Mining in the Philippines - Concerns and Conflicts

Foreword
Having visited many developing countries and seen many places where environmental degradation
or destructive development has damaged the livelihoods of people, I was nevertheless deeply
shocked by the negative impact of mining in the Philippines. In July 2006 I led a team of human
rights and environmental experts on a fact finding visit to the Philippines in order to examine the
impact of mining on the environment and people’s livelihoods. We met with communities affected
by mining and proposals for new mines. We heard how indigenous people had been shifted off their
lands to make way for mining and how their consultation rights had been undermined and ignored.
We saw polluted rivers, destroyed mangrove forests, damaged coral and ruined agriculture. We
concluded that the Philippines is in danger of losing much of its rich biodiversity and damaging the
lives of unique indigenous cultures. I believe that current plans for mining in the Philippines should
be scrapped and a new strategy put in place which takes proper account of the large number of jobs
that already exist in small scale mining and the need to establish criteria for that development of the
mining industry which protects the precious and unique biodiversity of the Philippines and the rights
of indigenous communities.
During our visit, we found scant evidence of mining benefiting local people or the country’s
economy. We believe that the Government of the Philippines and the mining companies have failed
to comply with national law and international standards. We believe that the Government should be
challenged to demonstrate that it is willing to adhere to its own laws and international mining best
practice by immediately refusing all mining applications which would damage critical watersheds,
ecosystems, agriculture or fisheries or lead to serious social disruption. We are also concerned that
some of the mining companies are based in the UK and increasingly money raised in the City of
London is being used to fund disastrous projects.
World Bank support for an expansion of destructive mining in the Philippines is also a matter of great
concern and given the substantial provision of funding to the World Bank by UK taxpayers, a matter
that should be taken up by parliamentarians and the Department for International Development.
Similarly the European Union claims that its development programmes are dedicated to the
protection of the rights of indigenous people and to a strong commitment to sustainable development
but its development interventions in the Philippines are failing to live up to these standards. All
these development agencies should play a bigger role in helping the Philippines protect and restore
its degraded environment and thus enhance and provide a sustainable future for millions of poor
people working in agriculture and fisheries. We also believe that the investor community must
behave more responsibly in their investment decisions in the Philippines.
My own conclusion from the visit was that I have never seen anything so systematically destructive
as the mining programme in the Philippines. The environmental effects are catastrophic as are the
effects on people’s livelihoods.
The attached report has been prepared by Cathal Doyle, Irish Centre for Human Rights, National
University of Ireland, Galway, Clive Wicks a UK Member of CEESP the IUCN Commission on
Environmental Economic and Social Policy and Fr Frank Nally, UK Columban Faith and Justice
Office and takes further the conclusions that I have outlined here. We all wish to express our
solidarity with and admiration for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines which has
been vocal in its public opposition to the country’s 1995 Mining Act, local mining practices and plans
for a massive expansion of mining.
Clare Short MP
House of Commons
13 December 2006
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