Press Release
03 February 2022
Environmental organization Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) lauded the Committee of Natural Resources of the House of Representatives(HOR) for releasing House Bill 254 or the People’s Mining Bill yesterday.
“This will make sure that in the next Congress the People’s Mining Bill will go directly into committee hearings upon its refiling and hopefully pass the plenary,” Kalikasan PNE National Coordinator Leon Dulce said.
HB 254 is a consolidated version of alternative bills to the controversial Mining Act of 1995 which opened up opportunities for full foreign ownership of mineralized lands, the displacement of communities, and abuses of the collective rights of indigenous peoples over their ancestral domains and natural resources.
“The progress of the bill is timely given the efforts made by the Duterte administration to plunder our natural resources in the guise of pandemic recovery,” Dulce added.
In 2021, the Duterte government lifted the moratorium on new mining applications and the open-pit mining ban, with Dept. of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III supporting the move by privatizing idle government assets.
“This signals the public clamor to stop the pro-mining politics that have flourished under the Duterte government. We need strong candidates to take the elections as an opportunity to further challenge the weak but destructive business-as-usual of the large-scale mining industry,” ended Dulce.#
