Church groups gather 100K signatures vs mining firm

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines—Church groups have collected at least 100,000 signatures as proof that more people are against the planned large-scale mining of Xstrata’s Sagittarius Mines Inc (SMI).

Fr. Joy Peliño, director of the Social Action Center of the Marbel Diocese, said Sunday that based on the outcome of the signature campaign, more people are now aware and against the SMI operation.

He said the signatures were collected in South Cotabato and in the dioceses of Kidapawan, North Cotabato and Digos, Davao del Sur.

The mining project covers over 20,000 hectares of forest lands in the middle of a watershed area.

Lawyer Mario Maderazo, project officer of Philippine Misereor Partnership, a development agency of the Catholic Church based in Aachen, Germany, said if SMI commences its operation, water resources that are essential to people and agriculture, will be affected, leaving thousands of farmers and fishermen with no means to earn a living.

“It will damage four river systems comprising the province of South Cotabato, North Cotabato and Davao del Sur. They need huge amount of waters.

People are not aware of what will happen so we made a 3D map to show the extent of SMI mining,” he said.

“We need a degree of precaution. We all know that once they contaminated the water, that’s irreversible,” he added.

He said the Philippines is one of the 18 mega diverse countries in the world with majority of plants and animals species unique and could not be found anywhere else. The country’s species are among the world’s top 10 in terms of endemism.

“Irrigation systems will be affected and, of course, the food production. Endemic species will eventually transfer but the point is that there are certain species that are prone to disturbance. The problem now is that there are species that have not been discovered yet in the area,” the lawyer added.

Lawmakers in South Cotabato have passed a resolution banning open pit mining in the province. The ban, formulated by the provincial board early this year, was seen as the biggest stumbling block to the operation of Xstrata, through its subsidiary Sagittarius Mines Inc.

In an earlier interview in Pagadian City, Mark Williams, SMI general manager, said they would show the provincial board members that if approved, the firm”s operations would be environmentally sound.

“We will continue with our disclosure of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) to the board members,” he told the Inquirer.

Williams said the province’s Environmental Code, which bans open-pit mining in the province, is “at the moment” not a stumbling block to SMI’s operations.

“But it remains a concern to us and we believe that through open dialogue and disclosure of our EIA, the plans, the mitigation measures, that people’s concerns will be alleviated and that there will an appropriate change in the environmental code that will allow open-pit mining,” Williams said.

Williams also said the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project would contribute some P134 Billion (GDP) to the country’s economy.

“If approved, we believe the project can enable a better future for the people of Southern Mindanao, make significant contribution to the Philippines as a whole and establish a blue-print for large scale modern mineral development in the Philippines,” he said.

Williams said the proposed mine is estimated “to yield an average of 375,000 tons of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold per annum over a 17-year mine life.”

He also said over 10,000 workers will be employed “at the peak” of the construction phase of the project, while some 2,000 others will be hired if and when the firm starts operations.