MTV Exit goes to SM City Davao

MANILA, Philippines - MTV Exit (End Exploitation and Trafficking) goes to SM City Davao today at the open parking area with a free concert featuring Imago, Itchyworms, and Moymoy Palaboy.

The event is aimed at raising awareness of human trafficking, a rapidly escalating multi-billion dollar criminal industry that crosses borders and affects millions of lives worldwide. Davao is MTV Exit’s third stop in the Philippines, following concerts in Manila and Cebu.

Upon joining the Visayan Forum Foundation’s War Against Human Trafficking (WAHT), MTV Exit has organized concerts across the Philippines to raise awareness and encourage Filipinos to join the movement to stop human trafficking and exploitation. Local artists have also joined the campaign.

Prior to the concert, the WAHT campaign headed by The Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc., in cooperation with the City Government of Davao, national government agencies, non-government, peoples and students organizations, will hold several activities as part of their unwavering commitment and determination to eliminate human trafficking. This includes school tours and orientations at the Assumption College, Ateneo de Davao, the University of Mindanao, and other selected schools, as well as community tours and educational activities in baranggays identified as at-risk areas for trafficking.

A press conference was held on Nov. 19 at the City Mayor’s Office in San Pedro St., Davao, to orient members of the media on the exemplary initiatives against trafficking in the area. On November 20, a special meeting of the Multi-Sectoral Network Against Trafficking was held to solidify the various commitments of civil society and youth groups, and to introduce concrete actions for next year.

The VF and WAHT advocates will kick-off the MTV Exit concert today with a program at 3 p.m. at Magsaysay Park, followed by a motorcade from Magsaysay Park to SM Davao.

MTV Exit-The Philippine Tour is presented by Mtvexit.org, USAID and Visayan Forum Foundation; co-presented by SM City Davao.

The MTV Exit (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign is an award-winning multi-media initiative to raise awareness and increase prevention of human trafficking and exploitation. MTV Exit was launched in Europe in 2004, in partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, and expanded across Asia with USAID in 2007.

To date MTV Exit has produced many MTV documentaries and other programming on trafficking, including Traffic: An MTV EXIT Special, presented by Lucy Liu; Inhuman Traffic, presented by Angelina Jolie; over a dozen localized language versions presented by Asian celebrities, short films, public service announcements, and animation. MTV Exit and Radiohead collaborated on an anti-exploitation video for their song All I Need, which premiered across MTV’s global network on May 1, 2008. For inquiries, visit www.mtvexit.org.