The Environmental Compliance
Certificate (ECC) of the Sagittarius Mining Inc. that was cancelled by then
DENR Sec. Regina Lopez and technically invalidated because of
non-implementation beyond the 5-year limit, was said to have been resurrected
from the grave by the Office of the President.
The Philippine Misereor
Partnership, Inc. (PMPI) stand with the Blaan communities, NGOs and Peoples
Organizations, and the Diocese of Marbel in the belief that the Tampakan
Copper-Gold Project (TCGP) will not only bring devastation to the lives and
culture of indigenous and rural communities, but will bring environmental
destruction to the five ancestral domains of the Blaans, four provinces South
Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur, rainforests, shrub
lands, and agricultural lands.
If the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project
commences, it will cause the degradation of water catchment of Mt. Matutum and
its six (6) rivers Altayan, Dalal, Manit, Mal, Manteo and Taplan, with farmers
and irrigators, fisherfolks and some 40,000 Muslims dependent on freshwater
from Lake Buluan negatively impacted. The project could also induce disaster as
the proposed mine site will be on top of the Cotabato Fault Zone a
West-Northwest Strike slip fault Zone and a Stratovolcano1.
WE are dismayed and surprised
that the Office of the President, as informed by the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources – Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) Region 12
Director Omar Saikol in an article published by MindaNews, that Sagittarius
Mines, Inc. ECC was “reacquired”2.
The ECC for the Tampakan
Copper-Gold Project was approved during DENR Secretary Ramon Paje’s time. The
approval came with requirements that should be fulfilled by SMI, one of which
is the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) from Indigenous Peoples living
within the ancestral domains that will be affected by the TCGP. Until now, no
consent was fully given by the Blaans contrary to SMI’s claim that all did.
WE believe that the
resurrection of the ECC is irregular.
The ECC of SMI’s TCGP is a
contract (Financial/Technical Assistance Agreement or FTAA) with public
interest, entered into by the President of the Philippines and Sagittarius
Mines, Inc. and should not be transacted in secrecy.
Furthermore, the late and former
DENR Secretary Gina Lopez has nailed this ECC to its coffin when she cancelled
the said document. Based on the DENR Environmental Management Bureau’s
published “What you should know about – Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
and the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) clearly states that “The ECC
loses its validity if a project has not been implemented within five (5) years
from ECC issuance.”
How does one “reacquire” an
ECC that is already cancelled and invalidated?
The ECC for the Tampakan
Copper-Gold Project was issued in 2013, the MindaNews report states that on May
6, 2019 the Office of the President, like a grave robber in the dead of the
night, dug deep, stole the body, and miraculously resurrected a long deceased
ECC to life.
We believe that the resurrection
of ECC from its grave is instead a death blow to the Blaans of Tampakan and its
neighboring towns and regions. The Duterte regime’s fixation to make mining and
the extractive industry as its main driver for recovery and development
foretells a grim future of destruction for the people and environment. This
administration is set to kill endemic species and other sentient beings living
inside forests and under rivers of Marbel-Buluan watershed for the love of
everything that glitters.
Mining does not provide job.
Mining does not give revenue. Who then gets the filthy bucks?
