One of the main mining companies operating in the Philippines has
rejected trenchant allegations made in an international report that the
industry has brought environmental disaster and murder to the islands.
The report says the countryside is littered with more than 800
abandoned mines, and the industry has been guilty of serious human
rights abuses. Many of the 800 killings recorded since 2001 are
believed to be directly linked to protests against mining, it says.
The 66-page report, Mining in the Philippines – Concerns and Conflicts,
followed a visit to the islands by a team led by Clare Short, a Labour
MP in the UK parliament and a former international development
minister. Short said in her foreword to the report that she was ‘deeply
shocked’ by what she found, adding that ‘the mining companies have
failed to comply with national law and international standards’.
Signatories to the report were representatives of the Commission on
Environmental, Economic and Social Policy – set up by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources – the
Philippines Indigenous Peoples Links and the Society of St Columban.
They recommended that the Philippines government should cancel all
applications for mining that would cause more serious environmental
harm, that the British Crew Development Group should remove its Mindoro
nickel project in view of its potential damage to the water catchment
area, agriculture and the marine environment, that all projects should
be inspected by reputable independent organizations before any
investment, and that all financial bodies, including the World Bank,
should refuse to back mining projects in the country anyway until the
government stops the human rights violations and environmental
disruption.
However, the report was condemned by the Canadian company TVI Resource
Development Philippines as selective and one-sided. TVI complained that
the team had not verified information sources, had not been open about
vested interests, and had not contacted the targeted companies before
reporting.
TVI emphasized that in its Canatuan project it had introduced
programmes to achieve sustainable development for the indigenous
community and to promote human rights. This project, said TVI, promised
long-term economic development for a poor and troubled area.
The company said its operations had the government’s approval and
rejected allegations that it was implicated in harassment by the
military. Army units, it said, guarded the Canatuan site against
criminal and terrorist attacks. Any complaints of military harassment
should be put to the army.
TVI also pointed out that it had spent 130million Philippines pesos
($2.7m, £1.4m) on environmental management and protection in 2004 and
2005. It had allocated 80m pesos for this purpose last year and the
figure could rise to 200m pesos.
The report had said that since TVI had started work at the head of the
local river watershed fishermen and farmers had experienced poorer
water quality and the waters were yielding fewer fish because of silt
and cyanide contamination. TVI, however, claimed the disturbed
watershed area was tiny and that no leaks of contaminants had been
found in its monthly tests. It added that reported cases of skin rashes
were not due to water contamination but to scabies, caused by mites.
TVI indicated that it was considering more mining work in the Philippines.
