Sorsogon

Residents march to protest Matnog mining. (Photo from http://www.matnogadvocates.org/) 

Matnog, Sorsogon (27 August) -- Local public officials have joined residents and the Catholic Church here in calls for the stoppage of the operations of a mining project extracting iron ore in a watershed area of this small fourth class town.

The calls are directed to incumbent Sorsogon Gov. Raul Lee whose office issued the small-scale mining permit (SSMP) to the project and the regional office for Bicol of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that provided an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) to it.