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Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Strengthen Clean Air Act to safeguard public health, environment, says green group

PAGADIAN CITY - As the country gears up to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Philippine Clean Air Act, it's vital to acknowledge both the progress made and the challenges that persist in the work towards cleaner air.



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Sunday, April 10, 2022

Prioritize environmental issues, green group tells candidates

ENVIRONMENTAL WATCHDOG BAN Toxics has called on politicians running in the May elections to address sound chemical and waste management in their platform to protect public health and the environment.



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Monday, February 6, 2017

Environmentalists praised closure of 23 mining firms

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Environmentalists and anti-mining groups lauded the closure of nearly two dozen mining firms and vowed to support government efforts to curb destructive mining practices in the country.
Environment Secretary Gina Lopez ordered the closure of 23 metallic mines in the country, while suspending five more, for serious environmental violations discovered during the industry-wide audit conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) since July last year.
“My issue here is not about mining. My issue here is social justice. If there are businesses and foreigners that go and utilize the resources of that area for their benefit and the people of the island suffer, that’s social injustice,” Lopez said.
She said the closure orders were based on the final results and recommendations of the multisectoral audit teams formed to look into the compliance of mining operators with the existing environmental laws and regulations.
The mining firms ordered closed were the following: 
  • Benguet Corp. Nickel Mines Inc., Eramen Minerals Inc., Zambales Diversified Metals Corp., and LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc., all in Zambales province, due mainly to siltation of rivers, destruction of a functional watershed and illegal tree-cutting.
  • Mt. Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp., Emir Minerals Corp., and TechIron Mineral Resources Inc. in Homonhon mainly for siltation of coastal waters and destruction of functional watershed.
  • AAMPHIL Natural Resources Exploration, Kromico Inc., SinoSteel Philippines H.Y. Mining Corp., Oriental Synergy Mining Corp., Wellex Mining Corp., Libjo Mining Corp., Oriental Vision Mining Phils. Corp., in Dinagat Islands mainly for siltation of coastal waters.
  • ADNAMA Mining Resources Corp., Claver Mineral Development Corp., Platinum Group Metals Corp., CTP Construction and Mining Corp., Carrascal Nickel Corp., Marcventures Mining and Development Corp., and Hinatuan Mining Corp. in Surigao del Norte mainly for siltation of coastal waters and mining in functional watersheds.
  • Benguet Corporation in Itogon, Benguet and Ore Asia Mining and Development Corp. in Bulacan were likewise issued suspension orders by Lopez.

She also deferred to give a decision on the fate of Filminera Resources Corp. pending further investigation.
The five mining companies that were issued suspension orders are Berong Nickel Corp., OceanaGold Phils., Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp., Citinickel Mines and Development Corp. and Strong Built Mining Development Corp.
According to DENR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Maria Paz Luna, the companies can file for a Motion for Reconsideration to the DENR within 15 days from receipt of the order. Luna said the DENR decision can still be appealed to the Office of the President.
The DENR had earlier assured the mining sector and the general public that due process was “meticulously observed” in the audit of all existing metallic mines nationwide. It also assured that the audit results “really promote the common good and social justice” espoused by Lopez and President Rodrigo Duterte.
A staunch advocate of responsible mining, Lopez has made it clear that the common good and the protection of the environment would be her paramount concern, not money. She emphasized that no mining company can operate in a functional watershed which protects water sources. “Water is life. We will not allow the water of our people to be at risk for any business interest,” Lopez said.
16 Audit Teams
Barely a week at the DENR, Lopez ordered an industry-wide audit in July last year to look into the adequacy and efficiency of environmental protection measures taken by the mining companies, determine gaps in those measures and identify the appropriate penalties for violations of mining and environmental laws.
A total of 16 audit teams were formed to review the environmental compliance of mining companies in all regions in the country. Each team is composed of representatives from the DENR central and regional offices, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture and civil society organizations. 
The audit focused on safety and health; mine environmental management; social development; mining tenement; and compliance with laws on clean air, clean water, hazardous waste and solid waste. Technical experts from the different government offices that have been invited to conduct the audit all abide in the standards of truth, service, and the common good.
“We based the checklist of the criteria for the audit on the items in compliance with the different mining and environmental laws. A cross-audit was also done, which means that the auditors who reviewed one site, have come from a different region,” Lopez said. “We also gave seven days for the companies to respond to the results of the audit, providing a leeway for them to clear the issues that were raised. We had to review the reported results of the audit for five months before we have to release it, ensuring that we followed the process meticulously.”
Lopez said the issue is not about mining, but social justice. “If there are businesses and foreigners that go and utilize the resources of that area for their benefit and the people of that island suffer, that’s social injustice. We assure the industry and the general public that due process was meticulously observed in the mining audit conducted by the agency and that the results would be always anchored on integrity, social justice, and the common good,” she said.
Zamboanga del Sur, Tawi-Tawi
Environmentalists also urged Lopez to review again the mining operations of TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc. in Zamboanga del Sur’s Bayog town where Subanen natives opposed the entry of the company in Balabag for various reasons. TVIRD also operated in Zamboanga del Norte’s Siocon town where natives also opposed the mining operations.
Different anti-mining groups, including Save Tawi-Tawi Movement, have similarly appealed to Lopez to conduct an aerial inspection in Languyan and Panglima Sugala towns in Tawi-Tawi, one of the 5 provinces under the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Destruction
Just in August last year, the Regional Legislative Assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao also asked the DENR-ARMM to issue an order stopping all destructive mining activities in the region, especially in Tawi-Tawi, where nickel mining has severely affected the environment.
Assemblyman Hanibal Tulawie, the chairman of the Committee on Environment and Ecology, said a resolution was passed asking the DENR in the ARMM to immediately issue a “cease-and-desist” order on all mining companies operating in the region.
Tulawie said he had received numerous complaints from the public and environmentalists who are opposed to destructive mining methods.
“In response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call and the growing complaints of residents, landowners including indigenous people and different nongovernmental organizations against the destruction of forest lands in the area, the Regional Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has asked Regional Secretary Kahal Q. Kedtag, of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to issue a cease-and-desist order to all mining firms and operators within the territorial jurisdiction of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” the resolution read.
“These operators (mining firms) are not environment-friendly and do not practice their corporate social responsibility to the affected areas but they are contributing destruction and degradation of our forest lands within the areas of ARMM and in gross violations of Republic Act 7942 (Philippine Mining Act of 1995) and Republic Act 9054 (strengthening and expanding the ARMM Organic Act), as these complainants that include residents, landowners including indigenous people in the affected areas are not properly compensated,” it said.
Photos of nickel mining operations posted on Facebook showed huge trucks and barges hauling off red soil, which is allegedly being shipped to China where it is processed.
Tulawie even said that his committee will conduct public hearings, including inspections, in areas affected by mining activities and present its recommendations to the plenary, but it was unknown whether he pursued this or not.
He said reports indicate that Tumbagahan Island is totally devastated because of mining explorations and the nickel mining activities in Languyan municipality and Panglima Sugala, adding, copies of the resolution were given Lopez and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. (Mindanao Examiner)


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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

FAO expands El Niño response in Mindanao

KIDAPAWAN CITY – The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization said it has expanded its El Niño response operations in southern Philippines to provide farm inputs to an additional 5,500 small-scale farming households and improve the resilience of communities in Mindanao.
“We have just completed the distribution of certified rice seeds, corn seeds, fertilizer and vegetable seeds in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao. These inputs will allow them to re-start their livelihood activities and grow food for household consumption,” FAO Representative in the Philippines José Luis Fernández said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) estimates that in these four provinces, some 101,000 hectares of crop areas were affected by El Niño, resulting in $17.9 million worth of production losses between February 2015 to July 2016.
The FAO project, which was mobilized at the request of the DA’s Regional Field Office XII and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DAF-ARMM), complements Government efforts to address the impact of El Niño across 16 regions of the Philippines. 
“We were affected by drought especially because the El Niño was so long and it happened at the same time as the rat infestation. Many of the farmers here experienced a 30 to 40 percent reduction in yield,” said Rahib Mamaluba, a farmer-technician from Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province. 
To build the disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation capacities of beneficiary communities, FAO is also conducting training activities on drought management, improved crop production and resilience to climate-stress. This is expected to equip more than 100 DA and local government agricultural technicians and local farmer trainers to replicate the workshops in their respective villages. 
“This is giving us the courage because even before a calamity strikes, we already have an idea how we should prepare,” said Jalani Pagital, a farmer from Datu Salibo town, also in Maguindanao. 
In an earlier project that ended in June 2016, FAO also worked closely with DA and DAF-ARMM to provide similar assistance to 5,000 farming and fishing households in Maguindanao and North Cotabato province whose livelihoods were disrupted by a combination of natural and man-made disasters, including displacement due to armed conflict, drought and flooding.
Women were also trained in alternative livelihoods such as water hyacinth crafts production, as well as post-harvest and value-adding techniques that would help them supplement their families’ incomes to fast-track household-level disaster recovery.  
“Because of the assistance we received and what we have learned from the training, hopefully someday there would no longer be poor farmers in our community,” Rahib added. 
To date, FAO has assisted a total of 54 300 farming households in Luzon and Mindanao whose livelihoods were affected by drought and strong typhoons associated with El Niño. In addition to FAO internal funding of almost $1 million, the response was also made possible by the $1.6 million combined contributions of the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, Belgium - through FAO’s Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities - and reprogramed savings from other FAO emergency response and resilience projects funded by the governments of Ireland, New Zealand and Norway.
Under an on-going $3 million-project funded by New Zealand, FAO is set to provide crop, livestock, poultry and fisheries production inputs to an additional 10,475 farming and fishing households in North Cotabato. Communities will also benefit from training in climate-smart practices, disaster preparedness, alternative livelihoods and product value-addition. The delivery of assistance will be phased until October 2017. (Mindanao Examiner)


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Thursday, September 8, 2016

Philippines to send back Canada's garbage shipments

ENVIRONMENTAL groups have praised the decision by a government inter-agency committee to send back Canada's illegal garbage shipments to the Philippines, saying, it is a triumph for national dignity and a victory for environmental justice.
The inter-agency committee, composed of the Bureau of Customs and the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources, Foreign Affairs and Justice, have agreed to enforce the ruling by Manila magistrate Tita Alisuag ordering the re-export of 50 forty-footer containers of garbage back to Canada at the expense of Chronic Plastics, Inc., the importer.

Aileen Lucero, one of the intervenors in Criminal Case No. 14-311191 for violation of Republic Act 6969 (Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act), said the court order, issued on June 30, and the decision of the inter-agency committee on September 5, to immediately implement it.

“After a relentless campaign to send the illegal garbage back to Canada, we are finally beginning to see the fruits of our collective labor.  The government’s decision to enforce the court order is a triumph for national dignity and a victory for environmental justice.  We support it and we ask all Filipinos to rally behind it as this is for the common good,” said Lucero, who is also the National Coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition, a chemical safety and zero waste advocacy group.

“This goes to show that our justice system is still a bastion of national sovereignty.  May this send a forceful reminder to corrupt public officials and private citizens who mean to profit out of perpetuating the violation of our Constitution as well as national environmental laws that our justice system is a champion of the environment as well as the fundamental law of the land and we, environmental justice movements, will always be its vigilant ally,” said environmentalist Raphael Lopez, another intervenor.
Other intervenors include the Ang Nars Party List, EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation, Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa and Arjohn Queral.

“As it’s not over till it’s over, we vow to remain vigilant until the last garbage container is shipped out to Canada,” Lucero said, noting that the court order covers only  50 of the 103 shipping containers filled with residual and hazardous trash.  “Our nation’s success in fulfilling the court order will send a clear signal to unscrupulous waste traders that the Philippines is not a global dumpsite,” she added.   

In 2013-2014, a total of 103 shipping containers of largely residual household garbage declared as scrap plastics for recycling were illegally sent to the Philippines from Canada.  In 2015, garbage from 26 of these containers was unlawfully dumped on a private landfill in Tarlac, infuriating provincial officials and residents.
“Local authorities and communities hosting disposal facilities can now breathe a sigh of relief following the court order as the reeking garbage must now be re-exported to Canada and not disposed of locally,” said Noli Abinales, President of Buklod Tao, which co-organized a peaceful rally versus garbage dumping outside the Canadian Embassy last June 28.

Zero waste groups have underscored that “the disposal of the Canadian garbage in local landfills, cement kilns and waste-to-energy facilities will be totally wrong and unacceptable.”
"The decision of the government inter-agency is a development we have all been waiting for. But, we should not forget that there are 53 container vans that are not covered by this decision, and five more are still unaccounted for. While this is no doubt a victory for the Filipino people, the fight is far from over. Unless the Philippine government ratifies the Basel Ban Amendment, the same incident will happen and the country will continue to be a recipient of hazardous waste from richer countries, like Canada, under the guise of recycling. A troubling precedent is what we aim to avoid,” said Abigail Aguilar, Detox Campaigner, Greenpeace.

“BAN Toxics welcomes the decision of the inter-agency committee as a step towards the right direction—upholding our sovereignty and protecting Filipinos and our environment.  But while it is a good decision—kulang pa.  Much more needs to be done. The decision covers only 50 out of the total 103 containers shipped and it took around three years for the government to decide to send the trash back,” said Anna Kapunan, BAN Toxics campaigns and advocacy specialist.

“The government should take urgent steps to include all the remaining containers in the re-export, and ensure that the Philippines is protected from further trash imports through a mechanism that doesn’t take years and a local court case to enact."
"We urge the Senate to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment to give the country immediate protection through an international mechanism that compel countries like Canada to stop shipping waste to poorer countries. We also urge the Filipino people to be vigilant and ensure the order is fulfilled, the rest of the trash sent back and that Filipino taxpayers do not shoulder the expense for the re-export of the waste,” she said. (With a report from Mindanao Examiner.)



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Thursday, August 4, 2016

Communists praise DENR’s Gina Lopez

DAVAO CITY – The National Democratic Front of the Philippines on Wednesday praised Environment Secretary Gina Lopez for her firm stand against open-pit mining in the southern region of Mindanao. 
Efren Aksasato, a spokesman for the NDFP in Mindanao, said Lopez even stood against the giant Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato province. 
“DENR Sec. Gina Lopez is commendable for her remarkably firm stand against open pit mining in the country, as well as her decisive asseveration of the Duterte administration’s disapproval of the controversial and environmentally destructive $5.9-billion Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato,” Aksasato said. 
He said Lopez’s announcement to cease the mining operation in Tampakan is congruent with the people’s stand in objecting the “disastrous” open-pit mining project.  “Certainly, it is a victory of the democratic mass movement and the unwavering revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside who will never give up the fight in defending the people’s interests and welfare and the protection of the environment,” Aksasato said. 
He said there were also many reports of alleged human rights violations raised by indigenous people in South Cotabato, especially within their ancestral domain; and accused government soldiers and para-military forces as behind all these. 
Aksasato said the open-pit mining in South Cotabato approved by the past Aquino administration also violated the provincial environment code which prohibits such mining practice because of the hazards it posed to the environment and safety of the people. 
“Sec. Lopez’s announcement to cease the mining operation in Tampakan is congruent with the people’s stand in objecting the disastrous and plunderous mining project.  Certainly, it is a victory of the democratic mass movement and the unwavering revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside who will never give up the fight in defending the people’s interests and welfare and the protection of the environment Aksasato said. 
He said the Aquino government approved on February 2013 the Environment Compliance Certificate of Xstrata-SMI, the operator of Tampakan gold mine project despite massive protests from environmentalists and natives in the province. 
But aside from South Cotabato, open-pit mining is also reported in Zamboanga Peninsula where Canadian miner TVI Resource Development, Inc. previously operated inside the Subanen’s ancestral domain in Mount Canatuan in Zamboanga del Norte’s Siocon town. The company is now operating a gold mine in the mountains of Balabag in Bayog town in Zamboanga del Sur province. 
He said the rebel group New People’s Army would continue to protect the indigenous people and their ancestral against destructive and large-scale mining activities in the South.  
“The New People’s Army and the revolutionary forces in the region are the most reliable allies of the weak and disenfranchised victims of the mining company encroachment and state atrocities.  Over the past years, the NPA have carried out several punitive actions against the company, its private armed guards and the AFP and PNP troops protecting its operation,” Aksasato said. 
The NPA has been waging a secessionist war for decades now in an effort to overthrow the democratic government and install a Maoist state in the Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)


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Thursday, July 28, 2016

DENR orders review of all mining firms in Mindanao




Subanen indigenous people oppose (open-pit) mining activities by TVI Resource Development Inc., in Bayog town in Zamboanga del Sur province in this undated photos. The mining firm also mined inside ancestral domain at Mount Canatuan in Siocon town in Zamboanga del Norte province. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

PAGADIAN CITY - Environment Secretary Gina Lopez has ordered an extensive review of mining firms in Mindanao following many complaints from the indigenous people.
Lopez, a staunch advocate of renewable energy, said she had talks with some of the indigenous tribes in the region and heard their sentiments. Many of them wanted to put a halt on large-scale mining in their ancestral domain in the provinces.
This was also reported by The Philippine Star and quoted Lopez as saying that she has a list of mining companies that would undergo necessary review after tribesmen accused these firms of environmental and social violations.
Natives have asked Lopez to ban open-pit mining due to the hazards it posed to the environment. 
Lopez earlier ordered an official audit of all operating mines and the moratorium on the approval of new mining projects, according to reports.
Just recently, Lopez ordered the cancellation of Oceana Gold Philippines Incorporated’s (OGPI) permit for exploration and expansion. And leaders of Didipio Earth Savers Multi-Purpose Association, SALAKNIB, Alyansa ng Mangagawa at Magsasaka ng Kasibu, Alyansa Tigil Mina, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines said they were pleased with Lopez’s order.
Lopez said she will cancel the extension of exploration permit issued to OGPI, an Australian owned mining company, and instructed Director Leo Jasareno, of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, to issue the cancellation immediately.
She said DENR will also issue a memorandum that any exploration permit will not be issued without the consent of the community, not only the local government’s endorsement. (Mindanao Examiner)


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