Local Church up in Arms vs Mining Operations in Catanduanes

LEGAZPI CITY, Sept. 19, 2009-The local Church in Catanduanes is up in arms in opposition to the proposed mining operations in the province claiming the activity will lead to environmental destruction.

Virac Bishop Manolo Delos Santos registered his flock's opposition to the proposed mining operations in Catanduanes at a public hearing conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Senator Jamby Madrigal at Pepperland Hotel, this city, to investigate a mining contract granted to a mining company without public consultation.

The Department of Energy had earlier awarded a coal mining contract to Monte de Oro Mining Corporation but failed to ask the people's consent regarding the activity.

Interviewed by CBCPNews immediately after the public hearing late Friday afternoon, Bishop Delos Santos said a parishioner informed him of the operations of a mining firm in their locality.

"I immediately ordered the parish priest to look into the report who requested his parish council president to verify the raw information gathered," the prelate said.

The parishioners took pictures of the drilling and exploration activities being made in the area.

"It was during that time that I got convinced that there were mining activities being made in the hinterlands," he further said. He added it was then that he informed the residents of the real situation.

He expressed his concerns because mining has more adverse effects than benefits to both environment and the people.

Delos Santos said the mining company assured him and Madrigal's committee that they would stop their exploration activities since they failed to get the community's approval.

"They promised they would not push through with their operations," the prelate said.

Former Senator Francisco S. Tatad, a Catanduanes native and principal author of the Mining Act of 1995 said it is a standard requirement for every company or any business to seek the people's consent and welfare before embarking on any endeavor.

"You have a small province whose genetic bank is reputedly one of the richest in the country, the biodiversity there has attracted the scientific attention of a big community so you just don't enter a place like that without any consultation with the people," he said.

"All the more you need to conduct consultations," the former lawmaker added.

However, he also said one cannot just lay the blame on the mining company alone, you also lay the blame on government agencies that grant permits for exploration and other things.

He said government agencies should inform the people of the parties interested in exploration activities.

Tatad said some people in government believe that exploration activities no longer require consultation because it would only be required after one has determined there is a reserve that justifies mining operations.

"If this is the procedure, which I think it is, it is a very faulty one because by the time you have determined the reserves it becomes legal tender and you defend it to the death so you start corrupting people here and there just to get your authority to develop the mine," the former lawmaker explained.

He added that people would then be surprised that mining operations have already begun because explorations have already been made without their knowledge and consent.

It would do the government well to require consultations every stage of the way beginning with exploration, he said.

Tatad described the power point presentation on the ill effects of mining in Rapu-Rapu town where Lafayette Mining Corporation operates as quiet useful.

He described the presentation as most authoritative, a very comprehensive one which shows what has happened to the community which the media failed to report.