Smokey Mountain was the term coined for a large landfill once located in Tondo, Manila.
Smokey Mountain was the term coined for a large landfill once located in Tondo, Manila.
Smokey Mountain operated for more than 50 years, [1] consisting of over two million metric tons of waste. The flammable substances on decomposing waste led to fires that resulted in many deaths. [2]
On March 19, 1993, a joint venture agreement, between the National Housing Authority (NHA) and R-II Builders Inc. (RBI) was made to build a low-cost housing project at Smokey Mountain. On 15 August 2007, this agreement was declared valid by the Philippine Supreme Court. [3] The area was officially closed in 1995. [2] The site was turned into public housing for the impoverished people living in the slums surrounding the landfill. The slums were also cleared, which was the home of 30,000 people that made their living from picking through the landfill's rubbish. [1]
In the 1990s, Jane Walker arrived in the Philippines on holiday and her taxi took her by Smokey Mountain. She was intrigued by the Tondo slums and she returned back to Southampton where her plan to do something took place. In time she would raise money, raise funds and build businesses that transformed rubbish into products like handbags. She was awarded an MBE in 2006 and in 2012 she was living in the Philippines. [4]
Projects have been enforced by the government and non-government organizations to allow urban resettlement sites for the slum dwellers. [5] According to a UN-Habitat report, over 20 million people in the Philippines live in slums, [6] and in the city of Manila alone, 50% of the over 11 million inhabitants live in slum areas. [7] [8]
When Smokey Mountain closed down in 1995, many scavengers migrated to the Payatas dumpsite, where another large scavenging community arose. [2] In 2000, a landslide at the Payatas dump killed over two hundred scavengers. [2] As of 2007, approximately 80,000 people lived at the Payatas dump. [2]
National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab formed the singing group Smokey Mountain in 1989, named after the garbage dump. The band performed songs that tackled socially relevant themes such as poverty, children's rights, environmentalism, and overseas Filipino workers. [9]
National Artist for Film Lino Brocka set some of his films in the slums of Tondo. Smokey Mountain features prominently as the setting for the 1987 film Pasan Ko ang Daigdig starring Sharon Cuneta. [10]
Smokey Mountain was part of a walking tour organized by Smokey Tours, a private organization that donated its profits to impoverished communities through livelihood and environmental projects. Tours at Smokey Mountain ended in 2014 and new tours were held at the Happyland slum area in Tondo and Baseco Compound. [11]
Quezon City, also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C., is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was founded on October 12, 1939, and was named after Manuel L. Quezon, the second president of the Philippines.
Tondo is a district located in Manila, Philippines. It is the largest, in terms of area and population, of Manila's sixteen districts, with a census-estimated 654,220 people in 2020. It consists of two congressional districts. It is also the second most densely populated district in the city.
Catalino Ortiz Brocka was a Filipino film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential and significant filmmakers in the history of Philippine cinema. He co-founded the organization Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), dedicated to helping artists address issues confronting the country, and the Free the Artist Movement. He was a member of the Coalition for the Restoration of Democracy.
Smokey Mountain was a Filipino singing group formed by musical director, composer, and National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab and executive producer Judd Berlin. The original group was based in Manila, Philippines, and had James Coronel, Geneva Cruz, Jeffrey Hidalgo, and Tony Lambino as its original members while Jayson Angangan, Chedi Vergara, and Zhar Santos joined James Coronel for the second lineup after Geneva Cruz, Jeffrey Hidalgo, and Tony Lambino left the group. Eventually, James Coronel left to pursue a solo career and Anna Fegi replaced Shar Santos during the 1994 tour in Japan.
Lamberto Vera Avellana February 12, 1915 – April 25, 1991) was a prominent Filipino film and stage director. Despite considerable budgetary limitations that hampered the post-war Filipino film industry, Avellana's films such as Anak Dalita and Badjao attained international acclaim. In 1976, Avellana was named by President Ferdinand Marcos as the first National Artist of the Philippines for Film. While Avellana remains an important figure in Filipino cinema, his reputation as a film director has since been eclipsed by the next wave of Filipino film directors who emerged in the 1970s, such as Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal.
Geneva Mendoza Cruz is a Filipina singer and actress known for her songs, "Anak Ng Pasig" and "Kailan" (When). She was discovered and mentored by National Artist of the Philippines for Music, Ryan Cayabyab who formed the defunct iconic music group Smokey Mountain, which she was a member of. In 2020, Cruz moved back to Manila in the Philippines, from the United States, where she worked as a weight-loss coach for a few years.
The Cinemanila International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Manila, Philippines. It was founded by Filipino filmmaker Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz in 1999. The focus of the festival is on the cinema of the Philippines as well as Southeast Asian cinema.
Mario Herrero O'Hara was a Filipino film director, film producer and screenwriter known for his sense of realism often with dark but realistic social messages.
Hilda Koronel is a MMFF, FAMAS, Luna and Urian award-winning Filipino actress. Born to a Filipino mother and an American father who was a serviceman in Clark Air Base, she has starred in around 45 films, many of which are critically acclaimed, since 1970.
Insiang is a 1976 Philippine drama film directed by Lino Brocka. Its screenplay, written by Mario O'Hara and Lamberto E. Antonio, is based on O'Hara's teleplay of the same name. Set in the slums of Tondo, Manila, the film stars Hilda Koronel as the eponymous character: the young daughter of a resentful mother, whose much-younger lover rapes her. After her assault and the betrayal of her own lover, Insiang seeks revenge. A representation of urban poverty, the film explores themes of betrayal, revenge and despair.
Payatas is an administrative division in eastern Metro Manila, the Philippines. It is an urban barangay located in the 2nd district of Quezon City adjacent to the barangays of Commonwealth, Batasan Hills and Bagong Silangan.
Pagpag is the Tagalog term for leftover food from restaurants scavenged from garbage sites and dumps. Pagpag food can also be expired frozen meat, fish, or vegetables discarded by supermarkets and scavenged in garbage trucks where this expired food is collected. The word in the Tagalog language literally means "to shake off the dust or dirt", and refers to the act of shaking the dirt off of the edible portion of the leftovers. Pagpag can be eaten immediately after it is found or can be cooked in variety of ways.
Bona is a 1980 Filipino drama film written by Cenen Ramones and directed by Lino Brocka. The film tells the story of a fan becoming infatuated with the bit actor from a movie but the endless infatuation comes with unfortunate results. The film stars acclaimed actress Nora Aunor as the titular character and Phillip Salvador, one of Brocka's frequent collaborator actors, as the bit actor Gardo.
Slums are traditionally described as dense urban settlements, usually displaying characteristics such as crowded and compact housing units, informal delivery of utilities, and unofficial recognition by local government. In the Philippines, residents of slum areas are commonly referred to as "squatters" and have historically been subject to relocation or forced demolition. With a steadily growing metropolitan area, Metro Manila is subject to a densifying population of slum dwellers—a 2014 article states that Manila has an estimated 4 million people living in slums, out of a total population of 21.3 million.
Reese Fernandez-Ruiz is a Filipino social entrepreneur and President and Founding Partner of Rags2Riches, a social enterprise established in 2007. The company aims to empower Philippine-based artisans, fashion and home products that follow environmental ethics principles, and alleviate poverty in Payatas, Quezon City.
The Payatas dumpsite, also known as the Payatas Controlled Disposal Facility (PCDF), is a former garbage dump in the barangay of the same name in Quezon City, Metro Manila, the Philippines.
"Naging Mahirap", also referred to by its opening line "Nakaligo Ka Na Ba sa Dagat ng Basura", is a Filipino-language campaign jingle of Senator Manuel "Manny" Villar" for the 2010 Philippine presidential election. Written by Merlee Jayme, the jingle was released with its accompanying television advertisement in late 2009, sung by the Baseco Kids. Jayme cited Villar's speech at the Manila Overseas Press Club on October 29, 2009 as the primary inspiration for the lyrics of the song, which emphasizes the impoverished background of the presidential candidate. It was later sung by Sarah Geronimo in February 2010 upon her endorsement of Villar at the launching of the political youth group Katropa, established by Villar's daughter Camille.
Urban areas in the Philippines such as Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao have large informal settlements. The Philippine Statistics Authority defines a squatter, or alternatively "informal dwellers", as "One who settles on the land of another without title or right or without the owner's consent whether in urban or rural areas". Squatting is criminalized by the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, also known as the Lina Law. There have been various attempts to regularize squatter settlements, such as the Zonal Improvement Program and the Community Mortgage Program. In 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority estimated that out of the country's population of about 106 million, 4.5 million were homeless.
Jane Walker MBE is a British charity worker who founded the Philippine Community Fund, which is now called the Purple Community Fund. She founded two schools in the Philippines and a supporting charity in 2002.
Pasan Ko ang Daigdig is a 1987 Philippine drama film directed by National Artist Lino Brocka. The screenplay was written by Rene Villanueva and Orlando Nadres based on the comic book by Pablo S. Gomez. It stars Sharon Cuneta, Loretta Marquez, and Tonton Gutierrez. It was the first time Brocka and Cuneta worked together on a movie.