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By M.E. Corazon J. Jazmines, TMT-Barangay
News
(Third part)
Environmental protection
• Mining operation and
development must, at all times, guarantee environmental protection
and safety.
Mining will be done after it is
evaluated to be the best option or use for an area. At all stages of
mining, environmental protection and development shall be
guaranteed. Only with sufficient provisions for environmental
protection and recovery shall mining be undertaken.
Ecological considerations in
mining development shall be given due emphasis and attention in
order to counter or eliminate destructive effects that certain
mining industrial processes might have on the people’s health and
the environment. Environmental standards shall be set to ensure the
protection and efficient utilization of the country’s mineral
resource base. Monitoring mechanisms with strong participation from
the local communities will be instituted. Areas affected by mining
shall be rehabilitated.
Mining in environmentally
critical areas such as small island ecosystems, primary forests and
watersheds shall be banned. Dumping of mine waste and tailings to
rivers, lakes and sea must be prohibited. Violators must be strictly
punished and made to pay heavy compensation to the state and
affected people.
Cordilleran community leaders
protest against mining
• Cordillera indigenous leaders
from the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and the Save Apayao
Peoples Organization (SAPO) joined environmental advocates and other
community leaders in calling for a propeople mining policy and
denouncing the entry of foreign mining companies to the country
during the 7th Asia Pacific Mining Conference and Exhibit in Manila
on June 5. Sponsored by the Asean Federation of Mining Associations
(AFMA) and the Philippine Chamber of Mines, the conference aimed at
attracting more foreign mining companies to invest in the
Asia-Pacific region.
“Mining policies such as the
Mining Act of 1995 and President Arroyo’s rabid promotion of
mining liberalization is a complete sell-out of the people’s
patrimony to foreign capitalists, while leaving behind irreparable
environmental, social and cultural damages for the people to suffer.
The entry of Anglo American and other giant mining companies such as
the BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, in the
Cordillera will bring about further destruction to the people’s
resources,” said Santos Mero, CPA deputy secretary-general and
regional spokesman for the Defend Patrimony Alliance.
Anglo American, the world’s
fourth-largest mining company based in the United Kingdom, has at
least four projects in the Philippines that are included in the
Arroyo administration’s 24 Priority Mining Projects, three of
which are located in the Cordillera region. These are the Conner
Copper Gold Project in Apayao and Kalinga province through its local
subsidiary, Cordillera Exploration, Inc. (CEXI), the Padcal Copper
Extension Project in Tuba, Benguet, in partnership with Philex
Mining Corp., and the Far Southeast Project in Mankayan, Benguet, in
partnership with Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp.
“Anglo American has notorious
human rights and environmental records in its operations in South
Africa and North America. It was named by the Canada Commission
for Environmental Cooperation as one of the main lead polluters
throughout North America and it has paid South Africans the
world’s lowest wages. We do not want this to happen in the
Cordillera,” Mero added.
Alarmed over the intensifying
mining in the Philippines and its consequential damage to the people
and their resources, protesters during the Asia Pacific Mining Conference
asserted their resistance to “foreign plunder of the people’s
resources” and for “justice to all victims of environmental
plunder.”
According to Mero, “large scale
mining in the Cordillera and elsewhere in the country has resulted
in massive destruction of the people’s resources and outright
violation of human rights and indigenous peoples’ rights. When
people oppose these mining operations that are fully backed by the
Arroyo administration, they are threatened, intimidated or even
killed.”
Mero cited the case of Tina
Moyaen, SAPO chairman and an active antimining advocate, who has
received death threats at the height of her organization’s strong
opposition to Anglo American’s mining exploration project in
Conner, Apayao. “SAPO has persistently opposed Anglo American’s
exploration activities. Through the leadership of Tina, the Free,
Prior and Informed Consent [FPIC], which was the basis of the
approval of the company’s permit to explore was questioned along
with the conduct of the agencies and local government officials that
have facilitated the acquisition of the FPIC certificate.”
“We call on the newly elected
officials of local governments in the Cordillera to listen to the
voice of the people and not stick to their personal promining
positions. The government should also put a moratorium on mining in
the Cordillera until such time that an alternative propeople mining
policy is upheld,” Mero added.
Mero and Moyaen recently attended
Anglo American’s annual general meeting in London on April 17 to
register indigenous peoples’ opposition to the company’s mining
projects in the Cordillera. They demanded from the company a
pull-out of Anglo American’s projects in the Cordillera,
recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights, support to genuine FPIC,
and promotion of people-centered sustainable development.
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