Philippines Update

Philippines update

25th March 2007

The decision to allow Lafayette's Rapu Rapu mine to re-start has been re-examined by a scientific panel - and found wanting. A scientific team is scathing at the lack of due diligence in previous studies which acquitted the project of any major adverse environmental and health consequences.

Thousands of local people gathered to clean-up the 26-kilometer Boac River to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the infamous Marcopper mining disaster.

The forthcoming May elections see mining become an issue, both in regard to TVI's activities in Zamboanga and in certain Catholic dioceses where opposition to mining is running high.

Crew has pulled out of its foray into coal in South Cotobato (although it's not yet withdrawn from Mindoro), while MG Mining, which is still looking a deposits in the area, suffered a communist NPA attack on one of its facilities in Surigao.

The government's National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has formally granted, to the indigenous Balatoc sub-tribe of Kalinga, the priority right to develop and exploit the natural resources, including mineral rights, located in their ancestral domain.