DAVAO CITY – Various groups converged in a protest outside the central office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Tuesday to condemn what they say as the “railroading” of large-scale mining project of Australian-Canadian mining firm MRL Gold-Egerton Gold Phils Incorporated.
Environmental activist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) joined local church leaders and environmental advocates from Batangas in a dialogue to warn the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the ecological risks if the Egerton gold mining project pushes through. EMB is the government agency issuing environmental compliance certificates (ECC) to environmentally critical projects.
The group was joined by the Bukluran para sa Inang Kalikasan-Batangas (Bukal Batangas), Archdiocese Ministry on Environment of Batangas (Amen), alongside local fisherfolk organizations and the local resort owners association.
Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE said allowing the mining project will destroy “not only Lobo’s important biodiversity areas, but also the global center ofmarine biodiversity, the Verde Island Passage.”
“The Aquino government and its local counterpart in Batangas are both out of their minds in allowing the Egerton large-scale mining project to push through in the Municipality of Lobo,” Bautista said.
Bautista said Lobo was declared in 1997 as the top fifth of the 18 centers of biodiversity in the Philippines, while international and local scientists have identified the Verde Island Passage as the center of marine biodiversity in the world.
“DENR also identified it as one of the five key marine biodiversity areas in the country. A 2004 study documented 1,736 marine species in just one small section of the Verde Island marine biodiversity corridor,” said Bautista.
Bautista also said the Egerton gold project will be utilizing open-pit mining technology which will result in the production and dumping of millions of metric tons of mine wastes into the Lobo River down to the waters of the Verde Island Passage.
