Mindoro folk rally vs ECC to mining firm

MANILA, Philippines – Around 5,000 protesters marched in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro Friday for a mock funeral highlighting their outrage over the grant of an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) to the Mindoro Nickel Project of Norwegian mining firm Intex Resources.

The protesters bore cardboard coffins, one for the mining company, the other for Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza, who granted Intex the ECC on October 14 despite the opposition of most Mindoreños, including the governments of the two Mindoro provinces.

The Catholic church, led by Bishop Bishop Warlito I. Cajandig, turned out in force, with priests in cassocks bearing anti-mining messages.

Fr. Edwin Gariguez of the Alyansa Laban sa Mina (ALAMIN) said Calandig challenged Mindoreños to hold on to their faith and strengthen their ranks against attempts to buy their acceptance of mining on the island.

Among the marchers were Oriental Mindoro Governor Arnan Panaligan, Representative Alfonso Umali, Jr., Mayor Alfredo Ortega Jr. of Victoria and members of the town council, Mayor Doy Leachon of Calapan, and members of the provincial board.

Panaligan and Occidental Mindoro Governor Josephine Ramirez-Sato were among the signatories of a position paper during an island-wide anti-mining forum in September that declared “the Mindoro Nickel Project had been rejected overwhelmingly by the people of Mindoro and even by all the local government units.”

Oriental Mindoro also has an existing 25-year moratorium on mining in the province while the local governments of Victoria town and Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, which are straddled by Intex’s more than 9,000-hectare concession, are opposed to the firm’s operations. Most local governments in the two Mindoro provinces have also issued resolutions against mining.

But the national government insists that local legislation cannot supersede the Mining Act of 1995.

Ironically, in 2001, then environment secretary Heherson Alvarez revoked the mineral production sharing agreement granted to Intex’s predecessor, Crew Minerals, on the grounds that “sustainability is bound to fail” because of the “irreparable damage to the environment” the project would bring to Mindoro, which is covered by 92 pending mining applications.

Despite this, and the subsequent anti-mining resolutions of municipal and provincial governments, the Office of the President reinstated the MPSA in 2006.

The granting of the ECC has outraged Mindoro officials.

Mindoro residents rally vs mining On October 29, the Oriental Mindoro provincial board unanimously passed Resolution 719-2009 expressing its “strong opposition” to the ECC, noting that it was issued despite the virtual absence of social acceptability, which is required under the Mining Act.

Aside from contravening the mining moratorium, the resolution also noted that the Intex concession sits on a part of Mindoro’s central range, which serves as a contiguous watershed to more than 15 river systems.

It also said the “project is incompatible with the sustainable development agenda of the Provincial Government which is anchored on food security and eco-tourism,” and “is within the ancestral domain being claimed by Mangyan tribes.”

It said Intex failed to get the consent of the tribes, a violation of the implementing rules of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, which hold that when a project affects a whole range of territory covering two or more ancestral domains, the consent of all affected indigenous cultural communities shall be secured.

“Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) Resolution No. 719-2009, dated October 26, 2009, denounced in clear terms the issuance of ECC by the DENR to Intex Resources, for it directly violates the Provincial Ordinance imposing a 25-year moratorium in the province of Oriental Mindoro, and the ECC was issued in complete disregard of the opposition of most numbers of local government units, the church and the civil society groups, both in Oriental and Occidental Mindoro”, said Gariguez.

In Occidental Mindoro, the Municipality of Sablayan is one of the major rice- and corn-producing areas in the province and any major mining operations would greatly affect the agriculture production and endanger social economic conditions in the area. Sablayan’s 22 barangays and its Sangguniang Bayan are opposed to mining operations expressed through their respective resolutions and through a municipal mining moratorium ordinance.

Gariguez said Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) national coordinator Jaybee Garganera called for the ouster of Atienza “for his dreadful acts” and saying it was “horrific and ironic” that the environment secretary would “consistently favor big mining companies over the conservation and preservation of environment, which provides benefits the Filipino people more rather than mining.”

He also accused Atienza of issuing the ECC before his department’s own review committee could submit its findings and recommendations on the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Mindoro Nickel Project.

Garganera also said that the Intex project threatens food security since Oriental Mindoro “is ranked third as the province that produces the most food in the country, and known as the food basket of the southern Luzon region.”

He said the mine site is “within a critical watershed area that provides the irrigation for 70% of the provinces vital rice fields and fruit plantations.”

On November 17, members of ALAMIN will launch a hunger strike at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources head office in Quezon City, vowing to take nothing but water until Atienza revokes the ECC.