Emerging national green party supports protest against mining in the Philippines!

A Press statement by the Partido Luntian
September 17, 2014

Partido Luntian, an emerging national green political party operating in 9 regions, 27 provinces and 52 major cities nationwide, expresses its solidarity and support for the Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) and other anti mining advocates in their weeklong campaign to protest continued mining operations in the Philippines within the context of the Mining Act of 2005.

The emerging green party stands firm on its position of “minimizing mining” in the Philippines. We are pushing that “...mining be accorded least priority among the options for land use and revenue generations; with a minerals management regime that prioritize local community development and appropriate income for the government, equitable distribution of benefits and shared responsibility among all stakeholders.”

Current mining in the Philippine is not contributing to sustainable development. According to Kalikasan Muna Zambales Movement Convenor and Party Central Luzon Chapter Chairperson Hilary “Padz” Pangan, “Zambales is now one of the poorest province in the country, yet with the most number of mines!”

“What we have in the Philippines is unsustainable extraction of our finite natural resources. We oppose this especially so that it has not brought better economic development”, adds Pacencia Milan, Ph.D., Eastern Visayas Regional Chapter Party Chair. Dr. Pacing is part of VEAM (VISCA Environmental Movement) in Baybay City, Leyte and together with other academic institutions successfully opposed mining by pushing their city council to passed a local ordinance for a moratorium of mining in Baybay City. “While in other areas where mining has happen; like in MacArthur, Leyte and in many other communities nationwide, citizens are opposing mining such as the black sand mining in MacArthur as it destroys their rivers and rice fields”, she adds.

“Our current mining system threatens our food security and promotes further conflicts within communities. It threatens the tri-people of Mindanao” declares Abdullah “Aby” Pato, Party Central Mindanao Chapter Chairperson who is also Lead Convenor of Task Force Food Sovereignty from Kidapawan City. He explains further that the mining operations in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat is causing massive erosion impacting on critical catch basins such as the Liguasan Marsh, a biodiversity-rich ecosystem and home to many species endemic to the marsh.

As members of the ATM protest the International Conference hosted by the COMP (Chamber of Mines of the Philippines) and march in the historic Mendiola to bring the opposition of a growing number of local communities against mining to the doorsteps of Malacanang Palace, we voice our solidarity with them for this struggle.

We continue to commit support for the passage of the Alternative Minerals Management Bill (AMMB) that will rationalize, nationalize and fundamentally reform mining focusing it and minimizing it to a point that it serves directly our national green development goals and acting only as last resort after optimizing on mineral recycling and only in areas where a complete natural resource valuation and proper land use assessment will show that it does not compete with the use of land for food security and forest and marine conservation.