MANILA, Philippines – Angry residents of Mindoro Island will stage a hunger strike at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) main office in Quezon City to press Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza to revoke the environmental compliance certificate he granted to Norway’s Intex Resources to operate the Mindoro Nickel Project.

Fr. Edwin Gariguez of the Alyansa Laban sa Mina (ALAMIN) said at least 25 members of the group will not take anything except water from November 17 “until the ECC is reconsidered and revoked” by Atienza.

Atienza awarded the ECC on October 14 despite widespread opposition from Mindoro residents, including Governors Arnan Panaligan of Oriental Mindoro and Josephine Ramirez-Sato of Occidental Mindoro.

The two governors were among the signatories of a position paper during an island-wide anti-mining forum in September that declared “the Mindoro Nickel Project had been rejected overwhelmingly by the people of Mindoro and even by all the local government units.”

The position paper cited the July 2001 revocation by former environment secretary Heherson Alvarez of a mineral producing sharing agreement granted to Crew Minerals, which is now Intex, on the grounds that “sustainability is bound to fail” because of the “irreparable damage to the environment” the project would bring.

The next year, Oriental Mindoro passed a 25-year mining moratorium. A number of local governments of the two Mindoro provinces, where there are more than 92 pending mining applications, have since followed suit. Despite this, the agreement was reinstated by the Office of the President in 2006.

The national government maintains that the Mining Act of 1995 supersedes any local legislation.

ALAMIN said the two governors and other local government officials in Mindoro are outraged by the granting of the ECC.

A statement from the group quoted Panaligan as saying: “The ECC was granted in gross disregard to the strong and categorical opposition of the leaders and people of Mindoro to the nickel mining project. The DENR, in granting the ECC, placed the long term safety of the fragile environment of Mindoro Island in serious danger. Apparently, the DENR has not learned from recent environmental disasters.” 

It also quoted Sato as calling the ECC “isang malakas na sampal ito sa autonomy ng lokal na pamahalaan na siyang tunay na nagmamalasakit sa kasasapitan ng ating mga kababayang magiging biktima ng kapahamakan (a strong slap to the autonomy of the local government that genuinely cares for the fate of our constituents who will fall victim to this danger)!”

Oriental Mindoro Vice Governor Maria Estela Felipa M. Aceron, in her blog, wrote that news of the granting of the ECC caused her “anger, disillusionment and chest pain.”

She accused Atienza of shortcutting the process by issuing the ECC before the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Review Committee could submit its recommendations on the Mindoro Nickel Project.

An EIA is a requirement for granting an ECC.

In fact, ALAMIN claims the EIA Review Committee has “refused to give (its) definitive endorsement for the project.”

The group also cited House Resolution No. 25, which said the Mindoro Nickel Project “covers one of the province's watershed areas as duly declared and identified in the Oriental Mindoro Provincial Physical Framework Plan” and “encroaches on the Mag-asawang Tubig Watershed, the largest source of irrigation water for the 40,000 hectares of rice lands in Calapan City, and the towns of Naujan, Baco and Victoria, Oriental Mindoro.” 

The House committee on environment and natural resources is also conducting an inquiry into mining in Mindoro.

One issue raised against Intex is that the mining project would dislocate the Mangyans of Mindoro, whose communities are located within the 9,720-hectare concession.

 Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teodoro Casiño has proposed that “the next hearing be held in Mindoro itself so that the actual stakeholders, especially the Mangyan tribes, can be heard. We will insist that an ocular inspection of the areas to be affected by the mining projects be done.”

He expressed support for “the people of Mindoro in their struggle to protect the environment by opposing the entry of large-scale mining operations like those of Intex…We believe that mining should not be done at the expense of the people’s right to land and a healthy ecology.” 

ALAMIN also noted that the ECC was granted even as Norway’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is about to investigate a complaint brought against Intex, in connection with which the Norwegian ambassador to the Philippines will be visiting Mindoro on a fact-finding mission.

During a similar mission in 2007, ALAMIN said, the ambassador concluded that “the majority of the population on the island of Mindoro is against mining...[They] fear first and foremost destruction of their ‘watershed’ area/flooding/destroyed agricultural land/negative impact on fishing as a result of toxic waste” and suggested that Intex “may have substantial difficulty obtaining an ECC - because of the massive local resistance.”