Priests, ethnic minorities go on hunger strike to protest mining operation in Mindoro Island

Two Catholic priests and a group of indigenous people from Mindoro Island have commenced a hunger strike of indefinite length in Manila to protest an impending mining operation by a Norwegian company, the Asian Human Rights Commission said Tuesday.

Fr Roberto Reyes, a staff member of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), is one of the 25 people who joined the protestors--two of whom are Catholic priests and sixteen of whom are Mangyans; as well as seven others.

The group has pledged to go on a hunger strike until their demands are met.

In his statement, Fr Reyes said of his decision to go on strike: "I go on hunger strike with the Mangyans and the people of Mindoro who hunger for justice and freedom from exploitation and oppression of foreign multinational corporations and their counterparts in the present regime". The full text of his statement can be read below.

The group set up a makeshift tent in front of the headquarters of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Quezon City, a government agency responsible for issuing permits to mining firms. The group is protesting against the DENR's issuance of a mining permit to Intex Resources - a Norwegian multinational mining company who work to mine ore minerals - despite strong opposition by the local government and the indigenous communities who are affected by their work.

Mindoro Island is the Philippines' seventh largest island and is reported to have the biggest lateritic nickel ores deposit in the world.

Intex Resources, according to a local newspaper, was issued a permit to mine ores covering the areas of about 11,218 hectares, which included the ancestral domain claim of the Alangan and Tadyawan, which are indigenous Mangyan communities. The mining project covers four towns, in Victoria, Pola and Socorro in Oriental Mindoro and Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro. The operation is expected to produce 100 to 120 million tons of ore over a period of 15 to 20 years.

Legal provisions state that before any mining firms are issued work permits, there should be a public consultation and hearing with the communities and villagers who will be affected, in order to obtain their consent. Only after this consultation and willing agreement of the communities, can permits be issued.

However, according to the protestors, the DENR has issued permits to the Intex Resources despite a 'strong and valid opposition' from the affected communities, the local government and the Catholic Church.

The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organization monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Philippine Farmers Seek Intervention Vs. Landlords

Philippine farmers protest.

MANILA, Philippines (AHRC / Dec. 4, 2008) - On its third day of run, farmers from two of the country's influential landlords -- the Arroyos and the Yulos -- sought urgent intervention from members of the Senate and the Houses of Representatives to address their desperate plight.

Apart from the farmers in Hacienda Bacan in Isabela, Negros Occidental -- which is owned by President Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel -- farmers from Hacienda Yulo in Laguna province, have also been deprived from owning the land they have been cultivating.

Of the 7,100 hectares of land in Hacienda Yulo, about 3,256 of it is being claimed by the farmers whose ancestors have been occupying and cultivating the land since 1905. It was first given to the Madrigal Family during the Spanish Colonization, however, it was later transferred to Jose Miguel Yulo, whose family is the present owner.

At least 1,354 farmer beneficiaries are seeking ownership to the land. Even before the law obligating the government to distribute lands to landless farmers, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP), was made into law as early as 1960s, the ancestors of the present claimants and the claimants themselves, who were young then, have began their fight to own the land.

In 1990, three years after the CARP was made into law, the farmer beneficiaries applied for inclusion in the land for distribution under the CARP. However, surprisingly despite the farmers' pending applications three years later the land has been declared exempted from CARP, on the pretext that it is industrial and commercial land. Under the CARP, lands of this classification are exempted from distribution.

However, the process of the conversion of the land, which resulted in the lands exemption from distribution, has been highly questionable. At the time, the municipal mayor Jesus Miguel Yulo, the son of the owner and the zoning administrator -- who have had connections with the Yulos -- have deliberately abused their authority.

They have used their influence by converting the contested land to industrial, to ensure that it would be exempted from distribution.

It was learned though that since 1993 the land has been idle, neither used for industrial nor for commercial purposes. The municipal government of Calamba have likewise issued a certification which affirms that the contested land has been idle.

The said certification was submitted to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for them to reconsider the earlier decision exempting the land; however, the DAR nevertheless stood firm to its previous decision exempting the land for distribution.

In 2006, after learning the irregularities in the process of the exemption, the farmers filed a petition seeking to revoke the land's classification which remains pending. Also, Nasser Pangandaman, the DAR secretary, has also repeatedly denied the farmers' petition to revoke the earlier decision exempting the land from CARP citing its questionable conversion, on several occasions.

The DAR has stood firm on its earlier decision. In 2007, the Yulos instead offered to distribute home-lots to farmers, which measure about 150 square meters, to each beneficiary and cash worth PHP13,000 (USD263) supposedly as “disturbance compensation”; however, expectedly the farmers have refused their offer. One of the farmers said that what they needed is not home-lots, but land to farm and somewhere they could build their homes.

To date, the farmer's petition asking the DAR to reconsider its earlier decision is not showing any progress. This was the issue the farmers brought as they run from the head office of the DAR towards the House of Representatives.

Not only the farmers from Hacienda Yulo have sought for legislators' intervention, farmers from the Arroyo's have also sought the help from members of Senate.

After the 7-kilometre run from DAR to the House of Representatives was completed, a separate run, this time farmers from the Arroyo land, also took place which began from the Baclaran Church in Coastal Road, in Manila, towards the Senate building.

Shortly after the farmers arrived, led by Catholic priest Fr. Robert Reyes, a staff member of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), at the Senate some of them also joined the Senate committee hearing on the Arroyo land. The Senate's committee on agrarian reform was conducting an inquiry, in aid of legislation, as to why the Arroyo farmer's land in Negros Occidental have not been able to acquire the land under the CARP.

After the committee hearing was concluded it still failed to come out with a concrete resolution to immediately address the Arroyo farmers' demand to ensure the speedy distribution of the contested land to them. About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Solo protest seeks land reform extension in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino priest, known in the Philippines as the "running priest", held a solo protest inside the Philippine Congress in Quezon City on December 2 calling upon legislators to consider as a priority, the extension of the land reform law.

Before he resumed his daily 15-kilometre run together with farmers, Fr. Robert Reyes, went inside the Congress' main lobby where he offers his daily prayer for the farmers and reaffirmed the latter's demand that a bill which seeks for the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with reform be passed promptly before the year end.

There are serious concern that once the year ends without passing a law extending it and by including reforms, the plight of landless farmers will hang in the balance; and that those who are supposed to be beneficiaries under the CARP, would have no other means or legal remedies at all to seek ownership of the lands they till.

Although the implementation of the law itself is inadequate and ineffective; however, either not having or losing the legal obligation on part of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the implementing agency of the land distribution programme, to pursue land reform ownership would become even more extremely difficult.

Two decades after the land reform law took affect; thousands of hectares of land all over the country have failed to have been awarded to farmers.

In Negros Occidental alone, a local group called Task Force Mapalad (TFM), said the claims of a total of 11,239 hectares of land covering 134 haciendas by about 5,731 farmer beneficiaries remain pending at all levels of the CARP process. This includes the 157 hectares of land owned by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, in Isabela.

The DAR's huge backlog in the distribution of lands under the Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) claims has also since been aggravated by the needless and the deliberate delays in the processing of farmer's applications, landlords either using their political influence upon the government agencies or threatening them with legal action; and political interference to subvert the supposed to be ordinary process of land distribution.

Before leaving the Congress lobby to resume his daily run, Reyes, also a staff member of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), displayed his placard on which the demands for the CARP's extension is written.

Reyes also offered a short prayer on behalf of the farmers in front of a wall where the pictures and names of the members of the Philippine Congress are displayed.

On his way out, Reyes joined several other farmers who were waiting for him at the gate outside the Congress compound; and shortly after they resumed their run towards the head office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). It was Reyes' and the farmer's second run as part of their daily 15-kilometre run in ten days.

One of those joining Reyes and the farmers in their run was Reiko Sembad, a 22-year-old student of Cultural and Tourism Studies from a university in Tokyo. Reiko, like other farmers who joined the run, did not mind the scorching heat and exhaustion during the run.

The farmers, including the elderly, who joined the second day run were even wearing flip tops and trousers. However, despite not wearing running gear and not prepared, their endurance and willingness to complete the run was moving.

In the afternoon, Reyes held a mass inside the farmers' makeshift tents where they apparently been staying on protest for the past several weeks in front of the DAR. It is also the place where eight farmers from the Arroyo land are holding their indefinite hunger strike.(The Asian Human Rights Commission)