Satur: DENR should revoke ECC, MPSA to Intex resources

Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo today threw his support for the hunger strikers protesting a foreign mining project in Oriental Mindoro that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources favors over long-term food security.

“We fully support the people and the local government units of Oriental and Occidental Mindoro who have consistently opposed the Mindoro Nickel Project of Intex Resources for the past 15 years. The DENR clearly erred in granting a Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) and Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) to Intex Resources and its subsidiaries namely, Aglubang Mining Corp., Pili Point Corp., Alag-ag Mining, Inc.  and Shapa Holding Corp., since mining will permanently damage, if not destroy the 9,720 hectares of critical watershed areas in Victoria, Oriental Mindoro and negatively affect irrigation and agriculture in the nearby towns, since the watershed area is the farmers’ main source for irrigation,” Ocampo said.

“The DENR is also granting license to Intex to grab the lands of Alangan and Tadyawan Mangyan indigenous peoples who have ancestral domain claims in the mine site. The local governments also assert that there was collusion between Intex, some tribal folk, and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in the granting of a questionable Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for the project. This gives further reason for the DENR to cancel the MPSA and the ECC it awarded to Intex,” Ocampo said.

Intex Resources, a giant Norwegian mining firm, expects to produce 100 to 120 million tons of nickel ore over a period of 15 to 20 years. Mindoro’s nickel laterite deposit is believed to be one of the biggest in the world and covers about 11,216.6 hectares on the island.

“The DENR completely ignored the Oriental Mindoro provincial government’s 25-year ban on large-scale mining in the province and the people of the four towns covered by the project –Victoria, Pola and Socorro in Oriental Mindoro and Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro who oppose the project. The DENR should immediately revoke the ECC and cancel the MPSA it gave to Intex,” Ocampo said.

The ECC allows the extraction of nickel ore covering 11,216 hectares of mining tenement, a big part of which is identified as critical watershed catchment of the Mag-asawang Tubig and Bucayao River systems, as affirmed by the recently concluded Norwegian Agency Development Corporation (Norad) study.

“The local government points out that the mining site encroaches on the largest source of irrigation water for the 40,000 hectares of rice lands in Calapan City, and the towns of Naujan, Baco, and Victoria, Oriental Mindoro. Mining will drastically reduce the estimated agricultural productivity of Oriental Mindoro from P11.41 billion to P4.027 billion. The DENR should have considered this and denied Intex its ECC,” Ocampo said.

The province of Oriental Mindoro is ranked third among provinces that produce the most food in the country, and known as the food basket of the southern Luzon region is threatened by Intex Resources’ attempt to open up a nickel mine despite local opposition. #

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