Bishop urges Aquino to stop all mining in Eastern Samar

MANILA, Philippines — A Roman Catholic bishop called on the Aquino administration on Thursday to impose a moratorium on mining in Eastern Samar to protect the province’s remaining forests.

Borongan Bishop Crispin Varquez said that several large-scale and small-scale mining operations in the province could not guarantee responsible mining, environment protection and rehabilitation.

“We, in the Diocese of Borongan and other anti-mining organizations are calling for a mining moratorium to fix all these concerns first,” Varquez said in a statement released in Manila by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

The prelate also referred to the “painful reality” that the mining issue has created conflict among residents living with mining operations.

“People are the ones suffering and these very aggressive mining operations here are dividing our people. It’s very painful that communities are divided considering its temporary economic benefits and the irreparable damage mining would create,” he explained.

The bishop cited the case of two small islands such as Homonhon and Manicani, both under the municipality of Guiuan, which have been “threatened” by large-scale mining operations for several years now.

The bishop said people of these islands have been relying heavily on fishing and farming for their food—the land and the waters surrounding their island have been their sources of subsistence. But the environmental destruction brought about the mining operations have affected the people there, through siltation and soil erosion that, in turn, destroyed the marine resources of the island.

Homonhon Island is marked in Philippine history as the place where Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition first dropped anchor before saying the first Mass in Limasawa of Southern Leyte in 1521.

Sadly, said the prelate, the island’s mountains have become denuded and hollowed out by mining.

“Agriculture is affected… people already lack access to safe drinking water. The people are already suffering,” said Vasquez.

In 2003, Eastern Samar’s provincial government, under then Gov. Clotilde Japzon-Salazar, imposed an indefinite moratorium on large scale mining and logging operations in the province.

In 2007, however, former governor and now Rep. Ben Evardone approved an ordinance setting aside sizeable portions of land exclusively to small-scale mining.

To date, small scale mining operations exist in the towns of Salcedo, Llorente, Gen. McArthur, Quinapondan, Hernani and Llorente. All these companies are extracting chromite.