HAPPENING NOW: Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment stages a lightning rally at the Sofitel gates, where the Int'l Conference of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines is being held. pic.twitter.com/XQjlNYjOpj
— Scientia (@upscientia) September 20, 2018
By BULATLAT
Nine environmental defenders were arrested by Pasay police after staging a protest at the Chamber of Mines Conference at Sofitel this morning.
Scientia reported that two of the protesters are members of Agham Youth UP Diliman. They were taken to the Pasay City General Hospital for a medical examination and then to the Pasay City police headquarters.
Agham Youth – University of the Philippines Manila demands for the immediate release of the nine.
“Their detention is an example of how mining companies and the government that supports them are ready to silence those who struggle to stop environmental plunder,” the group said on Twitter, using hashtag #FreeChamberofMines9
In a separate statement, Agham Youth-UP Diliman said, “Defending the environment and calling out the abusive corporations that endanger the lives of people is not a crime. Exploitative mining is.”
In a statement, the Concerned Artists of the Philippines condemned the “harsh dispersal, violent treatment, and detention of environmental defenders and advocates.”
“It is only right to expose the impacts of the state’s mining policy on the people. Decades of wanton large-scale mining in the Philippines destroyed entire ecosystems and dispossessed indigenous peoples of their land, their culture and ways of living,” CAP said.
