A photo exhibit mounted today at the North Wing Lobby of the House of Representatives shows the actual situations on the effects of mining in the country.
The exhibit dubbed “Mining in the Philippines” is in time with the 20th year of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 on March 3.
According to Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate, the government’s push for more large scale mining “would only result to more cases of land grabbing and human rights violations.”
The group Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) said that five of the six Financial Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) were located within the ancestral lands of the indigenous people.
607, 779 hectares of ancestral lands are encroached by more than 60 percent of all mining permits approved by the government, KAMP said.
Zarate said they are pushing for the approval of the People’s Mining Bill to “reorient the utilization of our natural resources towards genuine economic growth.”
