MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 16, 2013) – The advocacy group on environmental and human rights issues, Alyansa Tigil Mina, has declared that it would campaign against at least 4 senatorial bets and called on other political candidates to take a stand against the current policy on mining.
It said the four senatorial candidates – former senator Richard Gordon and newcomer Jack Enrile, son of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who are both from United Nationalists Alliance, and Sonny Angara, and Cynthia Villar, also from political dynasties, who are now running under Team PNoy – are allegedly acting against the interests of the rural poor.
ATM is demanding that genuine pro-environment candidates must carry the agenda that seek to revise the current mining policy framework. Presently, it said this framework is aggressively promoting liberalization of the mining industry, which results to environmental destruction and violation of human rights.
“Our natural resources and the Filipino people have long been negatively impacted by extractive industries, specifically mining, which the government continues to promote with no regards to mining-affected communities and human rights victims. In light of the upcoming mid-term elections, ATM is calling on candidates to support the passage of the Alternative Minerals Management Bill that seeks to revise the current framework of mining in the country,” Jaybee Garganera, ATM national coordinator, said in a statement to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said the alliance will support candidates who will assert local autonomy and right to protect the environment.
“ATM insists that despite the current administration’s move to address some loopholes in the mining law with the new Executive Order No. 79, s. 2012, there is still no premium given to the right of local governments and the opposition of mining-affected communities to resist large-scale mining operations in the country,” Garganera said.
He said this has been evident in the recent issuance of the environmental compliance certificate for the Tampakan Copper Gold Mining Project last February despite the South Cotabato Environment Code that does not allow open pit mining.
He said ATM is also advocating for candidates to look into and promote the legislative agenda that indigenous peoples from different parts of the country are pushing for.
Garganera added: “Between 10%—12% of the country’s population is composed of indigenous communities who are marginalized. As representatives in the lower and upper house of Congress, we believe that the future legislators should bring into their consciousness the need to recognize and uphold the rights of our indigenous brother and sisters, particularly their right to self-determination.”
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