Archive for the 'Organizations' Category

Hysteria (n: panic, hysterics, frenzy, madness) HERO TV and the senior Advertising Arts class of the University of the East College of Fine Arts recently held “HYSTERIA: Fashion Show for a Cause” at the UE Tan Yan Kee Building parking lot and at the UE Theater, Recto, Manila.The event served as an opportunity for UE CFA students to show their own fashion designs inspired by artists Piet Mondrian and Andy Warhol as well as Japanese street fashion collections. Participants also came dressed in their favorite anim, sentai, and computer games characters in the Cosplay parade.

This annual campus tradition was started last 2000 as part of the university’s foundation day. This year, the event was co-sponsored by HERO TV, the first and only Tagalog-dubbed anim channel in the Philippines and the Home of the New Anim Revolution. HERO TV will celebrate its first anniversary on November 18 at the World Trade Center.

“Hysteria is a unique fashion show with a noble purpose.? The organizers really exerted so much effort in designing the costumes,” HERO TV segment producer Carlo Jan Landrito said.

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The CBNRM Learning Center has launched a special website on the CBCRM community’s actions for Guimaras. Guimaras response provides online resources about the Petron/Solar 1 oil spill off the coast of Guimaras island in the Philippines.

It is also? online hub for CBCRM practitioners who are currently helping in Guimaras and provide information towards long-term rehabilitation of the affected communities. Check the site at: www.cbcrmlearning.org/petron_oilspill/index.htm To view the joint statement of CBNRM and the NGOs for Fishermen reform, please click here. (We are also publishing it below)

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Randee Cabaces is a member of CBNRN (Community Based Natural Resources Management Learning Center) Check www.cbcrmlearning.org for more details. This post can also be found at www.participate.net at the Oil Campaign section.

Civil society groups and other concerned sectors here in the Philippines have been making some noise since August about the failure of oil companies and government to ensure safe transport of crude oil within the country’s archipelagic waters. Such irresponsible disregard for safety measures and regulations has resulted in yet another disastrous oil spill off the coast of Guimaras Island. Motor tanker Solar 1, carrying over 2 million liters of bunker fuel, sank in nearby waters due to big waves and has been spilling its deadly cargo at the rate of 200 liters an hour.

28 of Guimaras Island’s 40 villages have been affected by the oil spill. Many of the island’s small fishers who used to be independent producers now depend on wages from irregular jobs and the oil companies’ clean up operations for their livelihood. The oil spill has destroyed around 454 hectares of mangroves and 58 hectares of seaweed plantation. Marine habitats and coral reefs around neighboring Taklong Island, site of a national marine reserve, were severely affected.

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Greenpeace

Greenpeace surprised Petron Corporation, when activists delivered a container drum of spilt bunker oil from the shores of Guimaras to the doorsteps of its corporate headquarters in the financial district of Makati. The move, Greenpeace says, is meant to stress the company’s irresponsible lack of urgency in retrieving the remaining bunker oil which continues to spill out from the sunken MT Solar tanker chartered by the oil giant.

Read the full press release here:

GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE.

Manila, PHILIPPINES An unexpected surprise from the shores of Guimaras was brought to the doorsteps Petron corporation’s headquarters in Makati City. As Greenpeace activists delivered a container drum of spilt bunker fuel to highlight the company’s irresponsible lack of urgency in retrieving the remaining bunker fuel which continues to spill out from the sunken MT Solar 1 tanker chartered by the oil giant.

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I I have unearthed a document/study done by the international organization Friends of the Earth for the Prestige Oil Spill (Galicia, Spain, 2002) and there are really disturbing facts that would make you scream of disgust for all the political shenanigans concocted for the sake of the oil industry. Let’s start off with the mother of all evils, the International Liability Regime. The study says the 1969 Civil Liability EXPLICITLY makes the ship owner liable to pay up to 80 million dollars but exempts the oil company from any liability. This legal loophole is responsible for the bad practices in both the oil and the shipping industry.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE OIL SPILL FUND?

LACK OF CLEAR ACCOUNTABILITY – The so-called Corporate veil. Corporations hide their liabilities and accountability through subsidiaries and the confusing maze of insurance, flag ownership and flags of convenience.

NO ENVIRONMENTAL COVER. The Fund can pay up to 1 billion dollars (as of 2004) US dollars for clean up costs and loss of income for those directly affected but it does not pay for compensation for environmental damage. (This might also preclude victims who do not show any sign of health risks at the time of the claim.)

THE REPUTATION OF IOPC – Although the study was made for Prestige oil spill, it shows that the? IOPC is known to reduce payouts and dispute compensation claims. It took almost 7 years for local people affected by the Braer Oil Spill to claim from the fund.

THE IMO – The International Maritime Organization, a UN Agency is responsible for regulating environmental safety decisions on oil transport, but? shipping regulations? are decided on by states which have vested interests and favor low tax/low standard flags of convenience.

ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS GREATER – Environmental risks are greater due to globalization but the rules of accountability remains underdeveloped.

WHAT MUST BE DONE

SPEAK UP – Learn from the Erika Oil spill in France (1999). Public pressure has forced oil companies responsible for the Erika Oil Spill to pay for compensation. (More than 20,000 to 40,000 people demonstrated for more protection and better response)

Please read this article too.

PUBLIC PRESSURE ON OUR COURTS- The? European courts (Erika oil spill) have forced the IMO (International Maritime Organization) to ban single hulled vessels (total phase out 2015) and to increase the compensation fund up to 1 billion dollars.

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This is a letter sent by Filmmaker Jan Philippe Carpio to the Pinoyindiecinema pool. “I will send you more details in the coming days, but? I just want to inform you initially that our Guimaras short films are being CENSORED.

“Either they are being given an X rating by the? MTRCB, or like mine and? Victor, a filmmaker from from Cebu, are being broadcasted in mutilated versions. Meaning, certain key points in our films are being EDITED OUT. CENSORED.

So what I’m saying is, the film that was shown by ABC5 last night was NOT my film. I disown that film. It was a compromised film
particularly editing out portions where people from Sitio Sumirib
expressed their sentiments about Petron and the oil spill.
They did not show the 6 minute version (which ABC5 themselves requested) that I submitted to them, and the 4 minute version they did show, again, was HORRIBLY compromised. It is a sad, sad day.

There was a forwarded apology to me through text messaging from someone from ABC5, but apology or no apology what
was done to us was WRONG. And I need to say this.”

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by Geobelyn Lopez. It has been two months after the biggest oil spill knocked off the feet of the people of Guimaras and nearby provinces. The problem remains as MT Solar 1 is still 3,000 feet below the sea and continues to spew bunker fuel.It is quite early for Petron Corporation, Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation, and even for the Arroyo government to suffer dementia and make it appear that things are getting better each day in Guimaras.

Two months is too short for them to simply forget the extent of damage brought by the oil spill. Amidst attempt to cover up the issue, the fact remains that the affected people suffer the brunt of the tragedy.

Two months after, toxins remain present in the villages worst affected by oil spill. Urine and blood samples taken from the residents of Sitio Bagatnan, Panobolon, Nva. Valencia showed elevated levels of hydrogen sulfide when compared to tolerable limits. This is also evident in Brgy. San Isidro, Sibunag. Toxicologists test the drinking water of Brgy. Tando and found that aromatic hydrocarbons were present. Until now, potable water is not within the reach of the people of Brgy. Tando.

Two months after, livelihood for those who rely on fishing becomes more difficult. Before August 11, the fisherfolks used to earn at least P240.00 a day. Now, the fish are gone! Though the cash for work program of Petron has provided short-term remedy to the displaced fisherfolks, it has not sustained the need for livelihood of the people. Workers are now gradually being laid off. No alternative livelihood is being put in place. Others resort to charcoal making, but they know that to be in this work will further worsen the damage to the environment.

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Here is the Guimaras short film that MTRCB gave an X-rating and banned from being shown on television. To view other films from Khavn, please check his website at www.kamiasroad.com/khavn/

Aside from Khavn’s film, Paolo Villaluna and Emman dela Cruz failed to submit copies of their films on the deadline set by the network, according to an Inquirer report. From 16 short films originally scheduled to air (four minute version), it is now down to 13. The full 10-minute versions of the short films will be shown from Oct. 13 to 15 at the Robinsons Galleria.

Project Guimaras, aims to create awareness among the general public on the effects of the recent disaster, according to Chits Jimenez, vice chair of the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative of the Philippines (IFCP).

To raise funds for the islanders, IFCP will screen all the films at Robinson’s Galleria Cinemas next month, and then compile them in DVD format for sale and distribution. – Inquirer article
(The image above was created for SaveGuimaras and is not connected to the IFCP org)