Dapitan Declaration
| Anti-mining
advocates from all over the country will gather at the Rizal Shrine
in Dapitan City on October 11 to participate in what has been dubbed
as "The Dapitan Initiative". "The Dapitan Initiative" seeks the scrapping of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 (Republic Act No. 7942) and the formulation of an alternative "People's Mining Act". The activity is organized by the DIOPIM Committee on Mining Issues (DCMI) - composed of church groups from the cities of Dipolog, Iligan, Ozamiz, Pagadian, Ipil, and Marawi, thus the acronym DIOPIM - and the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan (LRC-KsK), a non-government organization which has been involved in the issue of mining for many years. A highlight of the event is the signing of "The Dapitan Declaration" by prominent individuals representing various sectors of Philippine society. Some of the anti-mining advocates who have already confirmed their participation include the following: Chin-Chin Gutierrez, award-winning actress and environmentalist; Teddy Casiņo, activist and BAYAN Secretary General; Dapitan City Mayor Rodolfo Carreon; Bishop Jose Manguiran, Bishop of Dipolog and DCMI Bishop-in-Charge; Bishop Warlito Baldomero, Philippine Independent Church-Ozamiz City; and Atty. Marvic Leonen, Executive Director of LRC-KsK. Leaders of communities adversely affected by mining will also share their experiences. A ritual calling on the good spirits to be led by the Subanen, an indigenous peoples group in Zamboanga del Norte, will open the event at 8:00 am. According to the organizers, "The Dapitan Initiative" seeks to encourage discussions among advocates, particularly local community organizations and NGOs on how to address the problem of large-scale mining. They added that the event will be the starting point of a signature campaign seeking to scrap RA 7942. |
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DAPITAN DECLARATION
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We
have witnessed the destructive effects of mining on human and other
life forms violations of people's rights, fish kills, environmental
destruction, pollution, and dreaded diseases which are glaring in
the cases of Canatuan in Zamboanga del Norte and the communities in
Marinduque. This cannot go on. There are alternative ways of organizing
and understanding our world and how we want to live. We believe in
the initiative of committed individuals to convince others and lead
to a growing number of advocates. We declare that given the current
state of the mining industry and our current economic and political
set up, there can be no sustainable mining as contained in the proposed
National Minerals Policy. We commit as individuals, not only to oppose
the current legal framework provided by Republic Act Nos. 7942 and
7076 but also to increase public awareness of these issues. We commit
to contribute to do whatever we can as individuals to uphold indigenous
people's rights and achieve a more ecologically sound, gender-fair,
equitable system of resource management. We will work for a democratic
and consultative process in enacting a new legal framework to achieve
a wise stewardship of our natural resources based on the following
principles. Everyone should share in the burden of satisfying resource
needs primarily through re-using and recycling existing mineral products.
In land and water use, the concerns of food security, which includes
food free from pollution, livelihood production, ecological balance,
equity, and social justice should always be the priority. Only resources
that are necessary for domestic use and national industrialization
should be utilized. We should develop our own human resources and
encourage the evolution of our own appropriate technologies.v Priority
should be given to community-based, community-initiated and community-owned
stewardship of resources. There should be no compromise on human rights,
dignity and collective identities. At the minimum, we call for:
The immediate cancellation of all existing financial and technical assistance agreements (FTAAs), minerals production sharing agreements (MPSAs), exploration permits, and other mining agreements, licenses and other instruments because they are all based on a highly flawed system;We believe that our individual commitments will grow into a voice of millions of Filipinos. It will be impossible not to heed our call. This is our legacy to future generations. Dapitan City, Philippines. Signed:
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