ATM reaction on issuance of IRR of EO 130

ATM strongly denounces the move to further open the mining industry in the Philippines, with the publication of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Executive Order 130 series of 2021, or the latest mining policy of the Duterte administration.

While it did not lift the ban on open-pit mining, the IRR will usher new a huge wave of mining applications and projects under the pretext that it is an essential industry as part of the economic stimulus and recovery program from the COVID pandemic.

ATM believes that this new policy will increase the destruction of forests and watersheds, fuel more land conflicts in the rural areas and intensify the impacts of climate change to the rural areas.

As Duterte and DENR Sec. Roy Cimatu complete their betrayal of the environment and the Filipino people in promoting destructive large-scale mining, this new mining policy couldn’t have worse timing, as the UN IPCC Assessment Report 6 came out last Aug. 9, 2021.

In that report, hundreds of scientists have concluded that “it is unequivocal” that human activities area causing climate change, and that its impacts are widespread and will intensify.

By allowing more large-scale and open-pit mining projects across the country, the Duterte regime remains blind to the new realities of climate change and miserably fails to learn the bitter lessons of this pandemic.

Our alliance rejects EO 130 and its IRR, and we will continue to oppose this policy. ATM will not take this sitting down. We will mobilize all our members to intensify and broaden the resistance against mining, especially those who will benefit from this new policy. And we will defy this callous government who keeps turning a blind eye against mining-affected communities and environmental defenders. #

For more details, please contact:

Jaybee Garganera, ATM National Coordinator – (0917) 5498218 - nc@alyansatigilmina.net