Likas-Yaman caravan: Pass the Alternative Minerals Management Bill!

IPs, farmers, fisherfolks and church leaders bring their calls before the 15th Congress

Two thousand supporters from communities in Metro Manila joined the 350-strong leaders of indigenous communities, farmers, fisherfolks and church leaders and marched towards the House of Representatives to call on legislators to pass the Alternative Minerals Management Bill (AMMB).

Today is the last day of a 4-day caravan, which started last October 14 from Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya and culminates today. Part of the whole day program will be a stopover at the House of Representatives to have a dialogue with House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. and at the same time hold a creative action outside.

The dialogue is in time for the deliberation and consolidation of the minerals management bills currently lodged at the House Committee on Natural Resources set to be discussed and adopted this afternoon.

Long-time champions of AMMB – Reps. Teddy Brawner Baguilat, Carlos Padilla, Kaka Bag-ao, Walden Bello, Rufus Rodriguez, and Erin Tañada will be joining the representatives of the contingent in the dialogue.

“I call on my fellow legislators to urgently pass the alternative minerals management bill that would repeal the Mining Act of 1995,” Rep. Baguilat said. He further reiterates, “it is time to correct the historical injustices committed against indigenous peoples and give due justice to their struggles. We should throw away our long standing colonial framework in mineral extraction and institute a rational needs-based mineral governance that would cater to our sustainable development.”

Carmen Ananayo, an IP woman from Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya, also said that the passage of AMMB is pro-women because with mining, violence in affected communities escalates and the indigenous women are the first to become victims of this aggression.

Apart from the passage of AMMB, the contingent also calls for the following: (1) revocation of the FTAAs of OceanaGold Philippines Inc for the Didipio Gold and Copper Project and SMI/Xstrata for the Tampakan Copper Gold Mining Project and (2) moratorium on all large-scale mining operations in the country.

After the dialogue with legislators, the contingent will meet more supporters from different stops (Sto. Domingo Parish, Welcome Rotonda and UST, España. From this point, the Likas-Yaman caravan contingent will march towards Malacañang in Mendiola with the aim of a dialogue with President Nonoy Aquino III.

The Mendiola program will start with a mass and continue with a cultural night.

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SOS-Yamang Bayan Network is a national, multi-sectoral movement is composed of mining-affected communities, national peoples alliances, environmental organizations and networks, church-based organizations, human rights organizations, national NGOs, sectoral organizations from the indigenous peoples, youth, women, farmers, Congressional representatives, known leaders and personalities advocating for the repealing of the Mining Act of 1995 and the enactment of the Alternative Minerals Management Bill.

For more information, contact the SOS-Yamang Bayan Network Secretariat through
Gerry Arances, 0939.241.5575, gerry.arances@lrcksk.org
Farah Sevilla, 0915.331.3361, policy@alyansatigilmina.net

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