Protest against Lafayette mining heats up

Albay board to review memorandum of agreement between Australian firm and provincial govt
By Rhaydz B. Barcia, Correspondent-Manila Times
Posted by Bicol Today on December 6, 2007
http://bicoltoday.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/protest-against-lafayette-mining-heats-up/

Legazpi City: Finally the provincial government of Albay agreed to reinvestigate the fish kill incident off the shores of Rapu-Rapu a month ago and finally settle the issue.

The move came following the appeal made by the villagers from Rapu-Rapu when they stormed the session hall of the Sanguniang Panlalawigan of Albay on Wednesday.

Board Member Raul Borejon, committee on appropriation chairman, urged his colleagues to conduct a reinvestigation of the case that a closure may be reached on the controversial issue.

For his part, Board Member Niel Montallana pushed his colleagues to scrutinize the memorandum of agreement entered into between the provincial government and Lafayette Mining Ltd. during the incumbency of former Albay governor Al Francis Bichara, now a member of the House of Representatives (from the second congressional district of Albay).

Vice-Gov. Brando Sael who relinquished his chair during the session told the protesters and pro-environmentalists to allow due process. “Even though, we’re doing our part in closing down the operation of Lafayette, we still have procedures to follow,” he explained. “We’re also checking if Lafayette was really paying their share to the government’s coffer.” A month ago, Sael passed a resolution for the permanent closure of the mining firm.

Sael also asked Borejon to allocate funds and commission a study of the fish kill in Rapu-Rapu. “We need an independent body to conduct a scientific study and come up with impartial findings because I’m not convinced with the BFAR and DENR findings,” Sael added.
Meanwhile, some 500 villagers from Rapu-Rapu had set up camp in front of the Albay Provincial Capitol demanding that the Australian-owned Lafayette Mining Ltd. be closed down permanently. Likewise, the protesters are demanding compensation for mining-affected communities.

Members of these communities arrived at the Legazpi City pier for a weeklong Kampong Bayan (People’s Camp) in front of the Albay Capitol organized by civic organizations.

Umalpas Ka-Bikol and Sagip Isla Sagip Kapwa, an island-wide environmental organization of Rapu-Rapu residents, jointly organized the Kampong Bayan to be held until December 12. The camp activities will feature a nonstop program filled with daily prayer rallies, speeches of solidarity, discussions, workshops, dialogues, and cultural presentations.

This is the second Kampong Bayan and the fourth protest activity by the villagers of Rapu-Rapu following a fish kill that hit at least five barangays after the heavy rains on October 28, 2007.
Despite denials from Lafayette, the DENR and the BFAR, villagers believe the fish kill is due to the mine operations. Lafayette previously sustained two mine tailing incidents on October 11 and 31 in 2005, causing fish kills in nearby waters and affecting thousands of fisher folk in Albay and Sorsogon.

As this developed, Manila-based environmentalists urged the public to support the Kam­pong Bayan in Bicol. “We exhort all defenders of the environment and national patrimony to extend material, financial, and moral support for the Kampong Bayan initiated against Lafayette Mining Limited,” Clemente Bautista Jr., National Coordinator for Kalika­san-Philippine Network for the Environment said.

Lafayette Mining Ltd. on Monday announced that it would be indefinitely extending the trading halt on its shares in the Australian Stock Exchange soon after a major investor pulled out of the project early this week.

“The financial losses of Lafayette’s foreign shareholders pale in comparison to the losses sustained by thousands of residents in Rapu-Rapu. Around 16,500 of Rapu-Rapu’s 19,000 fisher-folk residents were affected in terms of losses in livelihood,” Antonio Casitas of the Sagip Isla movement said.

Bautista and Casitas urged Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, and local government officials to uphold the recommendations of the Rapu-Rapu Fact-Finding Commission headed by Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes.

It also recommended that the mining in Rapu-Rapu be subjected to a moratorium and that existing Mineral Production and Sharing Agreements in the island be suspended pending scientific and expert’s favorable resolution on the issue of ecological conservation and the acid mine drainage problem.