1 July 2010

Press Statement

Kalikasan PNE challenges Pnoy and DENR Secretary to ban on open-pit mining in the country

Hail to South Cotabato Governor Daisy Avanes-Fuentes in her courageous and principled decision to approve the province environment code that bans open-pit mining, a proven ecologically-devastating technology, in her province.

The governor decision is a culmination of more than a decade of struggle of the people in SOCSARGEN region in the protection of the environment and defense of their patrimony. The open-pit mining ban is also a fitting gift to the sacrifices of anti-corporate mining leader Eliezer ‘Ka Boy' Billanes, the most outstanding Gawad ng Bayani ng Kalikasan awardee, who was assassinated in March 9, 2009 because of his staunch opposition against Xstrata mining project in the region.

25 June 2010

P-Noy's retention of Arroyo's DENR honcho dismays environmental groups

Environmental activists and groups expressed alarm on the announcement of President-elect Noynoy Aquino that current Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Horacio Ramos will be retained at the post for one year.

"President Noynoy Aquino's first year in Malacanang is very critical. He is expected to implement fundamental environmental reforms and bring about a government different and opposed to the previous Arroyo administration as he promised. However, his move to retain a known pro-corporate mining DENR Secretary is a clear warning that his environmental policy will just be a continuation of the previous administration," said Clemente Bautista Jr, national coordinator of Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment.

DENR Secretary Horacio Ramos assumed his post last February 2010. He was Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MBG) Director for 13 years since 1996, the year when one of the worst global mining disasters occurred in the province of Marinduque - the Marcopper-Placer Dome mine spill. Until now, no one was held accountable for the said disaster and comprehensive rehabilitation has not been done in the province.

8 June  2010

Environmental and indigenous peoples groups denounce Arroyo's midnight mining deals

Progressive environmental group Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment voiced out worry over a number of mining projects that are being negotiated and given the go signal to operate on the remaining days of President Arroyo in office.

The midnight deals cited by the groups are the Canadian nickel miner MBMI Resources Inc. (MBMI) that has been approved into a Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) and the supposedly government-owned Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC) that is set for bidding for rights to the Mt. Diwalwal area.

"These midnight deals exhibit that there is no letting up in the Arroyo government's push for the sell out of our country's mineral resources to foreign bidders before her term ends. The approval of MBMI's mining concession smack out the existing 25-year mining moratorium imposed by the Palawan provincial government since 2009. The Arroyo government is in its last ditch effort to gain kickbacks sacrifices Palawan rich biodiversity, ecological integrity and indigenous people communities," said Clemente Bautista Jr., national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.

June 24, 2010

Nun, environmentalists demand a stop to commercial logging operations in Dav Or; challenges Noynoy

Davao City --- Environmental rights network PANALIPDAN Davao Oriental Chapter demanded here today that commercial logging in Davao Oriental be permanently stopped and that PhilYoubang Mining Corporation, a Chineese Mining Firm,  be penalized for its brazen logging operations in Brgy Macambol in Mati.
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