Environmentalists reject Defensor, ‘anti-environment’ senatoriables

ENVIRONMENTAL and indigenous peoples’ groups launched a campaign against “pro-mining and anti-environment” senatoriables, particularly former environment secretary Michael Defensor.

“No to Mike “pu’Tol” Defensor, Walking pu’Tol king,” is the slogan of Alyansa Tigil Mina, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations against mining. The group has come up with a colorful poster (see image) and stickers which will be distributed in universities and communities in the next few weeks.

“(We) call on the Filipino people to genuinely rethink their positions on certain candidates, especially those who have a long history of being instruments of plundering the environment,” the group said.

According to Alyansa, Defensor has supported many anti-environment policies, especially when he sat as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from August 2004 to January 2006.

PCIJ repeatedly tried to get in touch with Defensor but he was unavailable for comment.

This is not the first time that an activist group has openly expressed opposition against Defensor’s senatorial bid.

Activist fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) has earlier issued a fearless forecast, saying Defensor “will be one of the poor losers” in May.

Pamalakaya has a pending graft case against Defensor for allowing Lafayette Philippines to resume its mining activities in Rapu-Rapu, Albay and the oil and gas exploration activities in Tañon Strait, a protected seascape straddling the island provinces of Cebu and Negros.

Another group, the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, has also included Defensor in its senatorial list of the “three worst choices for environmental advocates and lovers of Mother Nature.”

Kalikasan said that Defensor, along with Prospero Pichay Jr. and Edgardo Angara, turned out to be “the most anti-environment” as they have been “pro-foreign mining and pro-commercial logging for most of their stints in office.”

Alyansa Tigil Mina said Defensor is so far the only DENR secretary who has approved the most number of mining applications since 1997, the year the validity of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 was challenged before the Supreme Court.

It was in Defensor’s time when the High Court reversed its ruling, declaring the Mining law as constitutional. Defensor lauded the Supreme Court for its decision and said he “foresees a golden era for the mining industry,” explaining that liberalizing the sector will result into billions’ worth of investments and jobs for thousands of Filipinos.

Defensor was obviously supporting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s 10-point agenda, which included the creation of six million jobs by 2010. The revitalization of the mining industry, Arroyo said, will allow her to achieve this target.

“The last thing we want is Defensor sitting in the Senate and in the environment committee,” Jaybee Garganera of Alyansa said.

Environmentalists also widely opposed Defensor’s decision to lift the 16-year-old logging moratorium in Samar, just a year after Arroyo suspended the issuance of all new logging permits, following four killer typhoons that hit Quezon, Aurora, and Nueva Ecija.

The lifting of the moratorium reinstated the license of the company of administration ally Senator Juan Ponce Enrile to cut trees within the Samar Integrated Forest Reserve and the Samar Island Natural Park. (See post: Don’t Cry for me, Samar.)

In 2005, PCIJ also reported that Defensor stood as ninong to a member of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese family with logging operations in Aurora. Defensor ordered the resumption of the family’s logging operations, despite a suspension issued by his predecessor, then DENR Secretary Elizea Gozun.

Moreover, Defensor reportedly cancelled — “unilaterally and without due process” — all Community-Based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMA) that, Alyansa said, instead opened up lands to mining applications, especially in Camarines Norte and Zamboanga del Sur.

A CBFMA is a renewable 25-year agreement issued by the DENR to enable people’s organizations to utilize and manage forestlands. When DENR secretary Angelo Reyes took over, all further CBFMA cancellations were put on hold. Environmental and fisherfolk groups had been calling on Reyes to reverse the cancellation.

“Mining and logging are the two main causes of the environmental destruction,” Errol Comafay of the youth group Kontra-Mina said.

The destruction of the country’s forests has been described as the most rapid and most massive in the world. In a report, Haribon Foundation said it is estimated that the country’s forests will be reduced to 320,000 hectares of primary forest by 2010, if the present rate of deforestation continues.

“This is the perfect time for voters to reflect on who among the candidates now are truly committed to protecting nature. We should not let ourselves be fooled again,” said Fr. Edwin Gariguez of Alyansa Laban sa Mina, a Mindoro-based anti-mining coalition.