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| Environmental Impact Assessment is big deal |
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| Wednesday, 22 July 2009 01:52 |
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Friday, July 17, 2009, Manila Times In Dan Mariano’s column Big Deal, published on 6 July 2009 entitled “DENR reform, can it be done?,” he shared to his readers what transpired during the Multi-Sectoral Consultation on the proposed Environmental Impact Statement System, lauding the initiatives of DENR Secretary Lito Atienza and even declaring that the proposed streamlining of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) System was “eagerly received by the land developers, officials of mining and forestry industry associations, business groups, who attended the consultation.” The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth-Phils.
(LRC-KsK/FoE-Phils.) was present during the said activity. First, we refuse to accept that the process was a consultation of any sort, but rather, a conspiracy between the DENR and the mining sector to hasten and make the EIA process easier. The mining royalty was in full force, obviously very much of these “new” rules (while other sectors were unaware of such activity), even drawing snickers from the crowd as they raised their hands to show that they comprised the majority of the audience. Second, the activity was not even attended by communities who are directly impacted by mining and land development projects. Their voices remain unheard in this process. Third, the handful NGOs present, vis-à-vis a roomful of mining bigwigs, were very critical of the proposal of the DENR, propounding questions which even the Secretary himself failed to answer satisfactorily, for example those raised with regard to the separation of the social and cultural issues from the environment, or that the twenty (20) days EIA process period is too short a time to make a decent assessment whether or not the EIA report is acceptable. LRC-KsK in fact questions the motivations of the streamlining of EIA process. The EIA was designed to have a better planning for our projects, to be able to anticipate various impacts of the project—environmental, social and economic, which should be the basis of either granting the environmental compliance certificate (ECC), or the commitment of the project proponent of mitigating measures. In the light of the numerous cases where ECCs have been granted to projects which resulted to environmental destruction and loss of livelihood and social division of the host communities, you would expect that the DENR will conduct the consultation and review of the EIA process with the affected communities and local governments in order to make the process more responsive to their needs and protective of the environment. But what we see here is a streamlining effort to serve better the interest of the businesses, short-cutting the process of assessment and limiting the space fro public participation. But we do agree with Mr. Mariano, that Secretary Atienza is one of the best performing cabinet members. Atienza toes the line of his president in bending backwards to please foreign investors to the detriment of the environment and natural resources. And the Filipino rural poor communities? Not even in their equation. 
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