By Joel Jabal
INQ7.net

10,000 stage anti-mining protest in Mindoro

First posted 09:15pm (Mla time) Jan 30, 2006

CALAPAN CITY -- (UPDATE) Close to 10,000 people -- including ethnic Mangyan, farmers, and religious leaders -- joined a caravan on Monday to renew their protest against a Canadian mining firm set to extract cobalt and nickel on the island, a day after influential Catholic bishops pressed for the cancellation of mining concessions in the country.

Onboard more than 500 vehicles, the protesters began their caravan at around 7 a.m. in this city and passed through the towns of Naujan, Victoria, Socorro and Pola. They were bearing streamers and placards calling for the revocation of an exploration permit issued by Environment Secretary Mike Defensor last November 10.

Oriental Mindoro politicians, many of them with divergent political leanings, also joined the protest caravan.

“We have different political beliefs but we are united against this mining project,” said Oriental Mindoro second district Representative Alfonso V. Umali, Jr.

“In this fight, we have the support of the religious sector, the indigenous people’s group, the mayors, vice-mayors, civil society groups and student groups,” he said. “What proof do they need to prove that this project lacks social acceptance?”

The Aglubang Mining Corp. was granted a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) covering 2,290 hectares in the boundaries of Victoria and Naujan in December 2000.

But the mining site was found to be within a watershed area and the ancestral domain of the ethnic Mangyan, prompting the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to terminate the MPSA on July 16, 2001.

The AMC, which was owned by the Canadian-based CrewGold Mining, appealed the revocation order, which was scrapped shortly before the 2004 national elections. Defensor granted AMC an exploration permit last year.

“We have been fighting this mining project for the last 10 years. It’s about time they realized all of us here in Oriental Mindoro are against it,” said Umali.

First District Representative Rodolfo G. Valencia said the mining project would “bring death and destruction” to the province.

He warned that massive flood would hit the estimated 40,000-hectare rice-producing plains of northern Mindoro, which was devastated by three successive floods last month.

Valencia also said that the mining site was within an area being claimed by Tadyawan Mangyan tribe.

Governor Arnan C. Panaligan, a staunch ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, reiterated the stand of the provincial government that it was not allowing large-scale mining in the province.

The provincial government passed an ordinance on January 28, 2002 imposing a 25-year ban on large-scale mining in Oriental Mindoro.

The 120-member Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Sunday issued a statement after a three-day annual retreat in Manila expressing concern over the presence of foreign mining companies in the country.

The 1995 Philippine Mining Act allows foreign companies to explore and develop mining sites in partnership with the government.

Last year, Philippine mining officials ordered the suspension of a 42-million dollar flagship project funded by Australian and South Korean investors after cyanide-laced waste spilled and killed fish on Rapu-Rapu island, 380 kilometers (235 miles) southeast of Manila.

In 1996, millions of tons of mine waste from an impounding dam of the Marcopper Mining Corp. spilled into a river on central Marinduque island, creating an environmental disaster. The mine was subsequently closed by the government. With Associated Press