This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 2, Feb. 11-17, 2007
With Lafayette mine
reopening: “The
mine will only aggravate poverty among the people. DENR has started to unleash
an environmental time bomb with the full commercial operation of Lafayette.” –
Trixie Concepcion, Defend Patrimony spokesperson and geologist BY
LISA ITO In complete disregard of
the technical findings and recommendations of the Rapu-Rapu Fact-Finding
Commission (RRFFC) issued last May 2006, Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes gave
the go signal for Lafayette Mining to resume full commercial operations in its
base metals plant in Rapu-Rapu, Albay. The Pollution Adjudication
Board (PAB) signed the Final Lifting Order (FLO) last Thursday, February 8,
claiming that Rapu-Rapu Processing Inc. (RRPI) has fully complied with all
conditions set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and
authorizing it to immediately resume production of copper and zinc concentrates
in its base metals plant. Secretary Reyes, who also
heads the PAB, said that the lifting order “still comes with stringent
conditions”, such as the implementation of operational control measures and the
immediate expansion of the existing Multipartite Monitoring Team (MMT) to
include representatives from the academe, non-government organizations, and
other interested stakeholders. Lafayette Mining’s permit
to operate was suspended following two mine tailings spills in October 2006 and
fish kill incidents shortly after. Vehement objections Rapu-Rapu folk, church
leaders, and environmental activists alike quickly registered their condemnation
and sounded the red alert over the resumption of mining operations in the
island. "I vehemently object to
Secretary Reyes' decision. I believe that everything about the Lafayette project
is still defective and disadvantageous not only to the residents of Rapu-rapu
but to the entire Filipino nation,” Sorsogon Catholic Bishop Arturo Bastes said.
Bishop Bastes, who headed
the Rapu-Rapu commission, said that the PAB’s decision is tantamount to throwing
away all technical findings and recommendations issued by the RRFFC.
Among the RRFFC’s findings
was that Lafayette Philippines Inc. (LPI) is guilty of irresponsible mining
having started operations prior to the completion of environmental protection
infrastructures; that the LPI Group violated 11 out of the 29 conditionalities
in its Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC); and that RRPI has been
operating without an ECC. The Bastes Commission
recommended that a mining moratorium be imposed on Rapu-Rapu island and that
existing mining permits in the area be suspended in order to comprehensively
study and address the issue of ecological conservation and the problem of acid
mine drainage (AMD) found present in the island ecosystem. “We condemn in the
strongest possible terms the DENR’s decision to allow Lafayette to continue its
mining operations. It has completely ignored the community displacements,
cyanide contamination, fish kills, landslides, human rights violations, and
environmental scourges experienced by the local people as a result of
Lafayette’s entry and operations,” said Clemente Bautista, Jr. National
Coordinator of environmental activist group Kalikasan-Peoples Network for the
Environment (Kalikasan-PNE). Failure of transparency Environmental NGOs likewise
remain unconvinced by Reyes’ assurances that all will be well after the FLO is
implemented, citing the lack of transparency on the part of the company and of
the DENR all throughout the duration of the two test runs granted to Lafayette.
"Secretary Reyes has been
speaking of a Technical Working Group and of a Multipartite Monitoring Body,
(but) who and where are these people? How independent are they from Lafayette
and the Chamber of Mines? Where are their reports and outputs?” asked Center for
Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Phils) Executive Director Frances Quimpo.
“The CEC itself has asked
for copies of the DENR's monitoring reports since October 11, 2006 and to this
day we are still waiting for these reports," lamented Quimpo. Quimpo noted that Lafayette
has yet to open the mine site to independent scrutiny by oppositors. "If Lafayette finally has
an honest to goodness "state of the art" mining facilities in Rapu-Rapu, they
should be flaunting it most especially to local folks and its critics. Yet, the
folks in Rapu-rapu have complained of harassment from Lafayette guards all
throughout the ‘test run’,” she added. Quimpo said that Secretary
Reyes, upon his decision to grant the Lafayette Mining a "test run" last July
2006, promised outmost transparency over the Rapu-Rapu Polymetallic Project.
However, what ensued since
then was far from it, she said. Quimpo noted that Reyes
issued a memorandum in July 2006 ordering his officials to closely monitor and
evaluate all mining activities and critical mining facilities. Among the
important directives of the memorandum were 1) immediate reporting for proper
action of any impending danger or damage at the tailings ponds and waste dams,
2) identification and determination of the magnitude of the damages caused by
geo-hazards such as landslides and floods; 3) geo-hazard mapping; and 4) close
coordination with RDCC regarding geo-hazards to forewarn the population of any
impending catastrophe. “The absence of these
reports amid continued publicities about Lafayette's claims, and DENR's
similarly-sounding press releases, makes the [FLO] decision suspect,” Quimpo
said. Since the issuance of the
memorandum, the Rapu-Rapu project has sustained damage from two major typhoons.
Landslides occurring in the direct impact areas of the mine in the aftermath of
these storms have also resulted in fatalities among the local populace. The Lafayette FLO reflects
a serious failure of transparency and serious failure of governance for the
people and the environment, she said. “It is but another decision that the
current administration has been forcing on the people without sound reason and
scientific basis,” Quimpo concluded. Gov’t courting more
disasters Kalikasan-PNE said that the
Arroyo administration was opening its arms to more environmental disasters with
the reopening of RRPI’s mining operations. “The Arroyo administration
and the DENR are courting more disasters with such decisions. Like what happened
before in Rapu-rapu and other mining-affected communities in the country,
Bicolanos should brace for more frequent and widespread soil erosion, toxic
contamination, mine wastes, water depletion and marine degradation as a result
of Lafayette Mining’s open-pit operations,” Bautista said. Defend Patrimony, an
anti-corporate mining alliance, asserted that Lafayette Mining would exacerbate
the current environmental damage left by other mining operations in Rapu-Rapu,
Defend Patrimony spokesperson and geologist Trixie Concepcion said. Open-pit and tunnel-type
mining operations by Hixbar Mining Company in Brgy. Sta. Barbara in Rapu-Rapu
from the post-war period up to the 1970s left at least three rivers contaminated
and tracts of land severely barren and unproductive. Rapu-Rapu as also been
subjected to environmentally-degrading explorations by Benguet Consolidated,
Inc, Toronto Ventures, Inc. Sfinix, and Lafayette. “The local peasants and
fisher folk are already so traumatized and deprived by the damage left by the
HIXBAR mining company and the recent mine spills of Lafayette. The DENR is
dangerously toying with an environmental time bomb in its decision to allow
Lafayette’s large-scale mining operations to continue in the island’s fragile
ecosystem,” Concepcion said. “The mine will only
aggravate poverty among the people. Rich opportunities for agricultural
development will be obliterated by open-pit mining, forest denudation,
landslides, and massive soil erosion. Rapu-Rapu’s abundant marine life will also
be gradually destroyed as the cyanide contamination and fish kills demonstrated,
and the people’s livelihood will be eventually wiped out. DENR has started to
unleash an environmental time bomb with the full commercial operation of
Lafayette,” she continued. Concepcion noted that
Lafayette Mining, even with the FLO, has yet to publicly prove how it intends to
resolve the problem of AMD, especially in light of objections from RRFFC
commissioners that Lafayette’s existing technology is useless against AMD and in
fact could enhance it. Defend Patrimony vowed to
mobilize wider opposition to the Lafayette Mining’s commercial operations in the
coming weeks. Bicolanos will be also holding a community action on February 11
and 12 in Rapu-rapu and Legazpi City to protest the Rapu-Rapu mine reopening.
Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Gov’t Unleashed
Environmental Time Bomb, Group Says
Bulatlat