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RP-Australia defense pact meant to ensure protection Aussie mining operations, militant groups say

Two militant groups on Wednesday said the rabid intention of the Australian government to clinch a Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) with the Philippines was meant to ensure protection to Australian mining operations all over the country, particularly in Mindanao.

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and its staunch ally, the environmental activist group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) in separate statements argued that Australia wants both direct and indirect involvement in the military affairs of the country to make sure their mining operations across the country are protected by strong and highly equipped joint Filipino-Australian military force.

“This is a clear case of political and military intervention, and economic and environmental sabotage rolled into one,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“Military and anti-terrorism exercises and actual combat operations will be launched by Filipino and Australian military forces in areas where Australian mining TNCs are operating. This is the real story behind this anti-people defense pact,” Hicap added.

Hicap said his group is going to challenge the ratification of the defense agreement between the Philippine and Australian government before the Philippine Senate at the opening of the 14th session of Congress in July 23.

“A people’s petition calling for the junking of the RP-Australia defense will be submitted to the new Senate leadership on the opening day of Congress. We will make it hard for the Australian bred fascists and mining monopolists and their local cohorts in the Macapagal-Arroyo administration to pass their sinister agenda,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

Pamalakaya’s Hicap said it would lobby to the opposition dominated Senate the rejection of RP-Australia defense pact, as well as the rejection of the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

The fisherfolk group is counting on the support of incoming senators Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano to lead the pack of lawmakers that would oppose the Japanese and Australian invasion of the country under these fresh agreements.

For his part, Kalikasan-PNE national coordinator Clemente Bautista said more Australian mining companies like BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining corporation based in Melbourne is aiming for a multi-million dollar nickel project in Pujada Peninsula, Davao Oriental province in partnership with local mining firms Hallmark Mining Corp. and AustraAsia Link Mining Corp.
Bautista said aside from BHP Billiton, other Australian mining companies like Medusa Mining in Eastern Mindanao, Red 5 in Siana in Surigao del Norte, Indophil in South Cotabato, and Climax-Arimco in Surigao del Norte want to conquer Mindanao and promote mining disaster like the Lafayette toxic spill in October 2005.

Kalikasan-PNE noted the country’s past experiences with Australian Mining firms. Both groups said the Tinggians in the uplands of Abra will not hesitate to declare war on Australian mining firm Newcrest Exploration if it continued with its mining exploration on their ancestral lands.


The group said in Cabarruguis in Quirino province in 1996 the Australian Mining Company (ARIMCO) stopped operating after the fatal shooting of its Canadian consultant Colin Spence. Last year, the controversial Lafayette mine spills also drew great opposition and condemnation from the local, national, and international communities," the group said.

"Overseas operations of many Australian mining companies have actually contributed to conflict and instability, human rights violations, and environmental degradation in local communities throughout Indonesia, Papua new Guinea, and the Philippines. Local communities are sure to stand up in arms against these huge mining projects whch threaten their ancestral lands, ecosystems, livelihoods, and ways of life," Kalikasan-PNE explained. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:20 | link | comments (1) |

#1  31 May 2007 - 00:07

 

salamat, gerry! :-)

-lisa

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