KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/10 Feb) – The Catholic church here has accused a foreign-backed mining firm for reneging on its promise to provide the church with results of their initial studies conducted on the effect of its proposed operations to the environment and the community.

Fr. Romeo Q. Catedral, social action center director of the Diocese of Marbel, has also expressed fears of militarization in the proposed mining area, which straddles the towns of Tampakan in South Cotabato, Columbio in Sultan Kudarat and Kiblawan in Davao del Sur.“They promised to provide us a copy of the [pre-]feasibility study report but until now they failed,” Catedral said of Sagittarius Mines, Inc.

October last year, Catedral, along with Marbel Bishop Dinualdo D. Gutierrez and several other local religious and lay leaders, met with senior Filipino executives of Sagittarius and requested for a copy of the pre-feasibility study.

Officials of Sagittarius promised they would.

John B. Arnaldo, Sagittarius corporate communications manager, said they did not renege on the promise. He noted that a month after the meeting, Sagittarius wrote church officials that what the firm could give was the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA), a public document. “The ESIA will be out by the third quarter this year,” he stressed.

Sagittarius Mines is controlled by Xstrata Copper, the world’s fourth largest copper producer, with Australian firm Indophil Resources NL.

Aside from opposition from the church and civic groups, the Tampakan project is also dealing with threats from the New People’s Army. The rebel group has staged two attacks against Sagittarius in the last two years.

Early this month, armed men attacked the mines development site once more, burning an elementary school that catered mainly to tribal children.

“We believe that the incident could be used to give reason for the deployment of more military personnel in the area, especially that there have been a series of spontaneous protest actions of the B’laans directed against the company since last year” said Sr. Susan O. Bolanio, spokesperson of the SOCSKSARGEN Climate Action Now.

But Arnaldo said the claim was baseless. “We do not engage public security personnel to protect our workforce or assets,” he added.

Sagittarius, he said, has hired a private security agency whose personnel has been given “appropriate human rights training.”

(MindaNews)

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