DESPITE the assurance of Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez that the ongoing audit of mining operations would be strict against erring mining companies, environmental groups under the Kalikasan-Peoples Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) are now wary of the outcome.
On Thursday Kalikasan-PNE and its network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) launched what it calls “people’s audits” of mining operations, starting in Zambales, where all mining operations have been suspended by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) since last month.
Sought for reaction, Lopez said the ongoing mine audit is transparent and participatory, while assuring that the campaign will be a continuing endeavor to weed out irresponsible miners to protect the environment and people in host communities.
In fact, she said NGOs are now part of the audit teams that are visiting mines.
“Yes, there [are] CSOs [civil-society organizations] involved from their group,” she said.
Lopez said CSOs, particularly environmental and antimining groups, are very much involved in the process.
She had repeatedly assured that under her watch, erring mining companies would be penalized for causing environmental damage and suffering to people in the communities.
Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE, said they will be conducting people’s audits parallel to the initiative of DENR chief.
The audit teams are expected to complete the first wave of mine audits by the end of the month. Halfway through the process, the DENR chief ordered the involvement of CSOs as part of the teams that have been inspecting the mines. There are 40 operating large-scale metallic mines in the country.
So far, 10 erring mining companies have been ordered to stop their operations for failing to meet the audit criteria, which now includes environmental, social and biodiversity considerations, on top of the usual technical or physical aspect of mining operations.
According to Bautista, their group was supposed to meet with Lopez last week to express their sentiment, but the meeting did not push through.
“We will request for a meeting again to appeal to her to review the audit format and processes,” Bautista told the BusinessMirror.
Kalikasan-PNE issued a statement, saying “entrenched oligarchs” puppets and corrupt officials in the agency are sabotaging the Duterte administration’s drive to shutter irresponsible large-scale miners.
Bautista said the people’s audits aim to prevent the “greenwashing” attempts of these allegedly corrupt officials of DENR. He, however, declined to name these alleged corrupt DENR officials.
He added that the Kalikasan-PNE would expose the violations and criminal records of destructive and militarized mining projects in the country.
According to Bautista, in Santa Cruz, Zambales, members of the Move Now! Zambales and the Diocese of Iba Advocacy Desk are gathering past and present people’s testimonies, as well as technical findings, regarding the environmental pollution and destruction caused by companies under D.M. Consunji Inc. (DMCI) that operate nickel mines in the province.
He said the people of Zambales are wary of the status of the government’s review of operating mines.
“This has already happened before. The charade of temporarily suspending these mines and then subsequently reinstating their commercial operations has already happened twice in the past few years under the previous Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Leo L. Jasareno, who is now questionably leading the mine audit process,” Bautista lamented.
Previously, local networks of Kalikasan-PNE in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Masbate reported anomalies in the audit process.
In Nueva Vizcaya DENR’s audit team was reportedly blaming the massive riverine pollution on small-scale mining and farming activities of displaced grassroots communities, instead of the open-pit mining of the OceanaGold (Philippines) Corp.
“Independent scientific investigations and fact-finding missions show that OceanaGold mining operations has concretely caused massive environmental degradation and pollution to the ecosystems in their host community,” he said.
According to Bautista, government agencies and independent fact-finding bodies have also recorded a string of human-rights violations linked to the mining project.
“We find it suspicious why the audit results on OceanaGold are still not publicized when the evidence is already apparent,” Bautista said.
The audit process on the Filminera Resources company in Masbate, meanwhile, already failed once for not allowing let local people’s organizations and civil society to participate. A second audit is reportedly starting this week, Bautista said.
“Filminera has previously been found guilty by the Commission on Human Rights-Bicol of illegally detaining small-scale miners who protested the company’s destruction of their homes and properties. Various observer missions have also noted the extent of its pollution of waters and agricultural lands. It would be problematic if this would not reflect in the outcome of Filminera’s second audit,” Bautista said.
People in other provinces should replicate the Zambales people’s audit, he added.
“We know very well that the bigger mining companies and their partner bureaucrats are deftly hiding under the deceptive branding of ‘responsible mining’ to push through with business-as-usual mining plunder. We call on the people, DENR Secretary Gina Lopez and President Duterte to be vigilant over attempts of large-scale miners and its puppets in the government to sabotage attempts at environmental reforms in the mining industry,” Bautista said.
Image credits: Manuel T. Cayon