STATEMENT: Aquino's Emergency Powers: more power to steal from the people and destroy the environment

Press Statement
December 14, 2014
Panalipdan Southern Mindanao

On the Emergency Powers of Pres. BS Aquino
More power to steal from the people and destroy the environment

Panalipdan-SMR, an environmental advocacy group in Davao City, declares its opposition to the Joint House Resolution 21 giving emergency powers to the President supposedly to address the so-called energy crisis in the summer months of 2015. There is no energy crisis looming. Instead, this move by the House of Representatives may only lead to greater opportunities for corruption in the Aquino administration and to speeding up of environmental destruction in the country.

On further inspection, it is the energy reserves, not the supply, that will be affected. Plus, there are several projects underway to address this problem without resorting to an emergency power. To grant the president emergency powers therefore is not only unnecessary, it is unscrupulous. It gives the President further control over energy-related projects, including the financial aspects of such, even in the midst of his involvement in the corruption with pork barrel funds.

According to reports, the DOE estimates a 782-MW shortage for 2015, but projects are already underway to provide 1,600 MW of power for the next year, more than what is needed to provide for the reserve needs. With the suspension of environmental laws under the emergency powers, the construction of privately-owned power plants in the country can be hastened, which means greater environmental destruction. Aquino is truly an enemy of the environment; it puts privatized power industry’s profit first regardless of their impacts to the ecology and communities which will be affected.

It is likely that the funds that come out of these projects funnel directly to those who supported this bill, as the election period looms near. Why can the government subsidize the owners of SGFs or backup generators and not give financial support to the setting-up of community-based electrification projects?

The power crisis is a hocus, one that is destructive to the environment and provident for corrupt lawmakers of opportunities for misuse of public funds most likely for the upcoming election season. The continued privatization of the power industry through EPIRA will continue to result to increasing prices for electricity.

It is true that there is an energy problem in the country, but the problem does not lie in the lack of electric power itself but on how the additional generated power will benefit the Filipino people. Many barangays are still up to now not electrified. The emergency powers given to Aquino only shows whose interests his government is serving, that of foreign power industry and their local business partners, and not to the Filipino people.

STATEMENT: On the 2nd Anniversary of Typhoon Pablo Disaster

Statement of Panalipdan Southern Mindanao
On the 2nd Anniversary of Typhoon Pablo Disaster
December 4, 2014

Two years after the disaster that was Pablo, survivors are yet to recover from its economic and environmental impacts. Many communities in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental haven't felt the P10 billion rehabilitation project supposedly implemented by the BS Aquino government.

Worse, many pabahay residents have to suffer from poor housing conditions; many houses were built without proper foundation which thus spells further disaster. In Cateel, people have to shell out some amount to avail of the pabahay project.

Many families in New Bataan, Compostela Valley were forced to be dislocated from their farms just to avail of the housing project. In short, the rehabilitation effort of the Aquino government were effectively used as a tool to drive away residents from their communities.

Without the much needed help from the government, many Pablo survivors have realized their collective potential to rise up from the rubbles of Pablo. With the aid of disaster response and rehabilitation NGOs and concerned individuals and organizations, they were able to establish farms for their food security. They also adopted Rainforestation projects which aim to restore the forest and rehabillitate the environment that was damaged due to cash-oriented illegal logging. Aside from that, they found their strength in uniting against the entry of foreign large-scale mining.

Pablo survivors under Barug Katawhan together with support groups in Davao City stormed the DSWD once again on the 2nd anniversary of Typhoon Pablo. They also held protest in front of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to call for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995 and the end to the foreign-owned large-scale mining operations in Pablo-stricken areas.

They are joining the kampuhan in Davao City towards the International Human Rights Day on December 10 in order to highlight the various human rights violations they suffer under intensified militarization, which was a reaction to their opposition to the large-scale mining operations and their persistent move to expose the criminal negligence of the Aquino government towards disaster survivors.

More photos here.

Small scale miners: We will not give up Pantukan

Press Release
March 22, 2012

Small scale miners: We will not give up Pantukan
Burn effigy, US flag

Pantukan, ComVal – An effigy of a huge bulldozer and a U.S. flag marked with the logo of Russell Mines – St. Augustine was burned down along the Pantukan National highway, near Kingking Bridge, amidst the calls for right to livelihood, right to patrimony by small scale miners, farmers and indigenous folks.

The more than 2,000 strong delegation mostly coming from Diat 1 – 3, Panganason, Gumayan, Boringot and Post 4, culminated their 3-day camp-out – protest today with the promise that they will not give – up Pantukan.

“US-Canada’s mining giants guarded by P-Noy’s mining militias have come to displace us economically and physically from our source of living, our home, the only way we know how to live. But Davids as we are, we will surely win because we stand united. We can fight their bulldozers and rifles like our Mandaya ancestors fought the colonizers,” said Omar Gudo in the vernacular, chairperson of the Federation of Small Scale Miners of Compostela Valley (FSSMCV).

The SSM said although they understand the geohazards in some areas in Pantukan, they do not believe that all areas must be closed for small scale operations. The SSM insists the order is due to the Aquino government’s bias for large scale and foreign miners.

Meanwhile, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said mining operations by US, Canada Australia and China will worsen the land problem and will affect the food produce from ComVal and Davao Oriental.

“Farmers too will be affected with the largescale and open pit mining method of Russell Mines – St. Augustine. Farmers’ communities surrounding Pantukan such as those in Mabini, and Maragusan in ComVal and Lupon in Davao Oriental, are also affected by this huge mining operation in Kingking,” said Pedro Arnado in the vernacular, chairperson of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).

For instance, Arnado cited the case of China’s Skynix Holdings which operates in 7,776 hectares in Pantukan and Maragusan through the MPSA of Oro East Mining Company.

“The operation of Oro East – Skynix will affect the Sumlog River and the supposedly – protected Sumlog Watershed which provides water to the vast farmlands in Banay-banay which is one of the few remaining source of ‘rice’ in the region. So, the fight in Pantukan against open pit and foreign mining plunder by the US, Canada and China is supported by the farmers,” said Arnado.

“Largescale and foreign mining is landgrabbing where TNCs can own 100% up to 80,000 hectares of land while the government acts as the dealer. This means farmers and indigenous peoples are disenfranchised of their innate rights to land, which is supposed to be used for local food production of palay, mais etc so we will no longer have to import rice,” said Arnado.

Environmental group PANALIPDAN – SMR said the pro-foreign and unconstitutional Philippine Mining Act of 1995, must be scrapped in order to stop the ‘legalized’ influx of foreign mining TNCs in the country.

“We have to strengthen the peoples’ movements nationwide for the passage of the Peoples’ Mining Bill (PMB) which ensures a pro-people, domestic-needs based, local mining industry that will pave the way for national industrialization. We want profits from nationalized mining to lead to more sustainable economic base through genuine agrarian reform. And this is the only bill that carries this agenda,” said Francis Morales, secretary general of PANALIPDAN – SMR.

Morales added, “P-Noy’s new Mining E.O only means the government will levy more tax for the mining taxes. It does not have any significant difference from the current pro-foreign mining law.”

The PMB, authored by Rep. Teddy Casino of the Bayan Muna Party list, has gone through the 1st reading in the Lower House.#

Leaders from the Pantukan Site of Struggle, for reference:


Omar Gudo
Chairperson, FSSMCV

Pedro Arnado
Chairperson, KMP – SMR

Francis Morales
Secretary General, PANALIPDAN

More photos at arkibongbayan.org.

STATEMENT: Save Davao Region's Rivers!

SAVE DAVAO REGION'S RIVERS
RESIST PSEUDO-DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS GEARED FOR CORPORATE PROFIT AND CAPITALIST PLUNDER!

Statement of PANALIPDAN – Southern Mindanao
for the International Day of Action for Rivers

March 14, 2009

On the International Day of Action for Rivers, PANALIPDAN*- Southern Mindanao enjoins the people of Davao to join hands and collectively assert the peoples' rights to water resources and unite in the protection of our rivers and water systems.

Today our rivers are threatened with the encroachment of projects implemented under the guise of development and progress that are crafted within the anti-people, and anti-environment framework of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) that by all means espouses and facilitates globalization policies at the expense of the Filipino people's land, resources and food security.

The influx of large-scale foreign mining, small scale mining funded by foreign corporations, hydro-power and mega dams, mono-crop and agro-plantations, and other foreign investments that are geared for capitalist profits have caused irreparable damages on our rivers, water systems, forests and agricultural lands as well as on the people.

In Davao City, the Talomo-Lipadas rivers are in a critical state, contaminated with toxic chemicals after several years of aerial spraying and unregulated use of fertilizers within the surrounding banana plantations in the area. Traces of lead and nitrate have been found in these rivers which is Davao City's main source of the world-famed “dumoy” water, hailed as the second cleanest water in the world.

Also threatened for the construction of a hydro-power project is the Tamugan – Panigan Watershed Areas in Davao City. HEDCOR Inc., a multi-million company owned by Aboitiz, plans to generate electricity and targets an annual income of Php 6 Billion from the project by diverting the Tamugan and Panigan rivers alarming Davao City residents due to consequences that that the project will pose on the 40,000 – hectare watershed area in the city.

The same company is now constructing a 42.5 megawatt hydropower plant in the sacred ancestral grounds of the Tagabawa – Bagobo lumads and has by far caused the destruction of hectares of coffee and vegetable farms. There is no measure of the dam's impact on the peace and harmony and cultural heritage of the Bagobo tribes.

Meanwhile in Davao Oriental, the mining operations funded by Skynix Holdings Inc. through the seven Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) of five companies posing as small scale pose ominous dangers on the Sumlog Watershed which provides irrigation to more than 4,000 hectares of ricefields in Banay – Banay and Lupon towns. Aside from the Sumlog Watershed, these mining operations also threaten the Davao Gulf, the Kingking River, the Caraga River and Tagum Rivers.

The BHP-Billiton-backed Pujada Nickel Project also spells devastation to the farmers, fisherfolks and indigenous peoples who are much dependent on two protected areas, the Pujada Bay and Mt. Hamiguitan which are home to various endangered and endemic water and land species.

With this, we join the millions of people in the world in decrying the onslaught of destructive projects that ruin our rivers and our lives.

The following are the current actions being waged by the different communities in Davao Region for the defense and protection of Davao's threatened rivers and water systems.

• Campaign against the mining operations of Jake Mining, Oro East Mining, Southern Horizon Mining, Eastern Horizon and Viclode Mining under the umbrella of Chinese mining firm Skynix Holdings;
• Campaign against mining giant BHP Billiton;
• Campaign against HEDCOR's hydro-power projects in Sibulan, Sta. Cruz and Tamugan – Panigan – Suawan, Marilog District;
• Campaign for the protection of the Talomo – Lipadas Rivers by the Obo-Klata indigenous peoples in Brgy. Manuel Guianga, Davao City

Water for Life, Not for Profit!

SAVE DAVAO REGION'S RIVERS!

RESIST PSEUDO-DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS GEARED FOR CORPORATE PROFITEERING AND CAPITALIST PLUNDER!

* PANALIPDAN is a Visayan word meaning “to defend.”

Francis Morales
Spokesperson
PANALIPDAN – Southern Mindanao

STATEMENT: Militarization In Mindanao Continues

Published in Mindanao Examiner

PRESS STATEMENT

Investment Defense Force swarming over mineral-rich areas; primary culprit behind the flooding of human rights violations in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental provinces.

The heightening militarization in the rural areas of Compostela Valley Province and Davao Oriental, provinces which are major mining, logging and biofuel sites in the country is but part of the Investment Defense Force (IDF) which was formed by the Arroyo government early this year to secure the country's vital investments.

The massive military deployment and operations of composite units of 28th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, 72nd IB, 67th IB, 30th IB, Special Forces, and Scout Rangers battalion are the actual implementation of the IDF to facilitate the entry and/or to protect the interests of foreign large-scale mining and pesticides-dependent mono-crop plantation companies.

Many indigenous people, particularly Mansaka and Mandaya, and peasant settlers are displaced by militarization and development aggression. Some of them were hurt physically and tortured mentally in the course of military operations.

At the first quarter of this year, around 410 families were forcibly displaced from Baganga and Cateel towns in Davao Oriental. At the start of the second quarter, around 104 Mandaya and Mansaka families have already been victims of forcible displacement/evacuation in New Bataan Compostela Valley.

In Barangay Mangayon in Compostela, an Ata-Matigsalug Village complains of cases of torture, physical injuries and harassment against 5 residents of which 2 are children. The same community complained of military encampment in civilian houses which is a direct violation of international humanitarian laws.

Appallingly, state-perpetrated human rights violations and atrocities heighten as mining companies of Transnational/Multinational Corporations continue to threaten the communities and fragile surrounding ecosystems - Key Biodiversity Areas - Mt. Kampalili-Puting Bato Range and Mt. Agtuuganon-Pasian Range found in these provinces.

Several mining applications, claims and reserves of the TNCs/MNCs in the area are presently threatening destruction of ecosystems. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) acted like private armies of plunderers are backing this up to the detriment of Mother Nature and the people.

But resistance of the peasants, indigenous peoples, and various sectors will continue.

Hence we from PANALIPDAN!-SMR denounce the ongoing militarization and development aggression which has taken a toll on civilian rights and the environment.

We demand the stop of militarization and development aggression in ComVal Province and Davao Oriental, the stop of the implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya 2 and Investment Defense Force. We are calling for the pull-out of the 28th IBPA, 30th IBPA, 72nd IBPA, 67th IBPA, Special Forces, and Scout Rangers Battalion in rural areas.

We urge everyone to defend our national patrimony, environment and natural resources from plunder and to join us in seeking for justice for all victims of human rights violations.

Fr. Medardo Salomia
Vice –Chairperson

PANALIPDAN – SMR (Panalipdan!-Southern Mindanao is a group composed mostly of environmental advocates, church people, academe, youth, farmers, Moro and indigenous groups united in the defense of the environment, food security, land rights and national patrimony.)