VARIOUS stakeholders on Monday slammed the Sangguniang Bayan of Guiuan in Eastern Samar for approving a resolution which endorses the renewal of a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) of Hinatuan Mining Corp. (HMC) on Manican Island.
They are appealing Secretary Roy A. Cimatu of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) not to renew the mining company’s MPSA.
They said Cimatu should instead press the company to rehabilitate its mined-out area and work to restore ecological balance on the island.
HMC has not been operating its nickel mine on Manican Island since 2002.
However, the company is not yet about to give up its mining claim, banking on the call of residents from its host community who stand to benefit from the employment and livelihood opportunities mining offers.
While it is supposed to be a predominantly fishing and agricultural town, Guiuan, a first-class municipality in the province of Eastern Samar, used to host a vibrant nickel-mining operation until disaster struck, prompting former Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez to suspend its operation in 2002.
As of the 2015 census, Guiuan had a population of 52,991 people.
With support from civil-society organizations from Tacloban and Guiuan, the group called out members of the Sangguniang Bayan of Guiuan to uphold an existing SB resolution that asks the DENR not to allow mining operation on Manicani Island, and a provincial ordinance that bans large-scale mining operations in the entire Eastern Samar province.
In a statement released through the Philippine Misereor Partnerships Inc. (PMPI), they claim HMC, a subsidiary of publicly listed Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC), is aggressively pushing for the renewal of its MPSA on Manicani Island.
PMPI supports communities on Manicani and nearby Homonhon Island to promote sustainable farming and fishing. Both islands form part of the Guiuan Protected Landscape and Seascape, also known as the Guiuan Marine Reserve, a protected area under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act. HMC’s mining claim, however, came first before its declaration as a protected area in 1994.
“We ask the SB to reconsider their decision and not to disregard us the way the barangay LGUs did. Climate change is on us and mining will only increase the vulnerability of the island,” said Marcial Samooc, president of Protect Manicani Island Incorporated.