Groups want PNoy to promulgate new mining policy

A network of church-based groups and non-government organizations has called on President Benigno Aquino III to “promulgate a new mining policy now,” even as they also rebuffed the responsible mining mantra of large-scale mining corporations.
The Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI) issued the statement in anticipation of a new mining policy that would be issued by the administration anytime this month.
PMPI pointed out that responsible mining is not possible in the present context due to regulatory capture, foreign ownership of mineral extraction, gross disregard for the free prior and informed
consent (FPIC) for the indigenous peoples, unchecked environmental crimes and disrespect for the socio-economic, cultural and political rights of mining-affected communities, among others.
Fr. Edwin Gariguez, PMPI co-convenor and executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (CBCP-NASSA), said there is a
need for greater accountability of mining corporations and access to justice by victims of corporate abuses.
Gariguez said “the respect, protect and remedy framework of the UN principle on business and human rights, to which the Philippine Government was one of the signatories, is very clear on this.”
PMPI, a network of 284 NGOs, people’s organizations and Church groups in the Philippines, also called on Aquino to rethink the current mining policy, which it has inherited from the previous administration
that aggressively promoted mining as a key economic driver.
[Keith Bacongco / MindaNews]