LOCAL officials and civil society groups from Oriental and Occidental Mindoro have asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to revoke the environmental compliance certificate issued to a Norwegian company’s nickel project in their province.
In a joint statement presented in a press conference in front of the DENR central office in Quezon City, the Mindoro leaders accused Environment Secretary Joselito Atienza of disregarding the law when he approved on Oct. 14 the ECC for Intex Resources and its local subsidiaries, Aglubang Mining Corp. and Alag-ag Mining.
The law requires, among other things, social acceptability of such projects from stakeholders, especially the local government’s, before the issuance of an ECC.
“Our province has an existing mining moratorium for 25 years issued in 2002. There was no proper consultation with the mining affected communites and no respect for local autonomy upon the issuance of Intex ECC. This is a clear violation of public trust,” Oriental Mindoro Gov. Arnan Panaligan said.
Occidental Mindoro Gov. Josephine Ramirez-Sato said former Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez revoked in 2001 the mining concession of the Mindoro Nickel Project (MNP) based on environmental and social impacts.
“He then acknowledged the importance to protect Mindoro’s critical watersheds and food security, and the lack of social acceptability of the project, in which President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was made fully aware of,” she said.
The MNP covers one of the province’s watershed areas, which has been identified in the Oriental Mindoro Provincial Physical Framework Plan.
Oriental Mindoro Rep. Alfonso Umali Jr. said Intex’s mining exploration site encroaches on the Mag-asawang Tubig Watershed, the largest source of irrigation water for the 40,000 hectares of rice lands in Calapan City and the towns of Naujan, Baco and Victoria, Oriental Mindoro.
“The livelihood of the Mindoreños is stake,” he said.
On Tuesday, 25 Mindoreños, most of them from Mangyans, went on an indefinite hunger strike outside the DENR central office to oppose large-scale mining in the province.
The tribe has a certificate of ancestral domain claim (CADC) to the land. “Securing our CADC was not an easy task for us indigenous peoples. With our CADC, we felt empowered thinking no one can just enter our lands without securing a genuine free, prior and informed consent from our tribe,” said Librada Isidro, tribal leader of Mangyan Alangan. “However, it is really disheartening to know that with just one signature from Secretary Atienza, all those hard efforts invested in our CADC were ridiculed.”