MindaNews » 4 Mindanao bishops nix lifting of open-pit mining ban in South Cotabato.

By Bong Montesa
April 4, 2012

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/03 April) – Four senior Catholic prelates in Mindanao have joined hands to shoot down moves to lift the open-bit mining ban in South Cotabato, an imposition that threatens the massive Tampakan copper-gold project.

Cotabato Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Bishop Dinualdo D. Gutierrez of the Diocese of Marbel, Bishop Guillermo Afable of the Diocese of Digos and Bishop Romulo dela Cruz of the Diocese of Kidapawan have petitioned the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of South Cotabato to refrain from amending the open pit mining ban contained in its environment code.

The ban on open-pit mining was seen as an obstacle to the plans of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. to commercially develop the Tampakan project, which has an estimated capital requirement of $5.9 billion.

In June 2010, then governor and now Second District Rep. Daisy Avance Fuentes approved the environment code that bans open pit mining in the province. Pro-mining groups eventually asked the SP to reconsider the ban on open pit mining so that Sagittarius Mines could proceed without a hitch.

The bishops recently filed their petition to the SP with the attached signatures of about 30,000 residents from the four dioceses to maintain the prohibition on open-pit mining.

“We are determined to protect and promote the integrity of God’s creation by not allowing the senseless destruction of 1,087 flora and 289 fauna many of which are endemic to Mindanao,” the bishops said in the resolution.

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