Media Coverage

Quezon City, Philippines – The Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. demands from DENR Sec. Roy Cimatu an immediate investigation on the 12-Year Extension granted to Sagittarius Mines, Incorporated (SMI) and the Tampakan Mining Group for its Tampakan Copper and Gold Project as executed by Leo Jasareno, former Director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau..

The Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. demands from DENR Sec. Roy Cimatu an immediate investigation on the 12-Year Extension granted to Sagittarius Mines, Incorporated (SMI) and the Tampakan Mining Group for its Tampakan Copper and Gold Project as executed by Leo Jasareno, former Director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau. According to the MGB Order, the 12-year extension was due to “Force Majeure” or “acts or circumstances beyond the reasonable control of contractor,” underscoring the following circumstances in the SMI case: rebellion, insurrection, civil disturbance, blockade, sabotage, any dispute with surface owners, and adverse action.

During an Ash Wednesday gathering of environmental activists in Manila, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos said the faithful need to see “ecological sin as the rupture of relationships.” “This sin has triple layers, against God, human beings, and the rest of creation,” the prelate said in his keynote speech at the general assembly of the Philippine Misereor Partnership, Inc., a network of civil society groups and faith-based institutions.

The overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Germany, Misereor, has stepped down as co-convenor of Philippine-Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI), saying the role is no longer necessary. The withdrawal was announced by Steffen Ulrich, Misereor’s Philippine desk officer, during the PMPI’s general assembly in Manila on Feb. 26. However, Misereor remained committed to its role as a partner and donor of the PMPI, Ulrich said.”

MANILA – For more than two decades, anti-mining groups and indigenous communities in the southern Philippines have opposed a massive mining project there, blocking it both in the courts and on the ground. The permit was set to end on March 12 this year — but before the detractors could rejoice, they learned it had won a 12-year extension, issued three years ago but only made public last October. “It was done under the radar of the community, there was no public consultation,” Macki Maderazo of the Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI), a church-based network of civil society organizations, told Mongabay. “Presumably, the ones who would know first are the civil society groups … but nobody heard about the extension or of the application for the extension until last year.”

For more than two decades, anti-mining groups and indigenous communities in the southern Philippines have opposed a massive mining project there, blocking it both in the courts and on the ground. The permit was set to end on March 12 this year — but before the detractors could rejoice, they learned it had won a 12-year extension, issued three years ago but only made public last October. “It was done under the radar of the community, there was no public consultation,” Macki Maderazo of the Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI), a church-based network of civil society organisations, told Mongabay. “Presumably, the ones who would know first are the civil society groups … but nobody heard about the extension or of the application for the extension until last year.”

Rather than be enlightened and feel safe, people have become more frustrated and confused, following President Rodrigo Duterte’s press conference last 12 March 2020 as indicated in many social media postings. The press conference was most awaited given the prior announcement by the World Health Organization that the spread is now pandemic and the continuing increase of monitored numbers in the country. People expected to hear the government’s plans to manage the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

HOMONHON ISLAND, Philippines — The Philippine government has allowed a ship to dock on the island of Homonhon to take on a cargo of chromite ore, overriding local authorities who had earlier denied the vessel entry amid a province-wide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents of Homonhon, in the central Philippine archipelago of Visayas, had received reports in March that the MV VW Peace, a general cargo ship listed in Panama and with a crew of Chinese and Myanmar nationals, planned to dock at the island’s Cantilado Pier. It was reportedly due to collect 7,000 tonnes of chromite and other mineral ore with an estimated value of $1.2 million from Techiron Resources Inc.’s 1,500-hectare (3,700-acre) mining site.

AS a Chinese mining firm secured the green light from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to resume loading operation from Homonhon Island, Eastern Samar Governor Ben P. Evardone said quarantine protocols to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) was grossly violated. Worse, Evardone said, the DENR personnel tasked to monitor the loading operation to ensure that health protocols are observed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 have abandoned their posts. He said the DENR left the Chinese crew and their local counterparts on their own.

Almost every morning during these COVID-19 lockdown weeks, I have been posting on Facebook the front page of the digital version of the Inquirer. For the computer illiterate, the Inquirer digital version is exactly what the day’s newspaper looks like, and you can flip the pages with your finger on the touchscreen of your gadget. It is best to read on a tablet while you are having your breakfast coffee. You have to be a subscriber to access the entire issue. Oh, but I must say that there is nothing like the smell of the news and the day’s Sudoku on real paper. Alas, there has been no delivery for more than a month now. When the Inquirer came out with the editorial “Betraying Homonhon” last Tuesday, I wanted to immediately share the stand-alone online version, but it was not yet uploaded so I took a screenshot of the Opinion page and posted it. An hour later, the free online version was up.

The Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI) on Tuesday urged the Duterte administration to enforce the quarantine rules on mining companies, alleging that some mining firms committed quarantine violations in Luzon. According to the PMPI, the DENR must rethink its framework of environmental protection that is more sustainable as it cited studies that revealed that most of the diseases induced by virus come from animals and the wild, and that the phenomenon of deforestation is largely due to mining and agribusiness companies.

“We are now in both a climate and a health crisis. Both threaten human life, ”says Yolanda Esguerra of the civil society network PMPI from the Philippines. The MISEREOR partner organization is convinced that fundamental social change is long overdue. A change in our way of doing business as well as our habits and ways of life. A change with which we redefine our relationship with nature. Ways for more sustainability and social justice At the moment there are repeated calls that climate policy should be postponed in view of the Corona crisis. But they seem to fade away. Because the current situation makes us aware of how vulnerable and fragile our globalized system is, which is geared towards short-term economic gains instead of the common good of the people and the preservation of our livelihoods.