Church rejoices at ban on open pit mining in Philippine province

MP Claire Short with Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez

Leaders of the local Catholic Church hierarchy in the Philippine province of South Cotabato have joined with environmental and human rights groups in welcoming a ban on open pit mining.

The local government ban, passed on June 11, is contained in a new Environment Code for the province, located in the Southern island of Mindanao.

Open pit mining involves the extraction of rocks and minerals near to the surface.

South Cotabato, particularly Tampakan town, is at the centre of rich resources, especially copper, gold and nickel deposits which Xstrata Copper, a foreign owned company, has been pursuing for development. However, the Tampakan Project has faced stiff opposition from the local Catholic Church and a network of indigenous peoples and non-governmental organisations.

In welcoming the decision, the national environmental group Haribon commented that, “open pit mining wreaks havoc to the environment; not only does it deforest, it also leaves wildlife homeless, and erodes the soil which upland communities and lowland farmers depend on for their livelihoods”.

"Divine intervention!" declared Fr Romeo Q Catedral, Social Action Center director of the Diocese of Marbel, who is at the forefront of church campaigning against large-scale mining.

"This is a triumph for the people not only of South Cotabato but also nearby provinces," the priest said.

He felt the project jeopardizes the rights to health, food and to a healthy environment of affected communities. However, John Arnaldo, corporate communications manager of Sagittarius Mines Inc., the local operative of the mine, commented that the provincial ban on open pit "won't have a bearing on the plans of the company to pursue the Tampakan project."

He told a Philippine newspaper that “since the Philippine Mining Act (1995) allows open pit mining, a local law cannot supersede a national law". There are also indications that the new Governor of South Cotabato, Arthur Pinggoy, may review and possibly defer implementation of the open pit ban.

The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has urged officials to see the ban signed into law. In a statement issued by Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Manila and Secretary General of the National Secretariat of Social Action, the bishops urged that the Code be signed and become an Ordinance to assure the food security of the province and the preservation of the moral values and culture.

Bishop Pabillo said the environment code will be “leaving behind a legacy of intergenerational justice that gives a reasonable certainty for the children of South Cotabato that their future will not involve a serious scarcity of resources and a critical imbalance to the rich agricultural diversity of the province”.

The ban has been welcomed by the UK-based Working Group on Mining in the Philippines. “Local bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez of Marbel, whose diocese includes the Tampakan project, has been a strong opponent of the Mining Act and open cast mining” said Fr Frank Nally, a Columban priest who worked in Mindanao for eight years.

“When he came to London in 2007 for the launch of the Working Group report, Mining in the Philippines - Concerns and Conflicts, Bishop Gutierrez presented a vivid power point presentation on what open cast mining was doing,” Fr Nally reported.

Clare Short MP chaired the meeting and presided over the follow-up report Philippines-Mining or Food? which examined the case of the Tampakan Copper Project.

The Working Group on Mining in the Philippines has supported the Catholic Church’s opposition to the aggressive promotion of large-scale mining in the Philippines and called for the scrapping of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. (Independent Catholic News - Ellen Teague)


Link:http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16350

PNoy suggests compromise on South Cotabato environment code issue

SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines - The Philippine government has started consultations aimed at settling an issue brought about by a newly enacted ordinance that bans open pit mining in South Cotabato province in Mindanao and threatening a $6-billion gold-copper project in that province.

The project run by Sagittarius Mines Inc. is expected to start production in 2015 and hopes to generate 10,000 jobs during construction and 2,000 jobs during operations.

Environment Secretary Ramon Jesus Paje on Tuesday said “they have received instructions from the President to negotiate and attain a compromise”.

"The instruction from Noynoy is that we should attain a compromise," Paje said, referring to the President. "The president has already given us that mandate. It is very important for us." he added.

On Monday, President Benigno Aquino III told reporters he would work out a compromise among concerned parties and that there are consultations going on as in the case of Sagittarius Mines Inc., whose multi-million dollar mining investment is threatened by a provincial ordinance due to environmental concerns.

SMI's investment is touted as the Philippines' largest single investment ever. The Tampakan Gold Copper Project is estimated to contain 13.5 million tonnes of copper and 15.8 million ounces of gold at a 0.3 percent cut-off grade.

The outgoing provincial governor of South Cotabato last month signed and approved the province's Environment Code, which contains a provision that bans open pit mining. The local ordinance triggered uproar from residents and upland tribes within the proposed project area, claiming that local legislators are robbing them of their future.

The President, however, said that the provincial government believes open-pit mining is detrimental to the environment and there is no new technology that will make it safer, while the mining industry players say there can be a healthy compromise that affords us the jobs, the investment and the multiplier effect of that investment on the economy.

“I will work toward that getting them to meet on a common ground that will allay the fears and also afford us the benefits of this investment”, he said.

He expressed “confidence that there can be a meeting of the minds in an atmosphere of trust provided by his administration.”

Aquino said, however, “that at the end of the day it will be the local community whose voice will be loudest as far as I’m concerned, because they will...be the ones to suffer if a disaster happens.”

Paje said “the government wanted to resolve the issue through negotiations, but it could not stop mine operators challenging the legality of the local law in court. (Nikki Gomez)

South Cotabato ban on open pit mining praised

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 5, 2010) - Environmentalists and various indigenous tribes and civil society organizations have praised a move by South Cotabato to ban open pit mining in the province and called on citizens to protect the environment from threats of pollution.

Even the Catholic Church welcomed the decision to ban open pit mining after long years of waiting for the provincial government to sign the Environment Code. Daisy Fuentes, then the governor of South Cotabato, had signed the code before stepping down on June 30.

“It is a victory of the people” said Sister Susan Bolanio, of the environment group called Climate Action Now.

Father Romeo Catedral, of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Marbel town, said: “It is a victory for all who campaigned against destructive mining in South Cotabato, in our country and abroad. It is all our victory,” he said.

Another environment group called Save SocSarGen Movement also declared the signing of the Environment Code as a victory against large-scale mining, particularly against SMI-Xstrata’s Tampakan Copper Gold Project which it opposed.

Father Gillarme Joy Pelino, one of the movement’s conveners, said the signing was a triumph for the people of Tampakan and the whole province which depend much on watersheds threatened by large-scale open pit mining.

“The watersheds are our lifeline being the water source of our rice fields in the lowlands that ensures our food security,” the priest said. (With a report from Geo Solmerano and Erwin Quinones)

South Cotabato provincial board set to ban open pit mining

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – Members of the South Cotabato provincial board will visit early next month the controversial open-pit copper mines in the island of Rapu Rapu in Albay as part of its ongoing study on a proposed ban on open-pit mining in the province under the pending provincial environment code, the Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported Friday.

According to the PNA, Board Member Jose Madanguit, chair of the board's committee on environment, said the planned visit to Rapu Rapu will focus on the evaluation of the possible environmental hazards posed by open-pit mining operations, especially on a large-scale basis.

“We're hoping to get the information that we need that will allow us to see the whole issue on a broader scale and eventually help us decide on whether to proceed with the ban on open-pit mining or not,” he said.

In June, at least eight board members, mostly of the environment committee, toured at least four open-pit mining sites of Toronto Ventures, Inc. (TVI) in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte and Holcim Philippines, Inc. in Lugait, Misamis Oriental.

Madanguit said their initial site visits focused on the evaluation of mine site rehabilitation and the handling of the indigenous people's affected by the mining activities, especially their relocation and compensation.

“This time, we will look into the destruction wrought by open-pit mining in Rapu Rapu, especially the pollution problems, and how it affected the local residents,” he said.
Madanguit said the management of the Rapu-Rapu Polymetallic Mining Project., which is now controlled by Korean investors, allowed them to visit the site either on the first or second week of November.

He said the company allowed the provincial board to send a 15-man delegation for the site visit.
The Rapu-Rapu project was the first foreign-operated Philippine project to reach the production stage after the Supreme Court upheld the legality of a 1995 mining law, which opened the sector to foreign investment.

In November 2005, LPI was found liable for the recurrence of cyanide spills, mine tailings and fish kills in the island, causing environmental destruction, community displacements, human rights violation, and livelihood loss to the local people.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Mines and Geosciences Bureau eventually ordered Lafayette to pay P134 million to ensure that the environment around the mine site is restored and rehabilitated in case the project is abandoned.

However, there has been no confirmation if the company had complied with such order.

Last April, Korean transnational companies LG International and Korean Resources Inc. gained majority control of Lafayette Philippines Inc., previously an Australian-owned company, which operated the Rapu Rapu mines.

The provincial board was supposed to deliberate on the second reading in late April the proposed provincial environment code that includes a provision banning open-pit mining in the province but it decided to defer the matter due to strong opposition from the business sector, local officials and various government agencies.

Environment Secretary Jose Atienza Jr. personally wrote a letter to the provincial board and South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes seeking a reconsideration regarding the proposed ban on open-pit mining in the province.

Mining firm Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI), which is based in Tampakan town, had issued hints on utilizing open-pit mining on its proposed large-scale copper and gold mining project in the tri-boundaries of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur provinces.

The operations of SMI, which is backed by global mining player Xstrata Copper, has been opposed by local environmental groups and the Catholic Church. (Allen V. Estabillo)