Filipino and Australian advocates for environmental protection embarked on fact-finding mission to communities affected by Australian mine firms in Bongmal District, South Cotabato and Kasibu Town, Nueva Vizcaya from January 28 to February 3 , 2015.
The team would inspect the impacts of the operation of Australian-owned OceanaGold in Nueva Vizcaya and Glencore-SMI in South Cotabato to the environment and the communities said Peter Brock, chairperson of the Action and Peace for Development in the Philippines (APDP).
Brock said that they would bring the details of the mission result back to Australia to lobby to its leaders “to hold these TNCs (transnational corporations) accountable” later this year.
Both OceanaGold and Glencore-SMI have been granted Financial or Technical Assistance Agreements or FTAAs for their respective mine projects.
In a 2010 Environmental Investigative Mission in areas covered by Glencore-SMI’s Tampakan project in South Cotabato, potential serious impacts such as geological instability, watershed ang agriculture pollution and disturbance, losses of livelihood and militarization were identified. A recent EIM held just last year discovered that the Didipio project of OceanaGold has already caused massive siltation and heavy metals pollution in different river systems.
