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THE
decision of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) allowing Lafayette Philippines Inc. to
resume commercial operation of its Rapu-Rapu
Polymetallic Project in Albay starting Thursday drew
protests from various sectors.
Sorsogon
Bishop Arturo Bastes, head of the Rapu-Rapu Fact Finding
Commission that earlier recommended the mine’s permanent
closure owing to the danger it poses to human life and
the environment in the island, condemned the decision as
having “utter and blasphemous disregard for the findings
and recommendations issued by official investigatory
bodies, particularly the [Commission].”
He said
the Rapu-Rapu people will mount demonstrations against
the decision on February 11 and 12.
Beau
Baconguis, campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, is
not surprised. “From the start we knew that the process
initiated by the DENR would eventually lead to this,
given the government’s aggressive efforts to promote
mining in the country. While the decision is good for
Lafayette, it is a grim one for the coastal communities
within and around Rapu Rapu Island. With the issuance of
the Permanent Lifting Order, the DENR, the government
arm mandated to protect the environment, has endangered
these communities and their rich marine resources.
Lafayette now has the license to suck out the life of
Rapu-Rapu island and leave the people mired deeper in
poverty and in a severely degraded environment,”
Boconguis said.
“Greenpeace has consistently maintained that
Lafayette’s operations will seriously damage Rapu-Rapu
and its surrounding fragile marine ecosystem.
The mine
is precariously located along the country’s typhoon
belt, in a small and fragile island environment. Its
toxic tailings and the inevitable acid mine drainage
will continue to pose a clear and present danger to the
surrounding environment and the communities who depend
on it.
The
typhoons late last year proved the dangers of operating
the mine in the island, she added. The mine had to
undergo extensive repairs to damaged infrastructure
which repeatedly and considerably delayed the test run.
The
government has shown how it advances and defends the
interest of foreign mining corporations such as
Lafayette
“at the expense of our people and the environment,” said
Defend Patrimony! spokesman and geologist Trixie
Concepcion.
“We
condemn in the strongest possible terms the decision of
Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes to allow
Lafayette
to continue its mining operations,” said Clemente
Bautista, national coordinator of environmental activist
group Kalikasan-PNE.
Bautista’s group had urged the DENR to hold action in
light of the mystery deaths of five people on Sitio Acal,
which they suspect to be linked to pollution from the
mines.
“Lafayette now says that Sitio Acal is 15 kilometers
far from the mining site. We have no problem with that.
What we do have a problem with is the total and utterly
defensive dismissal of all possibility of industrial
culpability when in fact it is known that toxic
pollutants such as trace metal pollution from metal
mining, production, and processing—may be also
transported across long distances by wind and water
under certain circumstances,” Bautista said.
He cited
a study, “Assessment of the BioPhysico-Chemical
Conditions of the Surroundings of the Mining Site in the
Eastern Part of the Island of Rapu-Rapu, Albay,” by Dr.
Emelina G. Regis which reveals that “Lafayette’s mining
operations have impacted the ecosystems by causing the
dispersion of toxic chemicals and heavy metals such as
cyanide and cadmium, in the terrestrial, aquatic and
marine ecosystems as well as causing death to marine
life due to cyanide spill.”
According to Bautista, these is also the looming
environmental problem of acid mine drainage (AMD). |
