"Unlike industrial polluters and corrupt politicians, the Greenpeace activists inflicted no harm to the planet, people, and wildlife with their peaceful, non-violent action.”

CEBU CITY – Four environmental activists were charged with illegal assembly after participating in a protest against the 48th ASEAN Summit in Mactan, Cebu.

Court documents dated May 9, 2026 showed four environmental activists being charged with alleged violation of Batas Pambansa Blg. 880, or the Public Assembly Act of 1985.

The activists, affiliated with Greenpeace Philippines, were detained the morning of May 8, 2026 after staging a nonviolent protest calling on ASEAN leaders to address plastic pollution, fossil fuel dependence, and the worsening climate crisis in the Southeast Asia region.

Authorities alleged that the group assembled near the ASEAN Summit security area without securing a permit and caused “obstruction and disturbance to public order and security operations” within the vicinity of the ASEAN Summit 2026 area. The four were detained at the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office custodial facility before being released on bail on May 9.

Police holding Greenpeace activists. Photo by IVAN JOESEFF GUIWANON/Greenpeace

In a statement, the EcoWaste Coalition condemned the arrest and detention of the activists. The group said the protesters were peacefully raising urgent environmental concerns affecting communities across the region.

“Unlike industrial polluters and corrupt politicians, the Greenpeace activists inflicted no harm to the planet, people, and wildlife with their peaceful, non-violent action,” said Aileen Lucero, national coordinator of EcoWaste Coalition. “Instead of charging them, they should be honored for raising the people’s demand for real, not cosmetic, solutions to the waste and plastic problems affecting our nations and citizens,” Lucero added.

Lucero called on authorities to immediately drop the charges and recognize the role of environmental defenders in pushing governments to act on the climate and plastic crises.

The coalition also linked the arrests to broader environmental failures in the region, citing recent landfill disasters in Cebu, Rizal, and Navotas as evidence of what it described as the “fatal flaws” of the country’s disposal-centered waste system.

For Greenpeace Philippines, the “ASEAN leaders cannot claim climate leadership while silencing peaceful protest.”

Marian Ledesma, campaigner of Greenpeace Philippines, maintained the arrests reflected the widening gap between ASEAN leaders’ sustainability rhetoric and the realities faced by communities suffering from the impact of pollution, fossil fuel dependence, and climate disasters.

Ledesma further asserted that ASEAN leaders cannot declare earnestness on sustainability “while refusing to confront the central role of fossil fuel and petrochemical corporations in driving both the climate and plastic crises.”

“Activism is not a crime, and peaceful protest is not a threat to democracy,” Ledesma said. “The real threat to Southeast Asia is not activism, but the continued failure of leaders to confront the corporations, systems, and injustices driving climate destruction, plastic pollution, and deepening social inequality across the region.” Ledesma added. (AMU, RVO)

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