DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 6, 2014) – Filipino Catholic bishops have written President Benigno Aquino and pleaded to stop the $5.9 billion Tampakan mining project by global miner Xstrata‘s Sagittarius in the southern Philippine province of South Cotabato saying the gold and copper project will dislocated thousands of mostly indigenous tribesmen from their ancestral domain.
The Independent Catholic News reported that bishops, led by new Cardinal and Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, wrote a letter to Aquino recently and asking for a “God-enlightened decision” on the matter.
“The cost, Mr President, will far outweigh the benefits to government and the Filipino people,” said the letter signed by 20 other Catholic bishops and archbishops.
It said the bishops pointed out that the Tampakan mining project is likely to harm the local community and environment. It added the government issued an environmental compliance certificate to Sagittarius in February 2013, despite appeals by various sectors to halt the project.
The report said Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez commented that Aquino ignored the petition of more than 100,000 people to scrap the mining project.
“The church leaders stressed their opposition against the project is based on moral grounds, as well as noting that the destruction of almost 4,000 hectares of forested and agricultural land and biodiversity is, in their view, against the integrity of God’s creation,” it said.
The bishops have long supported a campaign calling on the Philippine government to rescind the Mining Act of 1995 as it claimed the law brings more disasters than benefits, permitting foreign companies to own Philippine minerals. They want more emphasis placed on protecting the environment and the local communities over the desire of large-scale mining companies to rake in profits, the report said.
There was no immediate statement from either Xtrata or Sagittarius, but it is not the only mining firms in Mindanao where communist rebels have threatened to attack.
Just on April 5, suspected New People’s Army rebels swooped down on Philippine Alstron mining company on the village of Tamamarkay in Agusan del Norte’s Tubay town and torched several trucks and other heavy equipment.
The communist rebels also seized at least 6 shot guns and short firearms from the company’s security arsenal. There were no reports of casualties, but the daring assault came following threats made by the NPA on mining firms operating in the southern Philippines.
Just last month, rebel forces attacked a police base and government troops in Davao del Sur’s Matanao as punishment for their “reign of terror” against indigenous tribes and other communities opposing mining operations in the province.
Dencio Madrigal, a spokesman for the NPA-Valentine Palamine Command, said the deadly attacks was a punishment for police and military units protecting Glencore Xstrata. He accused the mining firm of exploiting nearly 100,000 hectares of ancestral lands of indigenous Lumad Blaans tribes, and peasants in the region.
Jorge Madlos, a regional rebel spokesman, also warned mining firms and fruit plantations in the region, saying military operations in Mindanao have escalated and have become more extensive with the aim to thwart the ever growing and widespread people’s protest against destructive mining operations and plantations.
Madlos said among their targets are Russell Mines and Minerals, Apex Mining Corp. and Philco in southern Mindanao; Dolefil, Del Monte and Sumifru plantations in northern Mindanao; TVI Resource Development Philippines in western Mindanao whose operations inside the ancestral domain of indigenous Subanen and Moro tribes are being opposed by villagers and Dipolog City Bishop Jose Manguiran.
NPA and Moro rebels had previously attacked TVI Resources in Zamboanga province. TVI Resource Development Philippines has recently ended its gold mining operation in Mount Canatuan in Zamboanga del Norte’s Siocon town after several years of operations and now has a gold-silver project in the town of Bayog in Zamboanga del Sur province and a nickel plant in Agusan del Norte province, also a known stronghold of the communist rebel group. (Mindanao Examiner)
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