Green Activists storm International Mining Conference

Press Release

September 6, 2017

A group of environmental activist stormed the International Mining Conference held in Sofitel Manila, this morning September 6, 2017.

The anti-destructive mining group, Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), led the lightning rally inside the luxury hotel. The activists said that they condemned the annual mining conference hosted by the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CoMP).

ATM Advocacy Officer, Danny Arias, explained “This mining conference is intended to exploit the country’s land and minerals, as well as the people and the environment. They are inviting the foreign investor to mine the Philippines. They are inviting instead of following the President’s order to compensate the people affected by their abuse.”

Every year, CoMP is hosting a mining conference with the intention to expand and intensify the mining business here in the Philippines. This year’s theme is, “Responsible Mining: Moving Beyond Compliance”

“These rich people are all hypocrites. They were talking about compliance but none of them obeys the closure and suspension orders from Department of Environment and National Resource (DENR) just because some government officials act as their lawyers,” said Arias.

Last February, when Gina Lopez was still the DENR Secretary, she ordered 23 mining operations to be closed and five (5) to be suspended as the result of the conducted mining audit.

ATM has expressed its stand that the organization denounces the concept of “Responsible Mining” as they believe that all large-scale mining operations, specifically the Open-pit method of mining, is still destructive in essence.

“Responsible mining is not possible, especially if there is no legal definition of how they will do responsible mining. It is just another slogan for their business as they failed to defend the previous ‘sustainable mining’ slogan. If the country has a clear industrialization plan that would tell us how are we going to mine and what minerals do we need, responsible mining might be possible – but we rather call it ‘rational mining’.” Arias concluded. “We need a moratorium on large-scale mining operations until the Alternative Minerals Management Bill is enacted by our legislators.”

ATM is an alliance of mining-affected communities and their support groups of NGOs/POs and other civil society organizations who are opposing the aggressive promotion of large-scale mining in the Philippines.

For more information:

Jaybee Garganera, ATM National Coordinator, (0927) 761.76.02 <nc@alyansatigilmina.net>

Karl Isaac Santos, Media and Communications Officer, (0917) 149.17.17 <media.comms@alyansatigilmina.net>