As the Marcos Jr. administration ramps up its promotion of mining and processing of critical minerals necessary for renewable energy development, communities across the Philippines have raised the alarm over the impending mining boom in their localities and calling for urgent protections.
“The risks posed by the transition minerals boom to local communities are high with an estimate 60% of our mineral reserves overlapping with ancestral domains, and five kinds of transition minerals present across these lands. It is urgent for the Marcos administration to enact robust policy safeguards for the rights, welfare, and environment of mining-affected communities,” said Maya Quirino, advocacy coordinator of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) and coordinator of the multi-sectoral alliance SOS Yamang Bayan Network, which is calling for a just minerals transition.
Representatives and supporters of communities from Palawan, Romblon, South Cotabato, and Surigao del Sur discussed issues and concerns involving transition minerals in their respective areas held at the SOS Yamang Bayan General Assembly today, October 14, 2024, in Quezon City.
“In the triboundary area of the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in Mindanao, various sectors we represent ranging from the clergy of the Diocese of Marbel to the Indigenous B’laan, down to farmer-irrigators across the affected watersheds continue to be blindsided by the Mine. In an obvious bid to fast track mine development and meet the historic high global demands for copper, the Tampakan Mine was able to extend its FTAA contract by overriding constitutional safeguards and prior public consultations and consent,” said Atty. Rolly Peoro, Direct Legal Services Coordinator of LRC.
LRC served as legal counsel to petitioners led by Diocese of Marbel Bishop Cerilo Casicas who recently filed a Certiorari case against the illegal extension of the Tampakan Mine’s FTAA.
Meanwhile, Christel Yparrraguirre, a member of the Baywatch Foundation based in the Caraga region, said “Caraga as the mining capital region of the Philippines makes it also a hotspot of violence against environmental human rights defenders who resist the multitude of nickel and other mines here. Just recently, an anti-mining barangay chair and his companion were shot dead last September, joining the ranks of hundred of defenders whose killings remain unresolved.”
As a testimony to actual ongoing impacts in nickel mine sites, Atty. Gerthie Mayo-Anda, executive director of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center based in Palawan, shared that “indigenous people and small farmers continue to suffer from constant pollution, health impacts, water and livelihood disruption, and other ecological impacts from various nickel mining projects in the province. This is unsurprising as the nickel mines in Palawan continue to operate in the face of existing laws declaring all natural forests as core zones."
A community leader from Romblon shared the same experience in the face of a nickel mine similarly cutting corners on regulatory compliance. “It took a people’s barricade in order for public authorities to finally heed longstanding complaints against the lack of permits and other regulatory requirements of the Altai Philippines Mining Corporation on the island of Sibuyan last year. Barricading residents were hurt in the process, and since then a number of our leaders and supporters have faced strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) that aim to discourage us from continuing our resistance,” said Elizabeth Ibanez, coordinator of the Sibuyanons Against Mining.
“These testimonies speak truth to power on the need for the long-proposed Alternative Minerals Management Bill, a national legislation that would transform our minerals governance by balancing the need for minerals with environmental, social, and economic considerations. The bill is anchored in the climate justice discourse and rationalizes mining under a national industrialization framework, with designated no-go zones and empowerment of local government and community decision making,” Quirino said.
Comments