Silsilah movement calls for mining closure in Zamboanga City

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (CBCP / Mar. 24, 2009) - Proving that social advocacy goes beyond the issue of religion, the Silsilah Dialogue Movement (SDM) has urged authorities to stop mining activities in the Ayala-Manicahan watersheds in Zamboanga City.

Echoing a United Nations report of a “deeply worrying” impending global water shortage, the SDM has asked the Zamboanga City government to withdraw the mining permit it earlier granted to Rigid Aggregates Mining Corporation (RAMC) to save the quality of water in the province’s west coast.

It was in 2006 when the RAMC applied for a permit to explore the presence of commercially viable quantities of ores within the Ayala-Manicahan watershed, which supplies water to springs and rivers in Ayala, Tulungatung, Cawit and Sinunuc districts, according to a report by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

It said last year, the SDM, on behalf of 692 signatories, filed a formal opposition to the RAMC permit before the Mines and Geosciences Bureau but the Zamboanga City Council has upheld the RAMC clearance.

“The fresh water supply from the Ayala Watershed will be critically threatened by mining activities within the watershed area. The economic gains from mining may bring a good, but only a short lived one. On the other hand the need for water to sustain life is forever,” the SDM said in a statement.

The group added that “consultations with the various stakeholders in the area were not sincerely undertaken and the report of a favorable endorsement at the barangay level of the RAMC application was, at best, a fairy tale.”

Last March 6, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau called a preliminary conference with the oppositors in Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay province, and set the deadline for the filing of a formal petition against the RAMC application on April 30.

“In dialogue with people of goodwill, and in dialogue with creation, Silsilah calls on those who believe in this advocacy to rally behind Silsilah and support the protection and preservation of the watershed,” the group said. (Kris Bayos)