MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 20, 2014) – Environmental group Alyansa Tigil Mina has urged the Aquino government to stop the issuance of new mining permits and prioritize the passage of the Alternative Minerals Management Bill.
“It is a fact that mining disasters are no end in sight with the current policy in mining industry through the Mining Act of 1995. Back in 1988, the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines issued a letter on the environment, What Is Happening to Our Beautiful Land? In this letter, the CBCP lamented the onslaught being perpetrated against the environment nationwide,” Jaybee Garganera, National Coordinator of Alyansa Tigil Mina, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Garganera said the many communities and people are affected by large-scale mining activities and that their rights are violated with impunity.
“The testimonies of mining affected communities of Marinduque and Compostela Valley paint a picture of the gravity of environmental degradation and human rights violations brought by the large scale mining in these areas,” Garganera said.
These conditions, he said, impair the communities rights to adequate housing, safe water and to an environment that does not harm their well-being. The past nineteen years since the Mining Act of 1995 enacted, it is very disheartening to witness the worsening rural poverty and continuing disaffection of mining affected communities on mining.”
Garganera said his group and the CBCP are calling for a moratorium on the issuance of new mining permits and the passage of the Alternative Minerals Management Bill.
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