PRESS RELEASE

August 18, 2010

Manila – President Aquino was urged yesterday by various environmental organizations to “turn green” and herald the use of sustainable development as a guidepost for his “tuwid na daan” (righteous road) policy. The assertion was issued in reaction to the statement issued by ten mining companies last week, urging the President to resolve the stand-off in the controversial Tampkan mining project in South Cotabato.

Press Release

Cantilan, Surigao del Sur, August 2, 2010:  Mayor Genito B. Guardo of Cantilan denied the mining company’s application for a business permit for a second time, telling Marcventures Mining Development Corporation (MMDC) that it has no legal basis to apply for a business permit.

PRESS STATEMENT

26 July 2010

IPs not impressed with P-Noy Sona, proceed with their own State of the Indigenous Peoples Address

Lantapan, Bukidnon - Close to a hundred Indigenous Peoples representatives from Luzon and Mindanao gathered at the Apu Agbibilin Community Center in Brgy. Songco listened to President Benigno Aquino’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) and found it wanting.

LANTAPAN, BUKIDNON—Some 100 indigenous peoples (IP) leaders representing lumad communities all over the country gathered here to forge an IP Agenda for the newly inaugurated Aquino administration.

Dubbed as the State of the Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA ’10 kicked off yesterday at the Hall of Peace, Sungco, Lantapan town, here in Bukidnon. The opening coincides with the first State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III.

Press release

July 23, 2010

Koronadal City – Indigenous Peoples belonging to the T’boli tribe in Brgy. Ned. Lake Sebu, South Cotabato decry resent government inaction of their almost two decade-long that they (will) be allowed to live peacefully inside their ancestral territories.

Datu Victor Danyan, Chairperson of the T’boli-Manubo Sdaf Claimants Organization (TAMASCO) speaking in the dialect said that “the government is hurting us more by not listening and by not respecting our decisions not to allow mining or any other so-called development projects in our ancestral land”.

Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM)/Philippine Misereor Partnership, Inc., Anti-Mining Campaign (PMP-AMC)

PRESS RELEASE

July 17, 2010

Manila – Various groups criticized the DENR today, for pushing for a compromise deal on the controversial Tampakan mining project in South Cotabato.  Sec. Ramon Paje was quoted yesterday in major dailies, that the “DENR will protect the investment” in the threatened mining project.  According to Paje, the marching order for him was to find a “win-win solution” to this issue.  The Province of South Cotabato formalized its passage of its Environment Code last June 28, putting a ban on open pit mining.   The local code has effectively put in limbo one of the largest mining project in the country.  It is expected that owners and operators of the mining project will question the legality of the local ordinance to the Supreme Court.

Press Release

July16, 2010

Koronodal City – SoCSKSARGEN Climate Action Now (SCAN) calls on the President Aquino (PNoy) to never compromise the welfare of the people, the environment and the future in its effort to find a “win-win” solution between SMI-XsTRATA’s Tampakan Copper Gold Project (TGCP) which plans to use an open pit mining method and the Local Government of South Cotabato who passed an ordinance banning open pit mining elsewhere in the province.

LRC-KsK/FoE-Philippines Press Release

July 15, 2010

“The South Cotabato Environment Code is one of the few brilliant pieces of legislation that came out of the dark period of the Arroyo administration.  President Aquino would do well in his vow to correct injustices of past administrations by respecting and protecting the Code. There should absolutely be no compromise on environmental and people’s rights.” This is the response of Judith Pamela Pasimio, Executive Director of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC-KsK/FOE-Philippines) to the news that P-Noy would strive to work out a compromise among concerned parties on the South Cotabato provincial ordinance.