I am a regular middle class citizen from Quezon City, just one of the 16 cities that are part of the Philippines' sprawling metropolis, the National Capital Region, also known as Metro Manila. In my neighborhood, I do not see a lot of water, air, or any other prevalent form of pollution. However, I have seen and have even been to a lot of the poorer communites still in the same city that I am in, and this is where the first case of environmental injustice takes place. In various communities in my city and in the metro, all forms of trash and garbage, including food waste, are dumped every late evening or early morning from businesses and residential areas in other parts of the metro. The extremely poor communities thrive in population in these areas because they are able to salvage waste food and repurpose objects discarded in the garbage. While many are proud of their resourcefulness (and hey, it is impressive!), this phenomenon brings a lot of negative effects to those less fortunate. First is the obvious: it is bad for their health. Just living near piles of garbage and waste DAILY will surely cause all sorts of diseases to be prevalent and common in these communities. Second is the psychological effect that these people have to suffer living literally around and beside garbage. That is an insult to their dignity and to their decency. The problem here is that there are no effective solutions implemented by the local governments of the areas where all this trash and waste comes from, leaving the most vulnerable members of society to shoulder the burden of living in a state such as this. It is the waste of others that is being dumped in their areas. How terrible must that be for the families and individuals there!

Another instance of environmental injustice in the Philippines, given that we are a country rich in natural resources, of course, is the unfair extraction of these resources from our territories by large corporations. This is through harmful practices such as illegal mining, logging, and extraction of other resources. Most of the people involved in these are only focused on obtaining more and more raw materials to profit from, which they will send to other foreign countries to be processed and resold in different places, including back to the Philippines, at extremely higher costs. This is not only a loss in economic terms, but also in environmental terms. Being focused only on profiteering, rarely are sustainable practices implemented. Frequent applications of these harmful methods can further soil erosion and promote flooding, among other natural disasters than have magnified and amplified effects due to these practices. Do the businessmen in other countries suffer? Do the companies suffer? Maybe a little, with a little loss in profit in the long run, but those who will lose their land, their homes, even their lives, are the residents, the locals, those who actually live in those affected places. It is sad that this has to happen. Indeed, the nation as a whole must strive to take action to address cases of environmental injustice in the country, as the normal people, the masses, are the ones who are truly and directly affected when the consequences bite back.