A local nongovernment organization (NGO) based in Marinduque is appealing to President Duterte to deny all mining applications in the island province.
The Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns, Inc. (MACEC) based in Boac, Marinduque is a support group for plaintiffs in a case filed against Barrick Gold, Marcopper Mining Corp., and Placer Dome Inc.
Marcopper and Placer Dome, Inc. are based in Canada. The company figured in the 1996 toxic spillage when the drainage tunnels of its open-pit mines broke causing about 2 to 3 million tons of toxic mine tailings.
To support its appeal to Duterte, the group has forwarded resolutions and statements to the Regional Office of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) for MIMAROPA, including an appeal from Former Associate of the Supreme Court and now Marinduque Governor Presbitero Velasco Jr. to the president to deny all mining applications in Marinduque.
In the document submitted to the office of NEDA OIC-Director Augustin Mendoza, the group stated that 41 resolutions and statements from the provincial government of Marinduque and civil society organizations are urging the national government to deny mining applications in the province. The provincial government, academe and civil society groups also want to delist Marinduque in the mining tenement area and to declare the province a mining-free zone in response to the lifting of the mining moratorium under Executive Order (EO) 130 issued by Malacañang.
“The petition filed by the people of the Province of Marinduque contained an overwhelming evidence and reasons against allowing corporations to mine the island,” Yoly Esguerra, National Coordinator Church-based NGO Partnership Mission for People’s Initiatives, said in a statement.
The groups also appealed for the revocation of Duterte’s EO 130.