Masara Landslide

MASARA LANDSLIDE ALARMS ENVI GROUP PANALIPDAN-SMR

Environmentalist group PANALIPDAN!-Southern Mindanao expressed concerns over the consequent landslides that hit Brgy. Masara in Maco Compostela Valley Province which to date has already claimed the lives of 30 individuals and displaced nearly 5,000 people.

“We lament the loss of civilian lives over these tragic incidents. We call on the authorities, all environmental and humanitarian advocates to continue to extend aid and services to the victims of this calamity, ” said Francis Morales, spokesperson of PANALIPDAN-SMR.

PANALIPDAN! – SMR, a group which advocates the defense of the environment, land rights, food sovereignty and national patrimony among others, demanded that along with the rescue and relief operations, a probe on the mining operations of the APEX Mining Company and its current operator, CREW MINERALS must be initiated.

According to PANALIPDAN – SMR’S researches on the APEX website, APEX which started its mining operations in Masara since the 1890’s has been recently acquired by Crew Minerals Corporation, a Canada-based large-scale mining company. Since its acquisition of the Masara gold mine in 2005, Crew Minerals has started the refurbishment of the APEX processing plant and to date, its 500 t/d plant is already operational.

CREW Minerals has continued its drillings now reaching up to 32,000 meters. Underground development of the APEX property continues with portals and ramp systems are being continuously opened as APEX gears to increase its target production of 85,000 to 180,000 oz of gold and 500,000 to 600,000 oz of silver at the end of 2008.

In this light, Morales dismissed the denials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Mines and Geosciences Bureau that the tragedy was caused by mining operations.

“Monsoon rains happen normally in other parts of the country but landslides are more often than not easily triggered in areas where man-made intervention or aggression occurs such as large scale mining operations which involve the use of heavy equipment and environmentally hazardous methods. Sec. Atienza was right when he said we should not blame small scale mining operations. But large scale mining corporations who hide beneath small scale mining claims or MPSA’s should not let off the hook too quickly, ” Morales said.

Morales issued a warning to the Mines and GeoSciences Bureau as well as with the DENR.

“Civilian lives are at stake due to the relentless issuance of mining permits to foreign mining companies amidst the government’s sinful leniency and negligence of environmental safeguards, and dogged obeisance to mining capitalists,” said the environmentalist leader.

PANALIPDAN!-SMR recounted the landslides in Kingking Mines as well as in Mt. Diwata due to the mining operations in the areas.

The environmentalist group which has more than twenty-five member organizations in the region reiterated the call to scrap the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

Armed Conflicts in Moroland

The situation in Central Mindanao is escalating even as the Holy Month of Ramadhan have started. To date, more than 300,000 thousand civilians have fled their homes seeking refuge in ill-equipped evacuation centers. Roughly about 300 death tolls, most of which are innocent civilians, have been recorded. People are dying on the ground. Armed conflicts will continue to haunt Moroland as long as the interest of the ruling elite are not satisfied. As the Workers Party put it in their press statement, the ongoing conflicts between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front are “concrete characterization of globalization driven peace process where big capitalist and neo colonial interest countries like the United States of America (USA) and Malaysia play the pivotal roles.”

Below is an excerpt from a press statement by the workers party on their analysis on the ongoing armed conflicts in Mindanao:

“The US has considered Mindanao to have a very important role to play in its comprehensive security strategy in the ASEAN region and the MILF is seen as a major player in undercutting the influence of anti-American extremists particularly among the Muslim population in the region.

The Malaysian interest is the resource rich island of Sabah which the Philippines has ownership through the Sultanate of Sulu but strangely it has never been mentioned in the MOA-AD as part of Ancestral domain/territory of the Bangsamoro. A fractured Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan and the country as a whole will surely weaken its claim to Sabah.

And as one observes with the unfolding events, it has been cleared that the GRP from day one is not really serious about the MOA-AD. The events have been orchestrated to show that the people are the ones who want the MOA-AD rejected. The struggle now is between the people including the traditional politicians from the Bangsamoro and the MILF. The arming of civilians (covertly or overtly) should be understood in this context.

The trap of the MILF has been set up. The GRP has effectively convinced the leadership of the MILF that it is serious with the MOA-AD and the events surrounding its stoppage are “beyond” its control. The reactions of Ombra Kato, Bravo and Pangalian (MILF Base Commanders) on this delayed and TRO of the signing of the MOA-AD have been the bases for the consummation of the trap. These commanders have been haunted for their criminal acts against the Christian Civilians and since the MILF would not turn them over to the GRP or disown them, all out military and police operations are justified as shown not only from the support of the civilians but from the inaction of the international bodies which have been helping with the peace talks directly and indirectly.

The MILF will respond accordingly and we will expect the worst to come in the coming days and during the month of Ramadhan.

The agenda beyond 2010 will advance to its next stage and that is a declaration of a national Emergency situation by GMA. Then the Charter Change which has been the real agenda behind the MOA-AD will be implemented and the allies of GMA in the house have been initiating it so that again it will not appear that it will be coming from GMA. In such atmosphere the results of the plebiscite or a referendum will be controlled, directed and fixed towards the fulfillment of the ‘beyond 2010 agenda’.

This scenario will only be possible if peace stakeholders like us will continue with our ‘business as usual’ position and so called principled inaction.”

Strategize, Produce, Engage!

Below is the abstract of a visual media paper that i will be presenting in the upcoming ASIAN CONGRESS FOR MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE to be conducted on August 21-23, 2008 at Ateneo de Davao University, Davao City Philippines.

Best of luck to me!

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Abstract

Strategize, Produce, Engage: Using Visual Media as a Tool for Social Change and Rights Awareness

Ajim Inni & Iben Trino-Molenkamp

This presentation provides a brief overview of how video or other forms of visual media is used in activist efforts to attain social change and raise human rights awareness. It explores the benefits and limitations of visual media and how to harness its power for maximum impact in the realm of grass-roots activism. Through analyzing various case studies of visually documented rights violations across the globe, the presenters explore particular outcomes by looking at the presence and absence of visual media advocacy strategies. Zooming in on thoughtful, systemic visual approaches to existing rights issues and alternative distributing models, this presentation seeks to raise awareness on creative visual practices that engage the local and the global.

Iben Trino-Molenkamp is a historian and founder of the Organization for Visual Progression (OVP). OVP trains local grassroots and regional organizations across South and Southeast Asia in using visual media to expose human rights abuses. He currently works with various Indigenous communities in Mindanao and Luzon and grassroots organizations in Sri Lanka. Based in New York, he also works as a film editor and has worked at human rights organization WITNESS, as well as the Dutch National Press and the Spaarnestad Photographic Institute. He has an MA in Southeast Asian contemporary history from Leiden University and attended Rutgers University as a postgraduate fellow in World History.

Ajim Inni Jr. is an NGO worker and is currently program director of the Philippine Bat Conservation, Inc. (PBCI), a biodiversity conservation organization based in Davao City. He is also part of the Organization for Visual Progression (OVP). He worked as an advocacy officer for Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM), a socio-economic research and advocacy organization. His interest in visual media was sparked by various media advocacy trainings he attended, among which were organized by Mindanews, the British Council and BBC’s Jake Lynch, and OVP. He has a BSc in Biology from the University of the Philippines in Mindanao. He is a Sama native, a Muslim indigenous tribe located in Tawi-Tawi.

deactivated

blogging: this is one measurable impact of me resigning from work.

I am, i still claim to be a part of it as my resignation was not yet approved, working with the Philippine Bat Conservation Inc. (PBCI), a non-government biodiversity conservation organization based in Davao City, Philippines. I would probably post more blogs about PBCI as i still believe in the organization’s campaign and advocacy. PBCI started with an effort to conserve and protect the world’s largest colony of fruitbats (estimated to be around 1.8 to 2.5 million bat population) in Monfort Bat Cave, in the Island Garden City of Samal, and my interests and fascination for these often misunderstood nocturnal creatures grew more and more everytime i helped out in terms of providing some basic orientations and bat education to Monfort Cave visitors.

By the way, i decided to resign because i feel that i contributed less to the goals and objectives of the organization. Also, i think i could do more in terms of exploring other realms like visual media( when i grow up, i want be like Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali!hahaha!), random outdoor visits (Malaysian call it Jalan-jalan and here in the Philippines, we call it lagalag!), cook ( my wife is the best chef on earth!), sleep ( this could be the longest happy dream of my life!), volunteer work ( all expense paid adventures), and other things ( i love to use this phrase to mean more significant things).

Now, i am officially deactivated from the structure, the system. Anyone wants to celebrate with me? tara na!

Now I am officially open to the possibility of being among those who will try to express their unsolicited thoughts to anyone who likes to waste their resources by reading some blogs.

for children below 18, i would advised you to read books, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Time magazine, and Filipiñana sections in your school libraries.

“Go ahead kids, maximize the overpriced miscellaneous fees na kaakibat ng quality education sa Pilipinas! Magbasa tayo!”

for children above 18 who refused to become adults, keep playing! keep playing! you have a lifetime at your disposal!

for those who are reading this and have their own blogsites, keep blogging! and add me up if you have some kind of a secret bloggers society. I could lend a hand in case you have plans for world domination.

to me, think! think! ( why did is 11 the title of my blog? )