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[av_heading heading=’Lawyers’ group: Scrap mining law’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY JOHN HEREDIA
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ROXAS City – A group of lawyers in Capiz does not just want the 50-year mining moratorium in the province reinstated.
The Capiz Lawyers for the Environment (CLE) also wants the Mining Act of 1995scrapped.
Thelaw“liberalized and deregulated the Philippine mining industry by allowing 100-percent foreign equity through Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements and 100-percent repatriation of profits and giving tax holiday incentives,”the CLE said in a statement.
“It also gives mining companies full control of the waters, the easement and the timber that are within a mining claim through the water rights, easement rights and timber rights provisions of the law,” said the group.
In pushing for the return of the mining moratorium in Capiz, the CLE said it believes “every Capisnon must protect” the province’s natural resources.
The founding members of the CLE launched the group at the Filamer Christian University on Tuesday.
They were CriseldaAzarcon-Heredia, the lead convener; Cheryl Villa;LeobethDeslate-Delicana;MaritesdelaPieza-Layo; Paul Ivan Baticados; Roy Villa; Enrico Delgado Jr.; and retired judge Juliana Azaraga.
The CLE criticized Provincial Ordinance No. 9 that lifted the moratorium. The SangguniangPanlalawiganpassed the ordinance just this May 11.
The lawyers saidthey cannot “remain placid” over the “threat of toxic waste and possible destruction of the province’s resources.”
“We cannot tolerate the plunder of the province’s resources by foreign multinational corporations,” the CLE said./PN
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