NAMA holds Anti-Mining gab

The Negros Anti Mining Alliance (NAMA) held last week a local Mining Forum as its response to the nationally – coordinated actions launched by the Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM).

The forum was held Oct. 19 at the Caritas-Bacolod Social Action Center ( SAC) and joined in by small fishers formations, church- based groups and NGOs.

The forum carried the theme, “The Threats of Offshore and Marine Mining in Negros and Panay: Challenges to Government, Ecosystems and Communities.” It aimed to provide updates on the status of the pending coastal and marine mining applications in Negros and Panay, learn and extract lessons from the anti-mining struggles of basic sectors, communities and local government units (LGUs), and define collaborative and collective courses of actions to confront and thwart the threats of mining in environmentally-critical areas.

As reported, around 18 big offshore and coastal mining projects including 11 in Negros and 7 in Panay have targeted large swaths of coastal areas in the region.

Resource persons from the MGB/DENR, Provincial Environment Management Office (PEMO) and the Sagay City LGU, whose city council issued recently a resolution opposing a mining exploration in its areas, were invited for updates and insights. Unfortunately, however, no government representative was able to attend citing various reasons.

During the event, Panay-Negros-Guimaras Crab Fishers Alliance (PANEG-CA) chair Jerry Bedoya said their regional alliance, the largest small fisher network in the Visayas, had opposed such coastal and marine mining because of its harmful and destructive effects in the coastal and marine ecosystems as well as are a dire threat to the small fishers and coastal communities.

Fr. Julius Espinosa, CBSAFI director, said there is the urgent need for exact data gathering to check the status of such mining applications and come up with more pro-active options and measures to counter the direct effects of mining to the general environment.

Fr. Juluis Tormis, coordinator of the West Visayas Ecology Hub based in the Diocese of San Carlos, echoed the concerns raised by Fr. Espinosa and added the need for those in the local communities and churches to be vigilant and undertake collective initiatives to monitor such mining activities.

PRRM – Negros Area Manager Edwin Balajadia and NAMA co-convenor, stressed on the need for the alliance to build up and strengthen itself so as to exact accountability from the govt and mining business sectors.* (Hazel Aghon, NAMA Secretariat)