Sibonga protest re social acceptability and sustainability

This statement from USREPS (Unifying Sectoral Responses on Environmental Protocols-Sibonga), a registered non-profit organization, and STANCE (Sectoral Transparency Alliance on Natural Resource Governance in Cebu), a policy advocacy NGO, showcases the continuing present protest of those in Sibonga against a large-scale quarrying operation earlier rejected and stopped by the people of Sibonga in 1995 and in 2007.

 This statement of the USREPS-STANCE:

“Last June 19, the birthday of Jose Rizal who said that oppressors vanish when the oppressed refuse their oppression, the barangay LGU of Sabang, Sibonga, Cebu called for a public hearing for the same quarrying project.

The project proponent was able to expedite the processing of their tenement application at the height of the pandemic after President DU30’s EO 130 in April 2021 which nullified PINOY’s 2012 EO 79 intended to effectively halt application for mineral agreements.

While the Philippine government considers extractive industries as potent contributors to national economy, PSA data and PH-EITI data (in Chapter 1 of the 7th Country Report in pheiti.dof.gov.ph) confirm its meager contribution to GDP.

Data further elaborate on the influence of market forces on pricing and sales making mining one of the most vulnerable industries in the country.

Employment is pegged at only 0.4% of the total employment figures in the country.

Guided by these reviewed data, these are essentially the blazing sentiments of the people of Sibonga:

1. Natural resource governance cannot serve potential and sustainable development if within the social acceptability component of decision-making manipulations and attempts at obfuscation are perceived like the very minimal information received by Sabang and Sibonga residents in toto about the status of the project and the limited participation of citizens due to impinged access to invitation to the said hearing in June 19;

2. While corporations insist on their relevance to the economy, the social and environmental costs of extractives cannot be offset by its meager contribution to GDP;

3. Because of the adverse effects of climate change, the best bet for survival is to invest in sustainable food production and prevention of foreseeable disasters (in 2018 and 2020 two large scale extractive operations figured in a mine slide that destroyed livelihood and took lives of many individuals).

Human lives and ecological stability must be the primary consideration if we are to survive this ever-increasing risk to climate-related disasters.

USREPS maintains that any move of putting all resources in one basket (i.e., reclassifying lands for the sole purpose of accommodating a single industry) exposes the municipality to extreme economic vulnerability.

The most strategic action would be to diversify economic activities by investing in agri-fisheries, MSMEs, etc.

Furthermore, it calls upon Sibonga’s LGU to show compassion/care for its people as the project and the rest of the tenement applications total to about 7,000 sq. ha., roughly half of the entire municipality, affecting 18 of 25 barangays in Sibonga.

Over time, displacement and absorption of the displaced will become a serious problem.”

 Meanwhile, “STANCE observed that within the Publish what You Pay Framework on Extractives Value Chain (pwpy.org), communities – the real owners of the commons, have limited participation and thereby rendering their consent non-viable.

It reiterates the principle under DENR DAO 2017-07 which explicitly states that social acceptability is not a decision reliant on the majority but in the resolution of core issues raised by the community and their representatives.”

Invoking the words of Ella Wheeler Wilcox –“to sin by silence when it is time to speak, makes cowards out of men and women,” the “re-launched Save Sibonga Movement is calling on friends and network partners to rally once more behind the gentle people of Blissful Sibonga.

This, they say, is the right time to speak. They will be heard.”