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).

Timuoy Lambo:

Thank you Madam Chair for giving me this rare opportunity to speak about our indigenous justice system.

To start with, Madam Chairperson, I am Timuoy Noval Lambo, a member of the Subanon Tribe of the Zamboanga del Norte province, Mindanao, Philippines. I am representing the Gukom Sog Pito Kodolungan, a group of Subanon families living in a separate adjoining communities and belonging to one common ancestor.

While the world commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Filipino people, especially the Indigenous Peoples and the rural poor have yet to realize their worth as humans as the Arroyo administration continues to trample on their fundamental rights.

Members of Climate Justice Now! – a worldwide alliance of more than 160 organisations -- have been in Poznan for the past two weeks closely following developments in the UN climate negotiations.