POSITION PAPER ON ECOLOGY, FOOD SECURITY
AND THE THREATS OF LARGE-SCALE MINING OF INTEX RESOURCES/AGLUBANG IN ORIENTAL MINDORO

(Submitted to Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, October 16, 2008)

 
We, pastors of different parishes, leaders of peoples organizations, together with our partners in the civil society, are alarmed by the prevailing situation of ecological crises and imminent destruction of the environment occasioned by a lack of respect for nature and the plunder of our natural resources by large-scale mining, with Mindoro island having a total of 92 mining applications as reported by Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in January 2008.

 
We are particularly concerned about the continuing exploration of the Mindoro Nickel Project of Intex Resources and Aglubang Mining, which critically threatens the food security and ecological integrity of Oriental Mindoro since the mining concession covers one of the province’s actual watershed areas as duly declared and identified in its Provincial Physical Framework Plan. The mining site encroaches on the Mag-asawang Tubig Watershed, which is the largest source of irrigation water for the 40,000 hectares collective rice land in the city of Calapan, Municipalities of Naujan, Baco and Victoria, Oriental Mindoro. The threatened municipalities and the City of Calapan have a combined rice production of 169,608 metric tons in 2006, which is 51% of the total provincial production, enough to feed 782,805 people for a year.  In 2000, the estimated agricultural productivity of Oriental Mindoro at farm-gate price is PhP 11,414,553,000.000. Assuming that mining will adversely affect only 30% of the total productivity, the total loss of the province would be PhP 4.027 Billion!

 
Admittedly, Intex will have to dispose 8 million tons of mine waste annually. According to Jon Petersen, Senior Vice President of Crew (now Intex), land based storage is a environmentally unsafe: “A concern for land based tailings deposit is the risk of erosion and unwanted displacement of the materials as a result of natural hazards, as with all tailings deposits . . .” However, land based tailings dam is now being considered to be constructed in any of the targeted municipalities of Pola, San Teodoro, Pinamalayan and Calapan City.

 
The 9,720 hectare-mining area is within the ancestral domain claim of the Alangan and Tadyawan indigenous Mangyan communities. The mining operation of Intex/Aglubang will result to the displacement of several Mangyan communities.  The Mangyan Indigenous Peoples’ organizations of SANAMA and KAMTI, whose CADCs (Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claims) fall within the mining concession, had expressed their written opposition. However, the mining company, in collusion with some officials of the NCIP, organized a new tribal group, the Kabilogan, from whom they maliciously manufactured the document of consent to the mining activities.

 
The Mindoro Nickel Project threatens the extremely rich biodiversity of the province, considered as the 7^th most important biogeographic zones in the world. The 2002 Final Report on Philippine Biodiversity Conservation identified Mindoro, particularly the mining site, as extremely high conservation priority areas for plants and birds and terrestrial animals. In terms of importance level, the area belongs to extremely high terrestrial and inland water areas of biological importance.

 
In July of 2001, for all of the above reasons, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources revoked the mining concession considering the environmental and social impacts of the project. The rejection of the mining project on the premise of preventing ecological destruction and socio-economic dislocation was articulated by the former DENR Secretary, Heherson Alvarez himself: “The Mindoro Nickel Project is one case where sustainability is bound to fail…President Arroyo is fully aware of the situation. …what does it gain the nation to be short sighted and merely think of money, when an irreparable damage to the environment will cost human lives, health and livelihood capacity of our farmers and fisherfolks endangering the food security of our people.”

 
However, on March 10, 2004, the Office of the President revoked and set aside the Notice of Termination/Cancellation earlier issued against the MPSA (Mineral Production Sharing Agreement) of Aglubang Mining Corporation. The decision of promoting mining, applauded by the foreign transnational corporation, had caused indignation and anguish among our people. The present maneuvering of mining corporations to forcibly make their re-entry by taking advantage of the national policy for the revival of the mining industry is totally irreconcilable to the genuine welfare and interest of the people of Mindoro.

 
The people’s unified stand against the Mindoro Nickel Project and their opposition to the entry of any mining operation in the province, for the time being, were clearly articulated in the Ordinance promulgated by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Oriental Mindoro on January 28, 2002, declaring a mining moratorium in the province. Since the economic thrusts of the Provincial Government of Oriental Mindoro are anchored on food sustainability, eco-tourism and the development of the agri-industry, the entry of mining operations is found to be detrimental to the sustainable development agenda of the province.  Oriental Mindoro’s Provincial Physical Framework Plan specifically rules out the development of mining industry. 

 
We join our people in making an appeal to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ensure that our mining moratorium is respected and to save our critical watershed presently being threatened by the mining operation of Intex and Aglubang Mining.

 
The large-scale mining operations fail to bring genuine development to the poor countries. The World Bank, in its commissioned report, Extractive Industry Review (EIR) released in July 2004 confirmed that extractive industry contributes to greater poverty rather than easing it! The report reveals that “countries relying primarily on extractive industries tended to have higher levels of poverty, conflict and corruption than countries that had more diversified economy.”

 
As Christians committed to our vision to promote life, justice and equity in an ecologically sustainable and people-oriented communities, we believe that environment should never be sacrificed - that “an economy respectful of the environment will not have the maximization of profit as its only objective, because environmental protection cannot be assured solely on the basis of financial calculations of cost and benefits. The environment is one of those goods that cannot be adequately safeguarded or promoted by market forces.” (John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 40)

 
We entrust all our endeavors to God, our Creator, who gives us the mission to care for the earth and all of creation, of which we are part (Gen. 1:28).