Mining as ticket to progress is mere lip service: VM

But Duterte, also a former government prosecutor, said even if the city government will enact an ordinance to prevent the entry of mining companies, it cannot ?€œovercome?€ the national policy which allow mining.

Even then, he added, mining companies will still find it difficult for them to enter the city because the city government has the right to refuse the granting of their permits.

In the attempt to push for preventing mining activities in the city, Third District Rep. Isidro T. Ungab filed a resolution before the House of Representatives to declare the city ?€œmining free.?€

That order, Duterte said, ?€œwill prevent the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to allow mining in the city.?€

Mines and Geosciences-Davao Region Director Edilberto L. Arreza earlier said there were companies that wanted to explore the city for mines, but the city government rejected them all.

Duterte said often, it is the mining firms that get rich at the expense of ordinary Filipino miners.

?€œWhen the big corporations leave, we are left with nothing but empty bags of heartaches,?€ he said.

Duterte said that Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio shares his advocacy in preserving the environment and protecting the people. ?€œMining destroys our land and our forests.  It will leave us nothing but problems in law and order, ?€œhe said.

Repeal law

Organizers of the International Conference on Mining in Mindanao have called on the national government to finally revoke the executive order that seeks to revitalize the mining industry and also repeal the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

The official statement of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) and Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) cited that the present mining act and Executive Orders 270 and 270-A are ?€œanti-Filipino, anti-environment and violative of human rights.?€

The executive orders were penned by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which stated that the ?€œgovernment recognizes the critical role of investments in the minerals industry for national development and poverty alleviation.?€

The official statement of the organizers was issued after the International Conference on Mining in Mindanao last Friday at AdDU. It was published in www.ecoteneo.org, the official website of the forum?€™s organizers.

CEAP, for instance, is an association of 1,252 Catholic member schools in the country.

Amid the need to revoke the executive orders and repeal the mining act, the organizers pushed for the enactment of the consolidated alternative minerals management bill which is still pending in the House of Representatives.

The proposed bill intends to scrap the Philippine Mining Act. The proposal pushes for conservation of non-renewable mineral resources in the country for the benefit of the public and avert further environmental degradation.

?€œWe further call for an immediate mining moratorium and suspension and cancellation, if applicable, of all mining operations, licenses and applications, while the relevant mining policies are being reviewed; and concerned government agencies be held accountable,?€ the official statement added.

The organizers said the government already confessed in its Philippine development plan from 2011 to 2016 that ?€œthere is no standard resource and environment valuation and institutional issues need to be addressed to ensure sustainability of the country?€™s fragile environment and natural resources.?€

(with reports from Carmelito Francisco and Kristianne Fusilero)

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