MANILA, Philippines—Support is coming in for Mangyans who have gone on hunger strike to protest a big mining operation in Mindoro province.

Activist priest Father Robert Reyes will lead a “run-walk” at the Quezon City Memorial Circle on Sunday to show his solidarity with the hunger strikers, who want to put a stop to the mining operations of the Norwegian company Intex Resources and its local partners.

The Mangyans and activists are protesting the project because they said it would destroy a watershed area and the places were the Mangyan reside. They also said no proper public consultation was conducted.

The strikers, who have set up camp outside the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, also received support from Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who said he did not want the nickel mining activities to destroy the province's resources.

“Mining is not per se bad. But I'm supporting the stand of the local government units and those opposed to mining in Mindoro because [mining operations] target the area of the watershed... Water sources would be depleted and whatever amount would be left would be affected by toxic waste,” Pimentel said at the Kapihan sa Sulo forum.

Intex officials have maintained that environmental studies and public consultations were conducted. It also conducted socioeconomic and cultural heritage assessment studies, it said. It also contended that consultations were conducted in October 2008 in Victoria, and in two separate dates in May 2009 in Pola and Mamburao.

The 25 hunger strikers that include Mangyans and activists have decided to continue their action against Intex despite the DENR's decision to suspend the firm's environmental compliance certificate for 90 days.

The DENR also asked Intex to submit documentation to prove that it held proper public consultations on their operations, and that the mining site was not a watershed area.

The hunger strikers have said that the suspension of Intex's environmental compliance certificate was inadequate because it gives the mining company a chance to operate again. The strikers want the ECC to be cancelled.

Mindoro Vice Governor Estela Aceron, who also spoke at the Kapihan sa Sulo forum, said the DENR directive to Intex showed that the department issued the ECC earlier even if the Norwegian company did not have the proper documents.

“We are saddened that they issued the ECC on October 14, 2009 even though the documents of Intex Resources were incomplete. Why did they issue the ECC when they are only now asking for documentation? That's against the law.... There must be prior consultation,” Aceron said.

“It's like we're being used so that they could complete their requirements,” she said.

The country's mining law provides that for an ECC to be issued, there must be prior consultation with local government units, the community and other concerned sectors.

Aceron also pointed out that Oriental Mindoro has a 25-year mining moratorium, which began in 2002, while eight municipalities in Occidental Mindoro have passed anti-mining ordinances.

“The ECC shouldn't have been issued in the first place because the requirements of social acceptability were absent. At the same time, we have the local ordinances,” she added.

Mayor Eric Constantino of the municipality of Abra de Ilog also said the DENR issues permits for mining operations before the local government units have been consulted, and this results in clashes.

Constantino said DENR Secretary Lito Atienza had once told them that in situations like this, it was up to the local governments to stop the mining. But Constantino said this would just result in chaos, and big mining firms could use their vast resources to wage a massive public relations blitz to promote their operations.

Aceron said that in opposing the mining operations, the Mindoro residents were just trying to protect their environment so that the province would not suffer the same fate as Metro Manila when tropical storm Ondoy struck. Most of Metro Manila was submerged in floodwaters which claimed hundreds of lives and damaged billions worth of property.

The province could not handle the devastation that mining activities could bring, especially since some of its communities are vulnerable to flooding, she added.

Mangyan leader Ponyong Kadlos also lamented that it seemed easy for Intex to get an ECC from the DENR while the Mangyan people have been trying for years to get an ancestral domain title over the land they and their ancestors have been occupying for decades.