DAVAO CITY – The National Democratic Front of the Philippines on Wednesday praised Environment Secretary Gina Lopez for her firm stand against open-pit mining in the southern region of Mindanao.
Efren Aksasato, a spokesman for the NDFP in Mindanao, said Lopez even stood against the giant Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato province.
“DENR Sec. Gina Lopez is commendable for her remarkably firm stand against open pit mining in the country, as well as her decisive asseveration of the Duterte administration’s disapproval of the controversial and environmentally destructive $5.9-billion Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato,” Aksasato said.
He said Lopez’s announcement to cease the mining operation in Tampakan is congruent with the people’s stand in objecting the “disastrous” open-pit mining project. “Certainly, it is a victory of the democratic mass movement and the unwavering revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside who will never give up the fight in defending the people’s interests and welfare and the protection of the environment,” Aksasato said.
He said there were also many reports of alleged human rights violations raised by indigenous people in South Cotabato, especially within their ancestral domain; and accused government soldiers and para-military forces as behind all these.
Aksasato said the open-pit mining in South Cotabato approved by the past Aquino administration also violated the provincial environment code which prohibits such mining practice because of the hazards it posed to the environment and safety of the people.
“Sec. Lopez’s announcement to cease the mining operation in Tampakan is congruent with the people’s stand in objecting the disastrous and plunderous mining project. Certainly, it is a victory of the democratic mass movement and the unwavering revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside who will never give up the fight in defending the people’s interests and welfare and the protection of the environment Aksasato said.
He said the Aquino government approved on February 2013 the Environment Compliance Certificate of Xstrata-SMI, the operator of Tampakan gold mine project despite massive protests from environmentalists and natives in the province.
But aside from South Cotabato, open-pit mining is also reported in Zamboanga Peninsula where Canadian miner TVI Resource Development, Inc. previously operated inside the Subanen’s ancestral domain in Mount Canatuan in Zamboanga del Norte’s Siocon town. The company is now operating a gold mine in the mountains of Balabag in Bayog town in Zamboanga del Sur province.
He said the rebel group New People’s Army would continue to protect the indigenous people and their ancestral against destructive and large-scale mining activities in the South.
“The New People’s Army and the revolutionary forces in the region are the most reliable allies of the weak and disenfranchised victims of the mining company encroachment and state atrocities. Over the past years, the NPA have carried out several punitive actions against the company, its private armed guards and the AFP and PNP troops protecting its operation,” Aksasato said.
The NPA has been waging a secessionist war for decades now in an effort to overthrow the democratic government and install a Maoist state in the Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)
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