Several groups in Davao are pushing for the declaration of the province of Davao Oriental as a mining-free zone.
Environmental group Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS), together with the DaDiTaMa (Davao, Digos, Tagum, Mati) bishops, clergy, religious men and women, pastoral directors, and lay coordinators, has called on the passage of House Bill 1124 into law, which seeks to declare the entire province of Davao Oriental as a mining-free zone by former Davao Oriental Second District Representative Joel Mayo Z. Almario and supported by his son Rep. Cheeno Miguel D. Almario
The bill states that mining shall be prohibited within the province of Davao Oriental, both large-scale and small-scale mining, including quarrying.
Davao Oriental is known as the home to the first and only UNESCO-declared heritage site, the Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary, and the protected seascape of Pujada Bay.
The province is also a host to a thriving heritage and cultural tradition of Mandaya and Mansaka indigenous peoples.
In a statement, the group stated that the IPs are now facing the risk of extinction threatened by several mining operations.
The group also mentioned the records of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), wherein a total of 39 mining permits have been granted to several mining companies covering a total of 59,976.65 hectares, which includes, among others, 19 Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA), four exploration permits, and 12 Minahang Bayan Permits.
“These mining companies are expected to extract tons of nickel, copper, gold, and chromite,” it said.
The group also stated that the “figures may blind our sight as mining companies speak of multi-billion-dollar investments.”
It said that mining has contributed only an average of 0.91% to the Philippine Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2000-2009, peaking only in 2007 at 1.44% and that mining contributed only 1.7% to the excise taxes of the country.
“While the investment appears to be tectonic in billions, only a pittance of that benefits local communities for the short term while harming the larger community in the long term,” it said.
In May this year, IDIS underscored that mining site of the Austral-Asia Link Mining Corporation and Hallmark Mining Corporation still has extensive impacts to the environment even if it is outside the protected areas of Mt. Hamiguitan and Pujada Bay.
The group explained that portions of these protected areas are within a proximity radius of only 8 kilometers from the open-pit mining site. Eight kilometers north-east from the mining site is already Pujada Island and eight kilometers heading east is already the peak and highest elevation point of Mt. Hamiguitan.
The MGB has clarified that the nickel mining project in Davao Oriental is not an open-pit mine and confirmed that it is outside the said protected area and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
