Filipinos should vote for green leaders, anti-mining group says

An anti-mining group held a demonstration at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Earth Day to urge the public to vote for leaders who will forward green agenda. Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) called on the Filipino people "to be meticulous about choosing our future leaders in the May 2010 election," the group said in a statement. Filipinos should "look into the platforms of the candidates especially with regards to their environmental and development agenda for our country," ATM National Coordinator Jaybee Garganera said. More than 200 people representing 80 organizations that make up ATM pressed for the scrapping of alternative laws on mineral management, the moratorium on large-scale mining operations and the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The group also sought to "change the current misguided development system that exacerbates climate change" through the "aggressive promotion of extractive and fossil-fuel based economy such as logging, mining, and coal-fired power squander what is left of our finite resources," Garganera said. ATM also expressed its global solidarity action parallel to the ‘World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth’ happening in Cochabamba, Bolivia as a response to the failed Copenhagen talks held in December last year. “Celebrating Earth Day remind us of Mother Earth’s centuries-old generosity providing humanity the resources we need to survive in this planet," Garganera said. "Reality is, we have used our resources beyond our basic needs with our hunger for personal ‘wants’ and development." - Jacques I. Jimeno, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV