About the Event
An environmental fair will be held on 14 July 2018, Saturday, from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM, at the Sagul Food Park, 43 Malingap St., Teacher’s Village, Quezon City. Dubbed “Not Going Metal: The #PassAMMB Green Fair”, the event is part of the campaign for the passage of the Alternative Minerals Management Bill (AMMB).
The AMMB seeks to repeal the 1995 Mining Act, and usher in a new paradigm for managing the country’s mineral resources, putting the environment and people first before profit.
The fair has the following three activities:
- Ecopoetry reading featuring some of the Philippines’ finest poets including Marjorie Evasco, Nerisa del Carmen Guevara, Rina Garcia Chua, Miguel Quizon, Mark Angeles, Pauline Lacanilao, Christine Marie Lim Magpile, Lawrence Bernabe, Fr. Bert Alejo, SJ, and Merlie Alunan, whose poems will be read by actor Karl Medina. The reading will be part of the program for the fair from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
- An Exhibit on Metallic Recycling and Sustainable Lifestyle, by the Philippine Miserior Partnership, Inc. The exhibit viewing will be open from 4:00 PM until 9:00 PM.
- A Junk Art Exhibit featuring works by artists Ral Arrogante, AG Saño, Jezir Nalam Lascuña, Fhiex Orozco, Joy Abutan, Kerry Villazor, Marlon Lucenara, and Mario Villanueva. The public can bring old cellphones, soda cans, cables, spoons, and other metallic waste and donate these to the artists. Donations will be accepted between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM, and again from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
The AMMB disallows foreign large-scale companies from operating in the country, encouraging instead Filipino corporations to mine strategic minerals that will help realize national industrialization. The bill prohibits mining in so-called no-go mining zones such as critical watersheds, prime agricultural lands, key biodiversity areas, climate- and disaster-risk areas, among others.
Mining corporations are required to give a reasonable fraction of their income to mining-affected local governments and communities under the AMMB. Indigenous peoples, who live in mineral-rich ancestral domains, will be part of all decision-making processes related to mining in the AMMB.
The fair urges the government to develop a program on metallic recycling, or urban mining, and reduce the need for new mining. Recycling metals requires significantly less energy than mining and therefore better for the environment.
For more information, please visit the SOS Yamang Bayan Network Facebook Page or send an email to sosybnet@gmail.com.