Development is not development when it is being rammed down the throats of the people.
Development becomes aggression when it undermines the will of the people and triggers human rights violations in the process.
The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) condemns in the strongest possible terms the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) decision to issue an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) for the 11, 200 hectare Mindoro Nickel Project to be ‘developed’ by the Intex Resources, a Norwegian mining company.
Last October 2009, the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) under the DENR released the said ECC despite the existing 25-year moratorium on large-scale mining passed by the provincial government of Mindoro Oriental and despite the absence of adequate consultations with the Mindoro residents.
Once again, DENR has exhibited the government’s insensitivity to the predicament of local communities affected by large-scale mining and other development projects. In its eagerness to invite and please foreign investors, it has betrayed and violated the right to self-determination and the right to participation of its people.
Right to self-determination mandates that the people has the prerogative to decide what kind of political, economic, and cultural development they want to pursue. It further states that people has the right to “freely dispose of their natural wealth.”
However, this right has been grossly violated not only in the case of Mindoro but in almost all communities ‘cursed’ with mineral deposits. But the people will not just back down, opposition to mining projects in different parts of the country are very much alive and sustained by determined residents and support groups.
A testimony to this is the on-going hunger strike of 25 Mindoreños in front of the DENR national office to demand for the revocation of the irregular ECC issued to Intex. The human rights community salutes and would like to join in solidarity this resolute action of the people of Mindoro to claim and assert their right to self-determination.
Defend dignity.
November 20, 2009
Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)
Philippine NGO-PO Network for ESC Rights
Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights)
Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP)
