Davao-based artist Popong Landero, known for being a left-handed guitarist and for his reggae covers of Bob Marley, will perform for bat conservation on June 27, 2010 (Sunday), 6:00 to 9:00 pm, at the Monfort Bat Cave, Brgy. Tambo, Babak District, Samal Island.
His performance is part of the Monfort Bat Cave’s Bat Emergence Night Tour (Bent) program, carrying the theme “Bat Conservation through Culture and Arts.”
The activity, jointly organized by the Philippine Bat Conservation, Inc.(PBCI) and the Monfort Bat Cave and Conservation Foundation, Inc. (MBCCFI), is in line with the celebration of June as eco-tourism month, and the province of Davao del Norte’s month-long eco-tourism festivities.
Aside from Popong’s performance, the event will feature various activities, such as arts exhibit, fruit tree planting, organic farming workshop, launching of Monfort Bat Cave’s Guinness World Record, arts workshop, bat origami, poetry reading, arts performance, bat emergence viewing, fire dance, and a music band.
Popong has produced several albums, like Ayayayayay, Laylay sa Sidlakan, Kamay ni Laan, and Impact 2000. He also became a part of the emerging ethno-rock group Bagong Lumad. The group played live music for a dance-theatre production. It was his stint as musical director of this Mindanao myth-based theatre production that instituted him into the bosom of people’s culture. He joined a research fieldwork on tribal music in the hinterlands and explored the world of theatre as actor and musician. The performances brought him to England, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
Today, Popong emerges as a true son of ‘world music’, an artist who draws his essence from his roots, fusing in folk, rock, reggae and ethnic—the embodiment of an artist who has come full circle.
Early this year, Popong rendered a song for “Hineleban,” the latest Philippine Eagle released in the wild but was later killed in Bukidnon.
With his support for bat conservation, the PBCI is hopeful that the public will be able to change their misperceptions about one of the country’s most misunderstood creatures—bats.
Bats play an imporant role in the environment and the ecosystem. A single bat can eat up to a thousand mosquitoes in just one hour. A single large bat colony can eat up to half a million pounds of insect pests in one night, making them the most effective natural insect controllers.
Bats are also major agents of forest regeneration, pollinating flowers and dispersing large quantify of seeds. In Davao region, the diversity of many fruits, such as its famous durian, has been scientifically attributed to fruit bats as major pollinators.
Despite their significant ecological contributions, however, bats are often hunted and poached, their cave dwellings disturbed, and their survival threatened.
For reference:
Philippine Bat Conservation, Inc.
(c/o Norma / Allan)
Telefax: (+63-82) 224-2972
Phone: (+63-82) (082) 234-7958
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