Anti-mining and environment activists in Manila and Palawan are calling for a review of mining policies following the murder of prominent civic leader and radio commentator Gerardo Ortega, who had firmly opposed destructive mining in the province. "Is it appropriate to have mining in a place like Palawan?" environment lawyer Antonio Oposa said in an interview with GMANews.TV after a press conference organized by activist groups Tuesday, a day after a lone gunman killed Ortega in Puerto Princesa City.
Ortega had collaborated with Oposa, who has won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for his work in environmental advocacy, on various issues in Palawan. The slain Ortega, a veterinarian popularly known as Doc Gerry, served as director of the crocodile farm in Puerto Princesa for many years. In his morning program at DYAR, an affiliate of Radyo Mo Nationwide, Ortega often criticized mining operations in the province and local officials who provide permits that allow the destruction of Palawan’s natural resources. A day before the killing, he had helped facilitate the creation of Save Palawan Movement — a coalition of NGOs or non-government organizations, community groups, indigenous peoples, youth groups, the church, and local media — to oppose mining in the province. "Gerry had the same dream as all of us — a Palawan free from wanton destruction by vested interests; to hold accountable those who, instead of ensuring Palawan’s patrimony for future generations of Filipinos, facilitated the entry of destructive mining in the Philippines’ last ecological frontier," according to a statement issued by the group. The group noted that a United Nations body has declared Palawan as a Man and Biosphere Reserve. It is also the site of two World Heritage Sites — the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park and the Tubbataha Reefs National Marine Park — and was recently named by the National Geographic magazine as one of the world’s top 10 destinations for 2011.
"The SAVE PALAWAN MOVEMENT will carry on this dream of preserving the Philippines’ ecological treasure that is Palawan," their statement said.
Permits from PCSD
In Tuesday’s press conference, Oposa noted that Ortega had been critical of the alleged leniency of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) in endorsing the operation of mining companies in the province. The council was created in 1992 to implement Republic Act 7611, better known as the Strategic Environment Plan (SEP) law for Palawan. "Nababalitaan ko na itong PCSD ay kara-karang nagbibigay ng titles, permits," Oposa told the press conference. "Ito ‘yung nilalabanan ni Gerry." Oposa said the SEP, which is designed to protect and enhance Palawan’s natural resources, is only "good on paper" and has not been fully implemented. He compared the council’s actions as tantamount to drilling numerous holes on the face of Palawan: “I will ask them, kung gagawin ninyong sungkaan ang Palawan, ‘yan ba ay angkop sa batas?" Another environment lawyer, Gerthie Mayo-Anda of the Palawan-based Environmental Legal Assistance Center, observed that the PCSD was “highly politicized" with nine seats for the Palawan governor, two congressmen, the Puerto Princesa city mayor, and other officials from the local and national government.
"The economic and political interests that these politicians carry can shape the discussions in the PCSD," she said in a separate interview with GMANews.TV. Anda said the appointments of non-government representatives in the PCSD, such as those from NGOs and indigenous groups, have to be approved by the council’s politician-members. She said the politicians in the PCSD have not spared unique ecological niches in Palawan, giving their endorsement to two large-scale mining firms, MacroAsia and Ipilan Nickel, inside the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape even though the SEP law prohibits any type of activity "that will imperil the protected area." To solve this problem, she said the PCSD needs “more non-political representatives" including academics, women, farmers, and scientists. “That would be a better way of shaping the discussions there," Anda said. Legal suit against mining ops Meanwhile, Manila-based groups have expressed their support for the environmental movement in Palawan. “We urge the people of Palawan and fellow environmentalists to continue the anti-mining advocacy of Dr. Ortega," said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, in a statement issued Tuesday. Bautista said his group is “studying and will eventually file a legal case to stop mining operations in Palawan on the grounds of environmental destruction." League of Filipino Students (LFS) national chairperson Terry Ridon, meanwhile, said his group is prepared to push through with a signature campaign against mining in Palawan that the LFS had planned with Ortega. In a similar message to Ortega’s killers, Oposa said, “Your act may have snuffed his earthly life, but we assure you that it has not snuffed the flame of our collective commitment and passion." He added, "Kung akala n'yo tapos na ang laban, nag-uumpisa pa lang." — With reports from Yasmin Arquiza/RSJ
