NGO Forum says will “challenge” ADB legal immunity  

June 27, 2017

The NGO forum on ADB said on Tuesday they will “challenge” the immunity of the Asian Development Bank from the constitution of borrowing countries due to environmental impacts. Ryyan Hassan, executive director of NGO forum on ADB said, “The ADB is free from legal liability because it’s immune. So, as a member of a multilateral bank it is immune from the constitution of borrowing governments”. Hassan said one of the “intensive” objective of the organization is to get the public involved in the question of “what do they want to get funded and what is it they don’t want to get funded?”. He said the ADB is a model of the United Nations after World War II. It financed large scale infrastructure projects like hydro power dam, mining, Marcopper, energy plants, coal power plant, bridges, roads and heavy infrastructure. Hassan said the ADB’s shareholders, especially US and Japan who holds the largest share should assure the bank’s  policy compliance. He said ADB had no environmental consciousness from 1967 until they operated an environmental social safeguard policy in mid-2000. ”Pre 2000 there is no environmental social consciousness inside ADB. It means the project were heavy-handed. Nobody really cared what happened to environment or what kind of disaster took place.”, Hassan said. The organization featured 50 projects in the photo book funded by ADB “where people’s lives and environment has been drastically impacted and destroyed” like the Marcopper mining disaster in Marinduque. Former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez said the ADB and the government should hold liability of the Marcopper disaster. She said she will help the organization if they file a case against the government and she will gather 20 million signatures from the public to support the case. “I think we should file a suit against Marcopper and I’ll help all the way”, she said. (Alanna Ambi/DMS)