Our warmest salute to all the heroines, heroes and martyrs of the world who offered their lives in the name of genuine and sustainable development, equality and environmental defense.

Representatives from six communities in Mindanao and Visayas , Philippines will hold a learning tour in Indonesia from Aug. ___, 2010. Community leaders from South Cotabato, Saranggani Province, Iloilo and Cebu will visit communities in various parts of Indonesia to exchange stories of their struggles against deadly energy projects.

LRC-KsK/FoE-Philippines STATEMENT

July 15, 2010

The South Cotabato Environment Code is one of the few brilliant pieces of legislation that came out of the dark period of the Arroyo administration.  President Aquino would do well in his vow to correct injustices of past administrations by respecting and protecting the Code. There should absolutely be no compromise on environmental and people’s rights.

We strongly condemn the baseless arrests of our colleague Jean Marie Ferraris and her fellow international anti-coal campaigners by Indonesian police in Cirebon, West Java on July 5. The apprehension of the 12 activists from the Philippines, China, Thailand and India came on the last day of peaceful training activity hosted by an anti-coal coal community in Cirebon.

· The activity was a Coal Campaign Skillshare organized by the anti-coal community in Cirebon, in West Java, Indonesia with the support of Greenpeace International. Apart from members of the community, thirteen (13) other participants from the Philippines, Thailand, China also joined the activity. The objective of this training was to bring together people from different parts of the region to share their experiences  in their respective countries particularly on the deadly impact of coal and their own learnings from their respective anti-coal campaigns.

MANILA—The National Museum is now finalizing the declaration of Apu Mamalu burial site in the tribal Barangay of Mikasili, Damulog, Bukidnon as a National Cultural Treasure. 

"It's on the 3rd of our list for approval after Maribojoc Church of Bohol and Manila Metropolitan Theater in Manila," Angel Bautista, Curator of the National Museum, said in an update made to LRC⁄KsK—FoE Phils. 

The outgoing administration is brazenly relentless in perpetuating the destruction it has wrought our communities and ecosystems. With just four months to go, President Arroyo has placed Horacio Ramos, the country’s long running top mining bureaucrat, at the helm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).