Boycott call against H’wood movie a protest against killing of bats

DAVAO CITY—Davao bat conservationist Norma Monfort vowed to step up her campaign to boycott the Sylvester Stallone starrer, “The Expendables 2,” by marching in the Kadayawan street parade on Friday, when the movie opens in theaters nationwide.

Monfort said her call for boycott is a gesture of sympathy with bat conservationists in Bulgaria, for the destruction of a large part of the bat population at Devetashka bat cave in Lovech, where “Expendables 2” was shot.

The producers of the film—which also stars such Hollywood bigwigs as Bruce Willis, Jean Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham and Jet Li—have been fined by Bulgarian authorities.

But Monfort said that was not enough compensation for the ill effects of the shoot.

She said the Devetashka cave was home to 15 protected species of hibernating bats—in sum, about half of the total bat population in Bulgaria.

“They cannot just kill bats the way they did,” Monfort told reporters on Monday.

“Now that the film is in theaters,” she said, “we will walk the talk.”

Bats, often misunderstood creatures, are great pollinators of plants, Monfort noted. “Without bats, there will not even be a Kadayawan.” The festival is the indigenous people’s annual thanksgiving celebration.

Monfort, named conservation hero for 2011 by the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund Park, owns the Monfort Park on the island garden city of Samal in Davao del Norte, which hosts the world’s largest concentration of Geoffrey’s Rosette fruit bats. The Monfort bat caves on Samal Island host an estimated 1.8 million bats. Germelina Lacorte, Ayan Mellejor and Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao