Clergy join call to halt mining and save environment on Mindoro Island

A Norwegian company´s proposed mining projects will threaten the rice supply in Oriental Mindoro province, a priest who works there has warned.

The area where Intex Resources plans to operate nickel mines produces 51 percent of the province´s rice requirement, according to Father Edwin Gariguez of Calapan apostolic vicariate.

From left: Professor Arturo Boquiren, Mr. Cathal Doyle, Mr. Clive Wicks, Dr. Robert Goodland, Senator Aquilino Pimentel and Columban Father Frank Nally at the Feb. 4 launch of Wicks and Goodland´s book, “Philippines: Mining or Food?” at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

If rice paddies are destroyed, it will also affect the food supply for Manila, where some of the rice is sold, the sociologist-priest said at a forum in Quezon City, next to the capital.

Calapan vicariate covers Oriental Mindoro, where 83 percent of 708,000 people are Catholics and the rest are mostly other Christians and indigenous people with native beliefs. Occidental Mindoro is the other province on Mindoro, a northern Philippine island south of Manila.

Intex´s mining proposal was among six cases studied by British environmental experts Robert Goodland and Clive Wicks for their book “Philippines: Mining or Food?” launched during the Feb. 4 forum.

The other cases involve approved projects on the central island of Sibuyan, part of Romblon province, and in the southern provinces of Davao Oriental, South Cotabato, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, all on Mindanao island.

According to the scientists, the nickel mines that Intex hopes to operate by 2011 straddle 9,720 hectares across both Mindoro provinces. The nickel deposits are in areas that come under Mangyan communities´ ancestral domain, and the proposed mining sites encroach on Mag-asawang Tubig Watershed, which feeds 40,000 hectares of rice land.

Father Gariguez has worked among indigenous Mangyan-Alangan people on the island. “We have been opposing mining for a decade, because we feel mining not only threatens food security of Mindoro, but environmental security as well,” he said.

Bishop Warlito Cajandig, who heads Calapan vicariate, in a Jan. 19 Public Statement on the Issue of Mining, described the proposed project as “irresponsible activity, more so if it will be conducted in a critical watershed.”

The bishop quoted Heherson Alvarez, former Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary, who wrote that no measures could prevent “real destruction of this watershed if mining will push through.” Alvarez had canceled an agreement for mining exploration at the site, but the Philippine president´s office revoked his 2001 order in 2005.

Goodland, a former World Bank adviser, told 90 guests at the launch, held at state-run University of the Philippines, that any responsible government should always choose food security over mining.

Citing DENR reports, Wicks pointed out that 90 percent of 190 national watersheds are under-forested — 135 of them having less than 30 percent cover — and all irrigate farm lands.

Goodland said he has neither seen nor heard of any responsible mining operation in the Philippines but that such an operation is not impossible.

In the book, he and Wicks propose 21 recommendations to government, including declaring a moratorium on mining and establishing an independent body to review all existing contentious mining operations.

Father Edwin Gariguez of Mindoro (center, foreground) during the Feb. 4 launch of “Philippines: Mining or Food?,” a book by British environmental experts Robert Goodland and Clive Wicks. Father Gariguez told the gathering that a Norwegian company’s proposed mining projects on Mindoro Island will threaten Oriental Mindoro´s rice supply.

They say no mining should take place in the six sites discussed in their book because it would cause “massive environment problems jeopardizing food security and supplies by damaging agriculture and fisheries.”

The authors also visited sites where local and foreign companies have applied to mine for iron, gold, copper, nickel and cobalt. Companies that have applied for permits include those based in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and the United States.

Their book echoes the Catholic Bishops´ Conference of the Philippines´ call to repeal and replace the 1995 Philippines Mining Act. Saying the law favors foreign or multinational corporations, Goodland and Wicks point out the need for legislation that upholds the rights of indigenous and other people, particularly in relation to mining companies´ use of military personnel and operations.

Government policies should “prioritize food production,” the authors say, and ensure that the agriculture department prevails over the mining bureau. It should suspend conversion of agricultural land and establish a committee to coordinate extractive industries, they say.

They also urge mining corporations to commit in writing to adhere to best practices and international standards of mining. Firms must also ensure free and prior informed consent of affected people, and prepare and budget for mine closure and safe waste disposal when applying for permits, the authors recommend.

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