‘A Protest Is One Day, however Organising Is the 1000’s of Conversations That Make That Day Potential’ — World Points
CIVICUS discusses Gen Z-led protests within the Philippines with Charles Zander, a 17-year-old local weather justice activist from Bohol and youth campaigner for Greenpeace Philippines.
The Philippines is especially uncovered to local weather change, hit by more and more harmful annual typhoons. In 2025, a serious scandal over corruption in flood management funds introduced younger folks onto the streets alongside local weather and social justice activists who had lengthy been organising. The protests led to some accountability, however activists argue that structural issues stay unresolved.
What introduced you to activism?
I grew up in Bohol, an island province within the Philippines the place the local weather disaster knocks on our doorways each week. After I was youthful, politics felt distant, however that modified in 2021, when Storm Odette hit our province. My residence was severely broken, however others suffered much more. I knew individuals who misplaced every little thing. Coastal communities have been flattened and a few villages have been so lower off that it took weeks for provides to achieve them. In my case, it took two years earlier than we had electrical energy once more, and a 12 months earlier than we had water or I might entry training.
My two childhood finest buddies died within the aftermath, and shedding them modified me. At first, I didn’t assume I used to be doing activism. It began with reduction work: distributing meals, organising group assist, listening to individuals who had misplaced every little thing. I realised folks wanted to be heard. However the extra you hear, the extra questions seem. Why have been some communities nonetheless ready for help?
Ultimately, I realised when you develop up in a spot the place disasters are routine, silence appears like complicity. I joined native teams engaged on local weather justice, group training and catastrophe response. And I noticed protest because the second when endurance runs out.
What are younger Filipinos demanding?
For a lot of younger Filipinos, the local weather disaster shouldn’t be a coverage situation; it’s the story of our lives. Local weather injustice is subsequently on the core of our wrestle, nevertheless it connects to many different struggles. We stay in a rustic hit by stronger typhoons yearly, but coal vegetation nonetheless get permitted. We now have coastal communities shedding their houses to storm surges, but improvement choices not often contain them. We now have extreme flooding in every single place within the nation, and our authorities is pocketing local weather adaptation funds.
When catastrophe hits, rich neighbourhoods rebuild rapidly and typically will not be broken in any respect, whereas distant island communities watch for help for months, if not years. Disasters expose inequality, so local weather protests are about equity, about whose lives are thought of price defending.
How have been latest protests organised, and what function did social media play?
There are a lot of lively organisations, youth teams and group leaders, and when a serious occasion comparable to a hurricane or a scandal creates urgency, conversations unfold by networks and messaging teams. Sooner or later somebody proposes a date, which we regularly tie to a symbolic second, such because the day of a nationwide hero. The latest one, in February, was on the fortieth anniversary of the 1986 Individuals Energy Revolution. This has sensible implications: on holidays, folks don’t have college or work, to allow them to take part with out worrying about their livelihoods. And since they’re residence, persons are paying extra consideration to social media, which will increase our attain.
On this sense, no person owns the protests. Actions develop as a result of many individuals resolve the second has come. However organising entails logistics, together with permits, security planning, communication, outreach and coordination amongst teams with totally different priorities and methods. That course of could be messy, nevertheless it additionally displays the democratic nature of grassroots actions. Ultimately all of us come collectively and get onto the streets.
Social media platforms, significantly Fb and Instagram, enable younger folks to organise rapidly throughout islands, cities and actions. Requires protests can attain folks inside hours. Organisers can doc occasions, share stay updates and counter disinformation.
We use memes loads. Older generations may reply to extra technical explanations, however Gen Z and Gen Alpha are extra reachable by humour and jokes. We additionally hyperlink points to folks’s precise lives in order that they really feel compelled to behave. However there must be extra work on ensuring folks actually know what they’re combating for after they be a part of, not becoming a member of as a result of it seems cool on social media.
Finally, expertise is only a instrument. A hashtag can not exchange a group. The underlying work is slower and occurs when nobody is watching. Protests are the seen tip of the iceberg, however under the floor there are group workshops, coverage analysis conferences with native leaders, coaching of younger volunteers and network-building throughout the nation. A protest is simply at some point, however organising is the 1000’s of conversations that make that day attainable. With out that groundwork, protests would fade rapidly.
What dangers have you ever confronted?
For me personally, one of the tangible risks has been surveillance, on-line and offline. After taking part in a serious local weather and social justice march, I seen my on-line exercise and messages being monitored extra intently. It’s a delicate form of stress, nevertheless it makes you assume twice about who you belief, the way you talk, what you publish.
There’s additionally intimidation. At one protest, for example, native authorities questioned volunteers about their involvement, contacts and affiliations. That is meant to create concern.
This has emotional and sensible impacts. It may be exhausting and typically isolating. However it additionally shapes the way you organise. You turn into strategic, deliberate, extra protecting of your friends. The truth that there are dangers exhibits that these in energy recognise the potential of youth actions to problem the established order. It’s a reminder that our wrestle issues.
What have the protests achieved, and the place have they fallen in need of ambition?
Change not often arrives . Generally protests produce coverage progress, stronger commitments and larger consideration to points. Generally the affect is cultural. A protest can shift what folks consider is feasible, what folks consider is correct.
Within the Philippines, probably the most seen achievement involved the corruption round flood management initiatives. Though change is sluggish, we’ve got seen some politicians arrested. A sitting senator is in hiding proper now due to an arrest warrant. If we hadn’t spoken up, we’d have misplaced a lot more cash from local weather adaptation initiatives whereas our communities continued to undergo.
However actions additionally face setbacks. Governments delay motion, hiding behind procedural points, and public consideration strikes on rapidly. That is discouraging. What failure teaches, although, is that we must always talk extra successfully, construct stronger alliances and maintain momentum past a single protest. A motion shouldn’t be outlined by the second it wins, however by whether or not it continues after shedding.
Is it proper to name these Gen Z protests?
I’ve combined emotions about it. I perceive why the label seems. Lots of the seen faces in latest actions are younger folks. The label captures one thing actual: many younger folks really feel the longer term they’re inheriting was formed by choices made lengthy earlier than that they had any political voice. The local weather disaster is the clearest instance. Insurance policies that created the disaster have been applied many years in the past, but the implications will unfold throughout the lifetimes of right now’s younger folks. That creates a way of urgency, and calling these protests Gen Z protests indicators {that a} new era is politically lively and unwilling to stay passive.
However actions are not often that easy. In virtually each motion, folks from many generations stand collectively, college students marching alongside employees, group elders becoming a member of demonstrations, dad and mom bringing their kids, veteran organisers who’ve been combating for many years displaying up alongside folks attending their first protest.
When protests are framed solely as Gen Z actions, one thing necessary will get misplaced. It will probably unintentionally erase the contributions of older generations who constructed the inspiration for these struggles. Each motion stands on floor that another person cleared. Civil rights campaigns, local weather actions and labour struggles didn’t begin with Gen Z. These are lengthy historic arcs that younger persons are coming into and pushing ahead.
Essentially the most highly effective actions are intergenerational. Older organisers carry expertise, historic reminiscence and institutional information. Youthful generations carry new vitality, new instruments and new methods of speaking. One era can ignite a motion, however lasting change requires many generations transferring collectively.
It’s also incorrect to name us leaderless. We’re not leaderless; we’re leaderful. We simply refuse to undertake a number of the hierarchical methods of organising of earlier generations, as a result of typically main collectively works a lot better than having somebody dictate every little thing.
What retains you going?
Individuals, significantly younger folks, hold going as a result of the issues are instant and unimaginable to disregard. Protesting means refusing to just accept the longer term we’re being handed and making our voices matter.
Hope shouldn’t be a passive feeling. It’s present in motion, not in ready. I see hope within the motion, as a result of when younger folks, elders, college students and communities stand collectively, there’s a shared energy, and the opportunity of a world that values dignity, justice and sustainability turns into actual. We hold transferring as a result of we aren’t alone. I additionally discover hope in historical past, as a result of it exhibits that whereas change is messy, folks have all the time managed to push the boundaries of what’s attainable.
CIVICUS interviews a variety of civil society activists, consultants and leaders to assemble various views on civil society motion and present points for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and don’t essentially mirror these of CIVICUS. Publication doesn’t indicate endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they characterize.
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SEE ALSO
Gen Z protests: new resistance rises CIVICUS | State of Civil Society Report 2026
Bulgaria: ‘We protested towards an entire system of corrupt governance and state seize’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Aleksandar Tanev 21.Apr.2026
Philippines: ‘We refuse to remain silent whereas these in energy deal with public workplace like non-public property’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Raoul Manuel 25.Nov.2025
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