:

Loans and technical assistance are quietly reshaping the "climate budget." A growing share of environment-tagged allocations and projects now run through foreign loans and technical assistance packages, not straight domestic appropriations. That raises real accounting questions: Are these projects actually science-based? Are they designed around measurable, verifiable outcomes? Carbon is sequestered, hectares of functioning ecosystems are restored, and communities are genuinely more resilient, or are they designed around disbursement targets and loan conditions?

Right now, there's no strong public assurance either way. "Climate financing" and "effective climate action" are not automatically the same thing, and the accountability architecture to tell them apart is still weak.

A budget is only as good as the system that spends it. The Philippines' track record with flood control and infrastructure funds, including the corruption scandals that have dogged DPWH-implemented projects, is precisely why the agency concentration shown here is so concerning. When 83%+ of adaptation funding funnels through one agency with a documented corruption exposure, "more funding" doesn't automatically mean "more resilience." It can just as easily mean more ghost projects, more substandard flood control structures that fail in the next typhoon, and more public trust lost. Climate finance without a serious, independent accountability mechanism is a resilience plan built on sand.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄?
Put together, this budget raises the core climate justice question the Philippines keeps deferring: if adaptation money overwhelmingly builds roads and structures rather than restoring the ecosystems and strengthening the local, science-based, community-led systems that actually protect people first, who is this budget really protecting, and who is being left to face the next super-typhoon with the least support?

A near-flat real increase, a shrinking share for ecosystem-based solutions, and an ever-heavier concentration in a single infrastructure agency are not, on their face, a budget built for the scale of the climate crisis ahead. The proposed 2027 budget is still just that, proposed. Congress can still change these numbers.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐄 𝐃𝐎?
This budget isn't final. It still has to pass through Congress, and public pressure has moved line items before.

✅ Read and analyze the NEP and see where your sector's priorities stand.
✅ Tag your district representative and senators, ask them directly how they'll push for real, science-based climate and ecosystem funding in the 2027 General Appropriations Act.
✅ Share this post and tag someone who needs to see where the money isn't going.
✅ Follow Aksyon Klima Pilipinas for updates as the budget moves through deliberations, and join the call for a budget that matches the scale of the crisis.

Explore the proposed 2027 budget yourself and decide: https://www.dbm.gov.ph/index.php/2027/budget-of-expenditures-and-sources-of-financing-fy-2027

Data and thematic breakdowns: Aksyon Klima Pilipinas
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14/08/2026

Last August 12, the Global Mangrove Alliance Philippines (GMAP) attended the Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting for the consolidation of House Bills Nos. 1613, 6948, 7902, 8353, and 9062 for the proposed National Coastal Greenbelt (NCG) Act, under the House of Representatives’ Committee on Climate Change.

GMAP strongly advocates for the advancement of the NCG Act, which we believe can serve as a fundamental policy for the protection and restoration of our mangrove ecosystems.

We are grateful to be part of the TWG, where we contributed comments and recommendations section by section toward a stronger, more effective, and science-based substitute bill.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on the bill’s development.

11/08/2026

📢 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐱 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚: 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲

Before any decision is made on the proposed Pax Silica project, the public deserves full disclosure of all agreements, environmental studies, and water assessments.

A project of this scale could affect our wetlands, watersheds, biodiversity, and local communities. Research shows that large data centers and mining operations can place significant pressure on water resources, ecosystems, and nearby communities.

Wetlands and watersheds are not empty lands. They provide clean water, reduce flooding, support livelihoods, and strengthen climate resilience.

We support innovation, investment, and growth. But development must be transparent, science-based, and within ecological limits.

Let us pursue development that protects wetlands, safeguards our watersheds, defends our communities, and secures our water future.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 👇
https://philippines.wetlands.org/statement-on-pax-silica-pursue-transparency-comprehensive-review-and-multi-stakeholder-engagement-before-making-hasty-decisions/

10/08/2026

From classroom theory to wetland reality! 🌱

This year, we immersed our brave interns in the deep end—literally. Between fieldwork in coastal wetlands (mudflats, rivers, and mangroves) and days of community immersion and collaboration, we watched the magic happen. They came in asking, "What's the current state of wetlands?" and left declaring, "WE MUST PROTECT AND CONSERVE WETLANDS!"

Over the course of the internship, they didn't just learn about wetlands; they lived it. From wading through mangrove forests, to sitting in on community consultations, to leading a communications and education program, to crunching data in the field and translating it into policy material, to sitting in on high-level policy discussions—this was full immersion conservation work.

Here's what they walked away with:

✅ Life-changing, perspective-shifting moments
✅ Hands-on exposure to community and grassroots work; witnessed how effective stakeholder collaboration works
✅ Networking with other NGOs and conservation practitioners
✅ Citizen science and field data gathering experience, to writing a technical paper for policy
✅ Experience in environmental policy lobbying
✅ Learned the process of action planning, stakeholder coordination, and program development
✅ Questionable tan lines (also very real, also unavoidable)

Beyond the fieldwork, our interns also got to sit down with our partners at Parabukas for cross-learning sessions, trading notes on advocacy strategies, brainstorming for program development, and what it really takes to move environmental policy forward in the Philippines. Huge thanks to their team for the collaboration and for sharing their expertise so generously!

We asked our interns to spill the tea on their biggest "aha!" moments and how this experience leveled up their game—swipe through to hear it straight from them. 👉

To future interns: keep an eye on our page for our next internship cycle.

07/08/2026

POV: You're deep in the mangroves, seeing why this ecosystem is the real MVP of coastal resilience 🌱🦀

Flora? Checked. Fauna? Checked. Conservation? Always. ✨

06/08/2026

The Global Mangrove Alliance Philippines (GMAP) welcomes the Congressional inquiry into the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Memorandum on mangrove earth-balling and relocation.

This is an important opportunity to ensure that policies affecting our mangroves are grounded in science, uphold environmental laws, and protect the communities that depend on these vital ecosystems. We call for a transparent, science-based, and participatory review to ensure that mangrove conservation remains at the heart of sustainable development.

Read the full statement: https://tinyurl.com/kbu4wbtw

05/08/2026

More than 12,433 people have signed the petition, "Urge the DENR to revise or repeal harmful mangrove memorandum," showing growing public support for a science-based review of the current policy on mangrove earthballing.

During the Philippine Mangrove Conference 2026, the DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau shared its intention to convene a Technical Working Group (TWG) to review the memorandum. We welcomed this commitment and remain hopeful that the review process will soon move forward.

A TWG offers an important opportunity for scientists, practitioners, government agencies, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities to strengthen mangrove restoration policies through collaboration and evidence-based discussions.

We remain ready to support this process. If you share this call for a transparent, science-based review, sign the petition: https://tinyurl.com/3krze5vz

04/08/2026

🌱✨ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐭-𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 🎊🎉

Is Mangrove Day really over? Could've sworn it was only yesterday that we were dancing Zumbakawan 🎼 with the community of Sitio Pulo in Kabalutan, Orani, Bataan, and pitching our tents at the Livelihood Site of the Tubo-tubo Fisherfolks Association. ⛺️

🛶 We were there for three memorable days with our interns, youth volunteers, and representatives from One Pawikan Initiative, Mangrove Matters PH , Las Piñas Parañaque Wetland Park, and Neymatophores.

🏵️ The celebration was jam-packed with activities! We visited the TFA's eco-tourism grounds, sloshed in the mud of the OMEF site during a two-day assessment, kayaked 🚣‍♀️ in the delta, flew a drone over the AMA pilot site in the fishpond of Bataan Peninsula State University, joined the festivities of the community's first-ever Mangrove Festival, and conducted a CEPA activity 🎤 for the people of Sitio Pulo.

🥳 Celebrations like this highlight how nature shapes community traditions, livelihoods, and cultural practices.

💚 In the case of TFA, the mangroves don't just protect and provide 🦀; they unite the community and give the people a sense of purpose and ownership. The TFA and the community are proud of what they have achieved in mangrove conservation. They know the value of what they have and continue to work together for mangroves, their people, and their children's future.

👏 Kudos to the Provincial Government of Bataan, Enro Bataan, their Local and Private Partners, and the TFA on a successful Mangrove Festival!

03/08/2026

03/08/2026

🌊 25,406 signatures. One Generation. One Promise

Young people. Guardians of tomorrow.

This petition was signed by and for the youth, a generation refusing to stay silent while our coastal ecosystems are put at risk. We’re calling on our leaders to pass the National Coastal Greenbelt Act and protect the mangrove and beach forests that shield our shores for the future we will inherit.

Add your voice. Join thousands of young Filipinos standing up for our coasts.

Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/the-youth-urge-the-philippine-government-to-pass-the-national-coastal-greenbelt-act