Protest caravan pushes for responsible and nationalized mining industry at the National Mining Conference Environmental activists from the Defend Patrimony Alliance are joined today by various protest caravans from large-scale mining-affected communities to meet the opening of the national mining conference with calls for a moratorium on mining approval and the advancement of a pro-people mining policy.

“While the nation’s mining magnates and foreign corporations have gathered to talk shop, the people have gathered here to advance a pro-people, pro-environment mining policy that would benefit our economy and communities,” said Clemente Bautista, convenor of Defend Patrimony.

The Mining Philippines 2011 Conference is organized by the Philippine Chamber of Mines with the objective of discussing to over 500 local and international delegates the investment opportunities in the mining industry. Defend Patrimony stressed the protest at the conference’s opening is not in opposition to mining and foreign investment per se, but to foreign-dominated and export-oriented production of the industry.

“By just having a revenue-transparent and domestic-oriented mining production we could have saved billions of pesos that could have been used for local development and social services,” said Bautista. “The prevalence of corruption and non-transparency in the industry, mining companies under report their production to evade taxes and short change the government.”

In 2007, the Mines and Geoscience Bureau (MGB) reported that gross production value in metallic mining was at P81.4 billion, but total metallic exports were at P112.015 billion, a discrepancy of more than thirty billion.

Protest caravans against destructive mining

Indigenous peoples and fisherfolks hailing from Nueva Vizcaya and Cagayan travelled to Metro Manila to join the protest action, bringing to fore the issues of unabated magnetite and large-scale mining operations in their areas.

“We came here to push for the pullout of destructive mining operations from Nueva Vizcaya, which continue to operate despite the opposition of the local government units and a recommendation from the Commission on Human Rights early this year to revoke their permit,” said indigenous leader Deacon Lawrence Amwao, chairman of the Multisectoral Group against Mining.

“We are direct stakeholders in that we are victims of mining aggression, yet our voices are left out of consideration in this conference.”

The group also decried the continuing magnetite mining operations by Chinese mining corporations across the river shores and coasts of Cagayan, despite opposition mounting directly from the communities and local governments.

People’s mining bill pushed

The protestors are also advocating for a new  mining policy through HB 4315 or the People’s Mining Bill, which seeks to reorient the country’s current policy on the ownership and management of the industry towards national industrialization and local development. According to scientists’ group Advocates of Science and Technology for the People or AGHAM, the pattern of foreign miners’ profiteering at the expense of the local economy will persist without a national industrialization plan as framework.

“If we truly want responsible mining in the Philippines, we should do away with the Mining Act of 1995 and pave for the passage of the pro-people People’s Mining Bill,” said Dr. Giovanni Tapang, national chairperson of AGHAM. “A mining industry that is not responsible to the needs of the Filipino people will only contribute to the deepening of poverty and the chronic economic crisis.”

After its action at the conference opening, the protest caravan will proceed to the offices of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

KALIKASAN PEOPLE’S NETWORK FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

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