Winning a battle but not the war against open-pit mining | Commentary | Sunday Examiner

An abandoned open-pit mine on Manicani island in the central Philippines remains without vegetation many years after its closure. Photo: UCAN/Mark Saludes

Joseph Peter Calleja

Catholic bishops in the Philippines have long fought against open-pit mining—a surface method of extracting rock or minerals from an open-air pit otherwise known as a “borrow” mine or a “quarry.”

Holes are drilled to check if rocks or soil contain minerals. If minerals such as gold or copper are found, surface soil will be removed until the purported mineral is reached, extracted and processed.

Open-pit mining is the most practical and cheap way of extracting minerals, but experts say it is also the method that does the most harm to the environment. With soil extraction, natural vegetation and thousands of trees are removed while animals and their young are left without a habitat.

In South Cotabato province in the Mindanao region, a local court recently banned open-pit mining that made Church authorities say “justice is still working for the poor.”

The court invalidated the permit of Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) due to environmental concerns like the massive cutting of trees and polluting river beds.

Open-pit mining is the most practical and cheap way of extracting minerals, but experts say it is also the method that does the most harm to the environment. With soil extraction, natural vegetation and thousands of trees are removed while animals and their young are left without a habitat.

South Cotabato is known to have large untapped deposits of copper and gold. Bishop Cerilo Casicas of Marbel in Cotabato province, who has fought mining for years, said the court ruling was a small step towards victory in protecting the environment as called for by Pope Francis in his encyclical, Laudato Si’.

“With this decision, we are convinced that the law and the legal system can be truly used to attain social justice for people and the environment,” the bishop said.

“And we are even more motivated to remain steadfast in our mission to safeguard our common home and to be firm in opposing projects which desecrate what God has created, all the more that our law and justice is on our side,” the bishop added.

Last year the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines praised the president, Rodrigo Duterte, for his support for environmental and Church groups that oppose open-pit mining.

“We need to leave behind a legacy of intergenerational justice that gives a reasonable certainty for the children of South Cotabato that their future will not involve a serious scarcity of resources and a critical imbalance to the right agricultural diversity of the province”
Bishop Pabillo

Duterte warned private corporations that he would declare a total ban on open-pit mining in 2020 as it destroyed the soil and the environment.

“We commend the president for taking a strong stand to protect the fragile environment and not to give in to pursue the business interests of mining companies,” executive secretary of Caritas Philippines, Father Edwin Gariguez, told reporters at the time.

But after more than a year, Church authorities are still calling for Duterte to keep his promise.

The Catholic Church in the Philippines joined calls from environmental groups to end open-pit mining decades ago, especially in Mindanao.

In Tampakan, in South Cotabato province, various groups fought a foreign-owned company to save the area from deforestation and environmental abuse.

Apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, said allowing open-pit mining in the area promoted a culture of injustice among those who did not know their rights and the poor.

“We need to leave behind a legacy of intergenerational justice that gives a reasonable certainty for the children of South Cotabato that their future will not involve a serious scarcity of resources and a critical imbalance to the right agricultural diversity of the province,” Bishop Pabillo said in a statement.

Clergy sent letters and appeals to the authorities to revoke licenses of mining corporations that practice open-pit mining. Some even went abroad to international environmental groups for help.

Despite good intentions and earnest efforts, the fight against open-pit mining involves political will. The will does not only come from the governed but from the very people who govern. After all, they are the ones who give permits to corporations to exploit the earth.

And so, before they give permits to mining corporations, authorities should think of the people, especially the poor, instead of the profits mining will bring to the government’s coffers or officials’ pockets.