Lafayette is at it again, trying to project it is pro-environment. "We fully support initiatives for environmental concerns," so said Carlos Dominguez. By partnering with a green group?
So, how green is this group really? At the risk of belaboring the obvious, please read first these two statements attributed to one Pastor Cerial Ecalnir, the group's adviser, and let Lafayette 's efforts humor you a bit (if you can find humor in it at all).
1. "We believe that Lafayette is one with us in our concern for the environment."
-Yeah, right. Whoops, our bogus-o-meter is cranking up.
2. On the issue of the 2007 fish kill: "We stand neutral on the issue, we just want to plant trees, do concrete actions for environmental protection, and find solutions to problems instead of loose talks."
- You stand neutral?! You call yourselves green and you stand neutral on an issue of environmental destruction?
- Loose talks, eh. So the solution this group trumpets to have found is to plant seedlings in mining-devastated areas and to partner with a known environment destroyer. AMDs be damned.
To add another element to this farce, the press release is a joint undertaking of (dig this!) Lafayette 's RRMI and the government's Philippine Information Agency (PIA). How's that for government collusion? Yuck!
Here's a rhetorical (loose talk?) question: When has the PIA made itself an instrument for Lafayette 's propaganda? Why not add a sub-title to this article: Mine firm confirms collusion with gov't agency"?
Think you can still fool the rest of us? Think again.
Mine firm establishes partnership with green group
By JJJ Perez
http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&fi=p080109.htm&no=68&r=&y=&mo=
The activity was marked with a turn-over ceremony of seedlings graced by LPI president Carlos Dominguez.
"We fully support initiatives for environmental concerns," Dominguez said as he pledged more support to the group.
The mine firm has produced 22,181 seedlings in 2007, of which 11,000 are already utilized. It also made a total donation of 5,365 seedlings during the past year, most of them for reforestation projects to various beneficiaries notably the DENR, schools, Church-based groups, peoples organizations, and local government units.
Except for mahogany, most of the seedlings are indigenous or endemic including the hardwoods narra and molave. The company even extends support to reforestation projects in Camarines Sur, Albay and Sorsogon aside from its commitment to rehabilitate and implement reforestation in areas inside its mine development project at Barangay Pagcolbon this town.
"We believe that
The group which started as a peer group of 12 and now numbering 50 advocating for watershed protection and mitigation of global warming "will plant the 500 seedlings from the mine firm at Rapu-Rapu Watershed in Barangay Poblacion."
The group is unperturbed with the alleged fish kill issue in Poblacion. "We stand neutral on the issue, we just want to plant trees, do concrete actions for environmental protection, and find solutions to problems instead of loose talks," Pastor Ecalnir said. (CARE RRMI/PIA)
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