This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 12, April 30-May 6, 2006
Mindanao Groups Call for
Alternative Mining Policy, Reject Cha-cha
Indigenous peoples, environmentalists, and religious groups in Mindanao united
to protest the “rape of the environment” and called for an alternative mining
policy and rejection of charter change.
BY TYRONE
VELEZ The five-day summit called
the “Mindanao Convergence of Advocates for an Alternative Mining Policy,” united
the religious, environmentalists, indigenous peoples, and mining-affected
communities, and even small-scale miners in Mindanao to pursue the scrapping of
the Mining Act of 1995. The Mindanao Convergence
discussed the effects of open-pit mining operations in six communities namely,
Hinatuan island, Nonoc Island, Sison, Claver, Mainit, and Taganito. Some 160 people attended
the gathering, held at the Maharlika Training Center in Surigao del Norte, from
April 17 to 21, and culminated in the celebration of Earth Day. Alternative Bishop Zacarias Jimenez,
chair of the Mindanao Episcopal Commission on Indigenous Peoples, called for an
alternative policy based on the principles of respect for human dignity and the
whole of creation, and the sustainability of life. This is opposed to the
Mining Act of 1995, which is “pro-transnational corporations”(TNC), said the
delegates. The alternative policy was
proposed by Agham (Scientists for the People), Defend Patrimony! and Legal
Rights and Natural Resources Center – Friends of the Earth – Kasama sa Kalikasan
(LRC-KsK). The proposal stresses the
need to build industries and sustain agricultural growth. It also calls for the
stopping of foreign mining investments, the prosecution of mining TNCs for their
record of environment destruction. A case against the Mining
Act was shown by Cordillera People’s Alliance’s chairperson Joan Carling, who
presented a United Nations study saying countries reliant on exporting minerals
still have a high rate of poverty. Carling stressed that
mining activities reliant on foreign investments have not translated to high
employment and improvement of the economy. Ironically, profits raked by top
transnational mining firms surpasses the gross national products of the
countries where they extract minerals. Cha-cha The various groups also
opposed the Arroyo-backed charter change which they said aims to “altogether
delete the remaining provisions that protect the economy, our ecology, and our
people’s civil and political liberties.” In early 2004, the Supreme
Court declared certain provisions of the Mining Act as unconstitutional, but
reversed the decision within the same year. In its unity statement, the
Mindanao Convergence sees the Mining Act of 1995 as an instrument to the
liberalization of the mining industry towards large-scale foreign mining,
resulting to massive land-grabbing and destruction of ancestral lands of Lumad
and Moro communities. The Convergence called for
more actions from the different sectors. It addressed the religious to “be
unrelenting in their opposition to large scale mining and to concretize its
pastoral care and guidance by journeying with mining-affected communities in
their struggles.” It also called on local
government officials to support their constituents’ call for an end to
large-scale mining, and for the media “to faithfully report and critically
interpret the destruction large scale mining wrecks”. The summit ended with a
march along Surigao City’s main streets and a protest at the regional office of
the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the agency purveying mining liberalization in
the country. The convergence was led by
the Sisters Association in Mindanao (Samin) together with the Philippine
Misereor Partners and Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation; the Foundation
for the Philippine Environment (FPE), LRC – KSK, Alternate Forum for Research in
Mindanao (Afrim); and community-based anti-large scale mining groups like Mainit
National Park Conservation Society (from Compostela Valley), and the Zamboanga
del Norte People’s Alliance Against Mining. © 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Bulatlat
SURIGAO CITY―At the heart of Surigao del Norte, touted as the “mining capital of
Mindanao”, various groups united to reject the government’s mining policy and
called for the formulation of an alternative people’s mining policy that is
pro-people and pro-environment.
Delegates to the summit noted that the severe damage caused by open-pit mining
is like the rape of the environment, making ghost towns out of communities and
leaving them as deserts.
The Mindanao Convergence affirmed to carry the People’s Alternative Mining
Policy as the framework for the promotion of a “sovereign national mining
industry that serves as a catalyst of our national industrialization.”
Their statement holds the Arroyo government accountable for “her fervent push
for mining revitalization through the Mineral Action Plan.”
The event was hosted by Katawhang Simbahan Alang Sa Malambuong Kabuhatan (KASAMAKA)
Surigao del Norte, a conferential body of priests from the Missionaries of the
Sacred Heart congregation, Catholic diocesan members, Iglesia Filipina
Independiente and United Church of Christ in the Philippines. Bulatlat