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Iloilo City — Guimaras officials and residents have heightened their opposition to large-scale mining activities on the island amid continued applications for mining explorations covering 65 percent of the island or around 37,000 hectares.
Guimaras Gov. Felipe Nava said they started a second round of signature campaign this time focusing on barangays as part of their province-wide advocacy against large-scale mining.
“We will block the application because it would be difficult if the exploration operations start,” Nava told the Inquirer in a text message Thursday.
Nava said the mining operations could destroy the island's tourism potential, rich biodiversity and tlivelihood of the people.
Environmental and church groups have joined the opposition of Guimaras residents against the application fearing its impact to the island's environment still reeling from massive oil spill in 2006.
Msgr. Meliton Oso, director of the Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center, said they were supporting the campaign against mining activities in line with the pastoral letter issued by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, which called for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995.
“Despite the opposition of residents and officials, the applications have not stopped and are being processed. We must continue to be vigilant,” Oso said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
There is one approved mining exploration application in Guimaras and three other pending applications as of Sept. 30, 2009, data from the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau in Western Visayas showed.
The MGB issued a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MSPA) to extract limestone to the Dorilag Cement Corp. on June 18, 1993, covering 1,794.6 hectares in Jordan and Buenavista towns.
The operations have not started and the company was still undertaking an Environment Impact Assessment. inquirer
