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Over 5,000 hectares of critical areas
Militants, concerned citizens up in arms
Lucio Tan over Palawan mining

A militant alliance of small fisherfolk and a group of concerned citizens in Palawan on Monday declared war against business tycoon Lucio Tan over a large scale mining operation in the municipality of Brooke’s Point owned by Tan’s Macro Asia Corp.

In separate statements, the activist fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and the Palawan-based People’s Alliance for Good Governance (PAGG) assailed the nickel mining exploration project of Macro Asia Corp. which falls under the Environmental Critical Area Network Zones of the province.

“ Something must be done to stop the Office of the President and its’ client- the Macro Asia Corp. from pursuing its’ recipe for destruction. We cannot afford to have another major catastrophe in the offing in the tradition of Southern Leyte landslides or Rapu-Rapu toxic spills,” says Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chairperson.

Hicap said more than one-third or a total of 9, 935 signatures of the 27,000 voting population of Brooke’s Point municipality had already signed the petition urging Malacañang, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the provincial government of Palawan and municipal government of Brooke’s Point asking for scrapping of Macro Asia’s permit to explore mining for two years.

“ The people of Palawan are earning enough from fishing, upland farming and other agricultural activities. Lucio Tan’s mining exploration is not welcome and we will not entertain another apocalypse and major disaster in the offing,” the leftist leader added.

The PAGG, a broad coalition composed of Palawan’s members of the academe and environmental NGOs, indigenous peoples’ organizations, peasant and fisherfolk groups, small business groups, health organizations and employees’ associations had maintained that the project is not incompatible with the fragile situation of Palawan.

The Palawan multisectoral alliance also said the nickel mining exploration of Macro Asia will also endanger investments in agri-business and eco-tourism projects and the livelihood of small fisherfolk and indigenous communities.

“ Palawan is the last ecological frontier in the country and perhaps in the entire Southeast Asia. This will be endangered by the mining activity pushed by Lucio Tan’s Macro Asia Corp.”, PAGG said.

Data provided by PAGG revealed that Tan’s Macro Asia Corp. filed an application for a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA), designated as AMA-1V-76 with an area of 4,730 hectares on September 15, 1977 and additional area of 410 hectares assigned as AMA-IVB-143 was filed on June 16, 2003.

Based on field evaluation conducted last June 21-22, 2005 conducted by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) and Macro Asia staff the applied area for exploration falls within different zone categories: core (4,379 hectares), controlled (373 hectares) and traditional use zones (386 zones).

The MPSA applications shall include two years exploration work program with a total project cost of P 12.8 B. The project is located in barangays Ipilan, Mambalot and Maasin, all in the municipality of Brooke’s Point.

The PAGG said the sub-surface investigation work program will utilize a 3-5 centimeter portable rotary spindle type core of drilling machine. It is projected that 10 units of drilling equipment will be used over a period of 4 months. It is projected that 3,000 holes will be drilled or a hole for every one-and-a-half hectares.

The Palawan multisectoral group against mining likewise denounced the Brooke’s Point municipality’s endorsement of Macro Asia Mining, adding that no public consultations were made among the affected residents and that the mining exploration violated a number of environmental laws and procedures. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 05:49 | link | comments |

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