PRESS RELEASE
April 6, 2010

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Katribu Partylist blames the massive large-scale mining and logging operations in ancestral lands of indigenous peoples in Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro city as the main culprits in the abnormal climate in the region and even the rest of the country.

“We don’t buy government’s claims that climate change is the natural course resulting to the abnormal environmental conditions we are in now. The main reason why we are in this tragic condition is because government has been remiss of its duties to protect our environment from capitalist greed,” Jomorito Goaynon, Katribu regional coordinator said today.

Since the Supreme Court decision granting the legality of the Mining Act of 1995, Australian, European and American companies involved in mining and logging operations indiscriminately excavating, exploring and bombing thousands of acres of lands in the mountains of Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and even Cagayan de Oro City.

In the guise of the government counter-insurgency program under Oplan Bantay Laya II, military operations are launched extensively in the countrysides. “Apan sa pagkatinuod usa lang kini ka stratehiya aron limpyohan ang erya batok sa pag-alsa sa katawhan aron mapasulod ang mga dagkong kompaniya nga maoy mo-operate alang sa pagkuha sa mga dagkong deposito sa mineral ug natural nga rekursos sa among yutang kabilin,” (But are in fact a strategy to clear the area from civilian oppositions to the impending presence of giant multinational companies that will operate in extracting the large deposits of mineral and natural resources in our ancestral lands) Goaynon said.

In Brgy. Zamboanguita, Malaybalay, Bukidnon particularly, an Australian-based mining company is now in full mining operations, where mountains and hilltops still rich in trees and vegetation are being bulldozed, turned into flat lands and even highways, despite the reported objections of the local government and the provincial government.

We also categorically condemn the planned Pulangi V hydro-electric project that will construct a mega dam in the borders of Bukidnon and Cotabato provinces. The said mega dam expects to cover at least 40,000 hectares that will result to a 400-square kilometer lake.

Katribu lambasts government consent to this project which will only jeopardize the environment including the lives of thousands of families that will be displaced.

Goaynon said “dili dam maoy mosulbad sa problema sa enerhiya sa Mindanao kay aduna pay lain mahigalaon sa kinaiyahan (environmently-friendly) nga solusyon niini sama sa renewable energy.”

Katribu, the Lumad leader said, calls instead for the scrapping of Mining Act of 1995 and promote an alternative Mining Law. (Bulatlat.com)

For Reference:

JOMORITO GOAYNON

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