South Cotabato board rejects coal mining

PROTEST In this photo taken in December last year, members of militant and indigenous peoples’ groups stage a protest in front of the South Cotabato provincial capitol in Koronadal City to oppose coal mining and condemn the killing of tribal leaders in the province. —BONG S. SARMIENTO

KORONADAL CITY—Church and environmental watchdog leaders on Monday lauded the decision of the South Cotabato provincial board to reject a coal mining project in the province, where open-pit mining method is banned in the last eight years.

Voting 6-4, the board on June 25 rejected a resolution endorsing a project of Daguma Agro Minerals Inc. (Dami) involving the extraction of coal deposits at Barangay Ned in Lake Sebu town.

Dami’s rights over the coal field, as well as two other concession holders, had been acquired by San Miguel Energy Corp., a subsidiary of San Miguel Corp.

In a statement on Monday, Dami said the board’s “unscheduled, last-minute” voting “did not seem to take into account the social and economic significance of the project and the true wishes of the indigenous peoples of Barangay Ned and Lake Sebu.”

However, the firm said it was “respect[ing] the Sanggunian and its decision.”

Victory

Sister Susan Bolanio, executive director of the Oblates of Notre Dame-run Hesed Foundation Inc., praised the provincial board’s decision, calling it “a victory for the environment and our people.”

“The spirit of God works through time … such decision will unburden [our] already overburdened Mother Earth,” she said.

The coal field is within Kabulnan River Watershed Forest Reserve, a protected area covered by Proclamation No. 241 signed by President Joseph Estrada in 2000.

It lies above Allah Valley Protected Landscape within the ancestral domain of the T’boli-Manobo S’daf Claimants Organization (Tamasco).

In December last year, eight tribal members were killed during a military operation at Barangay Ned, including Datu Victor Danyan, Tamasco chair, who opposed coal mining and coffee plantation expansion projects in the village.

The military claimed that the slain tribal members were either members or supporters of the communist New People’s Army.

But human right groups disputed the military’s version, describing the incident as a “massacre.”

The coal field in Daguma mountain range, which straddles South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces, contains an indicated resource of 150 million tons, according to a detailed resource evaluation conducted by Toquero Geologists and Affiliates more than a decade ago in behalf of Dami.

The provincial board rejected Dami’s bid to excavate 126 hectares of the 2,000-ha Daguma coal field.

Code violation

Board Member Romulo Solivio, a critic of the coal project, said the proposed venture was a violation of the province’s environment code, which prohibited open-pit mining.

Approved in 2010, the legality of the open-pit mining ban of South Cotabato had not been challenged in court by critics.

Dami plans to extract coal deposits using strip mining method, which Solivio noted was similar to open-pit mining.

“It will violate our environment code if we will allow it,” he said.

But Dami said it was “not an open-pit mining project,” noting that the firm intended to extract coal through contour mining, which, it stressed, was a “more environment-friendly method.”

Contour mining

“Contour mining will not result in a big, gaping hole on the ground. Rather, it involves only the removal of soil or ‘overburden’ on top of the coal seam. The soil is then replaced immediately and can be rehabilitated for use in farming and reforestation,” it said.

Dami said it was contracted by the Department of Energy to explore, develop and extract coal in South Cotabato.

“It can be recalled that as early as 2015, Dami was already favorably endorsed by the barangay council of Ned and the Sanggunian Bayan of Lake Sebu,” the statement said.

“In the years that we’ve worked to support the communities in Barangay Ned and the rest of Lake Sebu, and explain to the people what we intend to do, they have always expressed support for the project,” it added.

Diocese of Marbel Bishop Emeritus Dinualdo Gutierrez also praised those who voted against endorsing the project.

“The coal mining operation will be highly destructive. It will bring about serious man-induced dangers such as deforestation and siltation,” Gutierrez said earlier.