Green watchdog Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) today called on the Philippine government to cancel two planned mining agreements with controversial Chinese firm Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. (ZTE Corp.) in Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte.

This, after a Mindanao-based mining firm Southeast Mindanao Gold Mining Corporation (SEMGMC) yesterday asked the Supreme Court to reconsider and reverse its June 23, 2006 decision which paved the way for the national government to enter into a mining agreement with ZTE in Mt. Diwalwal, Compostela Valley. This ruling effectively killed SEMGMC's mining permit in Mt. Diwalwal.

During the Senate hearings on the NBN ZTE deal last March, Trade Secretary Peter Favila disclosed that the government inked five projects with ZTE Corp's sister company, ZTE International Investment Ltd.including two agreements for the exploration, development and operation of mining areas in North Davao and Diwalwal in Compostela Valley in Mindanao. Favila signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on March 14, 2006 in Guangdong, China with the Chinese firm for a $4-billion loan. The signing was witnessed by ZTE President Yu Yong, then Presidential chief-of-staff Michael T. Defensor and ZTE Chairman Hou Weigui.

In a statement, Clemente Bautista, Jr., National Coordinator of Kalikasan PNE, called for the immediate cancellation of the ZTE-government deal in Mt. Diwalwal and Davao del Norte.
"The Arroyo administration should have no business entering into a mining deal with a firm as controversial and tainted with allegations of corruption as ZTE. There is no guarantee that the ZTE-government mining deal in Mt. Diwalwal is different from the anomalous NBN-ZTE broadband deal being investigated by the Senate. This mining deal should be cancelled immediately and be subjected to a probe by the Senate," Bautista said.

"What is so special about ZTE corporation that the Arroyo administration is willing to give it multi-billion dollars worth of lucrative projects, from telecommunications to large-scale mining?" Bautista said.

Mr. Franco Tito, village chief of Mt. Diwata in Mt. Diwalwal and a leader of the small-scale mining communities in the area, also expressed vehement opposition to to ZTE-government mining deal, warning that small-scale miners stand to be displaced by the large-scale mining operations of ZTE.

"The action of the Arroyo admistration only replaces SEMGMC with a bigger plunderer through ZTE," Tito said of the ZTE-government deal.

Tito warned of possible conflicts if ZTE enters the communities of Mt. Diwalwal.
"There will be more violence and conflict if the government continues to impose its plan to let ZTE into Mt. Diwalwal with the backing of Arroyo's allies. Small-scale miners who will be displaced by ZTE will no longer tolerate the pangs of hunger and the pain of displacement. We are willing to fight until the end," Tito continued.

"Itong gobyerno na ito, ang dapat gawin ay ilaan ang ating pambansang patrimonya sa tulad naming Pilipino at maliliit na minero, at hindi sa dayuhan (This government should reserve our national patrimony for Filipinos and small-scale miners, not foreigners)," Tito said.

"The Arroyo administration is obviously engaging in the outright sale of Philippine natural resources and national patrimony to foreign firms. This will bring upon only more hardship, conflict, and environmental destruction to the country and the Filipino people," Bautista said.

Aside from the ZTE-government deal in Compostela Valley, Kalikasan PNE also urged the Senate and Congress to investigate whether the other mining agreement with ZTE in Davao del Norte was linked to the presence of military troops in Davao del Norte's lumad communities.

"PASAKA, a regional confederation of lumad organizations in Southern Mindanao along with Lumad support groups belonging to Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples (SAGIP), reported that massive military operations have started in the area of Talaingod from January 7 to 24 this year, timed with the declaration of large logging and mining investments in the region. Is this wave of militarization, community displacements, and human rights violations in Northern Davao related to the new mining deals that the Arroyo administration inked with foreign firms like ZTE?," Bautista said.