Cordillera militant IP group backs Sec Lopez on mining
>> Thursday, March 16, 2017
BAGUIO
CITY — An indigenous people's group opposed to large-scale mining has thrown
its support behind Environment Secretary Gina Lopez for deciding to close and
suspend some mining companies.
“No Department of the Environment and Natural
Resources] secretary has ever done this before—to make a decision for social
justice for all communities who have been demanding for a stop to the
operations of mining companies that have historically violated indigenous
peoples’ rights, destroyed and plundered ancestral lands and the natural
resources therein, said Igorot leader Abigail Anongos, secretary general of the
Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA).
Anongos said they are supporting Lopez in
cancelling 75 Mineral Production Sharing Agreements in watershed areas, five of
which are located in the Cordillera region.
“In
fact, mining companies should not be allowed to operate in the Cordillera
because the Cordillera is the watershed area of the entire Northern Luzon,” she
said.
The CPA is also hoping that DENR will also
recommend that instead of just a suspension, Lepanto Mining should actually be
included to the list of 23 mining companies for closure.
Anongos
said that “80 years of Lepanto’s operations have polluted and silted the Abra
River and destroyed people’s agriculture. Lepanto’s operations brought in
militarization, resulting to many human rights violations to the people of
Mankayan.”
Also, Anongos added, “in addition to
its envienmental crimes, Philex Mining should in fact be included in the
list of those up for closure.” Three years ago, Philex’s tailings pond 3
collapsed and dumped 50,000 tons of tailings into the river, making it the
worst mining disaster in the country in recent history.
The DENR, Anongos urged, must now also work
for the rehabilitation and compensation of mining-affected indigenous
communities.
Lopez faces confirmation hearings at the
congressional Commission on Appointments for her post as Environment secretary.
The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines has
filed an official opposition to her confirmation, sayign she has "an
undeniable bias against and antagonism towards large-scale mining, rendering
her unfit and incapable of a responsible, fair, just and balanced
implementation of the Constitution, the Philippine Mining Act and related laws
and regulations, and of upholding personal interest and advocacies over public
interest."
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