Press Release
October 5, 2007

Loren wants Sibuyan mining permits cancelled

Senator Loren Legarda yesterday urged the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to suspend all mining permits and applications in Sibuyan Island, Romblon to save it from environmental despoliation.

The founder and chair of the environmental group Luntiang Pilipinas, Loren said that mining activities endanger Sibuyan Island, which is a center of endemism and biodiversity and is considered by many as "one of the last frontiers of the Philippines."

Loren also sought justice for councilor and environmental advocate Armin Marin who was shot dead allegedly by the chief of the security team employed by the Sibuyan Nickel Property Development Corporation (SNPDC).

"The DENR has to suspend mining in Sibuyan Island before it falls prey to deforestation and before the pristine water of the Catingas River gets polluted," said Loren.

Sibuyan hosts the majestic Mt. Guiting-ginting and boasts of one of the world's densest forest covers, as well as the country's cleanest inland body of water.

Loren said that Sibuyan should not be exploited for its economic potential and that even its transformation into a tourist destination should not be at the expense of its biodiversity, forest cover and natural beauty.

Recently, Loren warned that Mother Earth needs the environmental equivalent of a cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) because people have the tendency to destroy in just a matter of years what nature built in billions of years.

"The earth has taken 4.5 billion years to put together; man one million years and civilization, 6,000 to 7,000 years. But the Industrial Revolution, which started only 200 years ago, intends to destroy what took millions of years to form," said Loren.

"The rate of extraction and consumption of the earth's resources is way faster than the rate at which it can replenish its resources," said Loren, whose environmental efforts drew recognition in 2001 from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).

Since she founded Luntiang Pilipinas in 1998, Loren and her fellow environmental volunteers have already planted over two million trees nationwide.

Loren also either authored or sponsored landmark environmental laws like the Clean Air Act and the Solid Waste Management Law.

In batting for renewed government initiative to protect the environment, Loren cited the Vital Signs Report for 2007-2008 of the World watch Institute, that tracked 44 trends showing how 6.6 billion humans are pushing ecosystems to their limits.

"Economic gains from exploiting and extracting, through unsustainable mining, illegal logging, over fishing and unabated industrial production - enter into statistical columns for gain and growth," said Loren.

"In contrast, irreparable harm and lasting damage are not made part of the gain, loss equation. We live in a delusional world in which nature suffers no depreciation despite the greed-induced savagery we inflict on it."

Loren lamented that the growth statistics of countries are built on the "bloodied, tortured corpse of the environment."

She said that the recent dry spell and the destruction that it left in its wake is an eye-opener on the sad state of the Philippine environment.

"At the root of our water crisis is the deterioration of the country's forest areas. Under nature's wondrous order of things, watershed areas store water for release into the water receptacles during the dry months, ensuring a continuity of water supply," she said.

Loren demands that mining firms be held accountable for the destruction of the environment and loss of lives arising from unsustainable mining operations.

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