Moratorium on open-pit mining filed in Congress
MANILA, Philippines — A bill seeking to impose a 25-year moratorium (prohibition) on prospective open-pit mining projects was filed on Tuesday at the House of Representatives by Makabayan bloc lawmakers, joined by environmental and indigenous peoples' rights activists.
"A legislated moratorium on open-pit mining is urgently needed because President Duterte's pronouncements of an open-pit mine ban, along with former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez's Department Administrative Order and local ordinances, are being defied by mining corporations," Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment national coordinator Leon Dulce said in a release.
“High-risk open pit projects with atrocious human rights records like the Tampakan and King-King mines must be stopped until such a time when we have a National Industrialization Program that will ensure a needs-based, rights-based, and environmentally safe utilization of our mineral resources.”
The said bill mandates a midterm-review 12 years upon passage.
It was filed on the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 (Republic Act 7942), which, according to green groups “allowed the unbridled destruction by open-pit mines for export for 25 years.”
“The ecosystems and landscapes devastated by 25 years of open-pit mining under the Mining Act must likewise be given 25 years of relief from such destructive methods,” Center for Environmental Concerns - Philippines executive director Lia Alonzo said in a release.
“We must learn from our bitter experiences of ecologically disruptive open-pit mining such as in the Oceanagold mine in Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya and the Philex Padcal mine in Benguet.”
Aside from environmental destruction, groups also pointed out that green activists in the Philippines are vulnerable to attacks.
International watchdog Global Witness in 2019 found that threats against environmental activists in the Philippines are systematic and usually related to “corporate greed.”
In a report, the organization spotlighted rights violations targeting those who oppose destructive coal, agribusiness, mining and tourism projects.
At least 13 environmentalists in the country were victims of extrajudicial killings between July 2016 and July 2019, according to data from human rights monitor Karapatan.
“We have experienced militarization in our ancestral lands in South Cotabato even before the mining project’s commercial ops. At least 12 environmental defenders have been killed since 2001 for opposing the Tampakan mine's threats to our domain's forests, fields, schools, and villages," Lumad youth Alviena Wali from South Cotabato said.
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