Group seeks mining ban in Magat River watershed

MANILA, Philippines — A consumer advocacy group has urged the government to immediately revoke the mining license and concessions of a British wholly owned company for engaging in gold mining in the Magat River forest watershed area.

The Action for Consumerism and Transparency in Nation Building (ACTION) said mining activities in protected areas are expressly prohibited under the Mining Act of 1995.

“We respectfully ask President Duterte to cancel the Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) of FCF Minerals Corp., which is located within the Magat River watershed forest reserve. Not only is the company mining in a protected area which is clearly prohibited under the Mining Act of 1995, but the Magat River also feeds into the Magat Dam which is the source of irrigation for agricultural land in the Cagayan Valley,” ACTION said in a statement.

The group stressed that protected areas including watersheds are “strictly and absolutely beyond the commerce of man” as mandated by law.

The environment watchdog pointed out that the entire area covered by FCF’s mining permit is clearly “within the proclaimed Magat Watershed Area as provided for by Proclamation 573.”

Ram Baccay, ACTION spokesman, also cited the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act which proclaimed watersheds as protected areas where mining operations are prohibited under Section 19 of the mining law.

Fears were also raised about the possibility of mine tailings and other toxic materials spilling into the Magat River and other connecting waterways, thereby inflicting a wider swath of destruction to agribusiness and the ecosystem.

Completed in 1982, Magat Dam is one of the largest dams in the Philippines. A multi-purpose infrastructure, it is primarily used to irrigate about 85,000 hectares of agricultural land, as well as for flood control and hydroelectric power generation.

The dam has a lifespan of 50 years, but increased siltation and sedimentation due to slash-and-burn farming, illegal logging and fish-caging resulted in the rapid deterioration of the dam’s watershed.

“We are also afraid that the catastrophic environmental disasters that happened in Marinduque and Benguet where thousands of hectares of agricultural land were damaged might also occur in Nueva Vizcaya and the rest of the Cagayan Valley because the Runruno tailings facility is built near the Sulong River, a tributary which joins the Magat River downstream onto the Cagayan River. The risk of earthquakes, landslides, or weather-related disasters could cause major spillage of hazardous materials into the Magat River and create serious damage to the supported irrigation networks of the Magat Dam,”  Baccay said.