Earth Day Protest
In observance of Earth Day, representatives of mining-affected communities and mining disaster victims from Rapu-rapu, Albay; Rio Tuba, Palawan; Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya; and Boac, Marinduque, gathered with Roman Catholic and…
Underneath Gold?s Glitter, Realities of Suffering, Dispossession
By Grace S. Uddin
DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) ? It?s easy to get mesmerized by the glitter of a gold ring. But there?s a story behind its allure.
It takes the excavation of 20 tons of soil to produce such a ring. Imagine for a second the toll such a process exacts. Destroyed land. Felled trees. Stripped mountains.
In the context of the Philippine countryside, include these: Displaced communities, dispossessed families, violence, even death.
Such is the havoc large-scale mining has wrought in many communities in the Philippine countryside, anti-mining activists said last week.
Cha-Cha to Worsen Economic, Environment Degradation, Says Virador
DAVAO CITY -- Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador said yesterday that the Charter Change being pushed by the Arroyo administration will "give more teeth" to the Philippine Mining Act. This,…
Davao?s Unsafe Beach Resorts Won?t Be Promoted: DOT
Nine beaches in the city failed? water-sampling tests
DAVAO CITY — Despite marketing Davao City as a premier islands-to-highland getaway and a land of cool highlands and sunny beaches, the Department of Tourism in Southern Mindanao will not promote beaches or resorts that fail to pass the safety standards set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
?DOT will not promote unsafe beaches. We respect DENR?s findings,? said Roger Layson, assistant regional director for DOT in Southern Mindanao.
Last Sunday at his weekly television show Gikan sa Masa, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte read a letter from the Center for Health Development Davao Region of the Inter-Regional Inter-Agency Committee. The letter contained the list of nine beaches in the city, which had failed the water-sampling test conducted by the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau.
The beaches were found to have high pathological contamination and indicated severe water pollution. All of these unsafe beaches were located along Davao City?s coastline.
(more…)
Duterte Paves Way for Implementation of Water Code
DAVAO CITY ? After five long years, the Davao City government is finally implementing the Water Resource Management and Protection Code of the city with the release of an executive order creating the body that will finalize the code?s implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, through Executive Order 09, ordered the creation of the joint executive-legislative committee ?to study and review the implementing rules and regulations and recommend revisions and to submit the revised implementing rules and regulations necessary to effectively carry out the provisions of the code.?