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Friday, October 27, 2017
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BACOLOD City – An environmentalist priest criticized the planned lifting of the ban on open-pit mining.
Environment secretary Roy Cimatu hopes the prohibition – imposed by his predecessor, Regina Paz Lopez – will be lifted before the year ends, after the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) voted to reverse the policy.
Open-pit mining will displace upland dwellers and cause more environmental destruction, according to Father Alvin Lacson, convener of Defend Our Patrimony.
It is a “destructive means of unearthing precious metals,” the reason that it is banned in other countries, particularly in developed ones, said Lacson, who belongs to Iglesia Filipina Independiente.
Stressing that open-pit mining “does not bring real development in the countryside,” Lacson said the MICC’s decision “tramples” on the right of Filipinos, particularly the indigenous communities, which will be “greatly affected” by the activity.
Cimatu is a cochairman of the interagency MICC along with Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III.
“We at the Defend Our Patrimony do not oppose progress, but progress should be felt by ordinary folks, and not only by multinational companies that own mining firms,” said the priest.
After Lopez’s appointment as Environment secretary was rejected, a giant mining company showed up in Palawan, banning the governor and the mayor of the host local government from entering their site, Lacson claimed.
“It is a clear manifestation that the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is not for the people,” he said./PN
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