Environmentalists to Nograles: stop fooling the people, Charter Change is anti-Filipino and anti-environment
Fellow environmentalists,
I would like to share this statement from environmental group Panalipdan on the environmentalists stand on Arroyo's Charter Change. Thanks. Read to empower towards biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and Filipino people's liberation. Big thanks.
Environmentalists to Nograles: stop fooling the people, Charter Change is anti-Filipino and anti-environment
Panalipdan-Southern Mindanao Region, a broad alliance of environmentalists and peoples’ organizations, lambasted today House Speaker Prospero Nograles for pushing the Charter Change which seeks to allow 100% foreign ownership of Philippine natural resources.
Nograles is the author of House Resolution 737, which seeks to scrap the 40% limit of foreign ownership of lands, resources and enterprises and has reportedly gathered 163 signatures of the congressmen/women.
The green group believes that Arroyo-engineered charter change also aims to add more teeth to the already notorious 1995 Philippine Mining (Republic Act 7942), that the Supreme Court again affirmed in 2005.
Amending the 1987 Constitution is to pave way to intensified environment and economic plunder and degradation due to liberalized mining and privatization of freshwater and energy resources.
The full-blown implementation of a liberalized, privatized, and deregulated mining industry will come into reality once charter change has been enacted. The constitutional overhaul will allow 100% foreign-ownership of our lands and the exploitation of our natural resources. Charter change will actually further open the country to unbridled foreign exploitation and plunder.
No amount of touted revenues and compensation can pay for the permanent damage to the environment, the displacement of indigenous communities, and the loss of lives and livelihood that will result from large-scale and foreign mining.
It is very disgusting that the lessons from our people’s tragic experiences with large-scale foreign mining in Boac, Marinduque; Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte; Rapu-rapu, Albay; Didipio, Nueva Viscaya; Masara, Maco, ComVal Province; Diwalwal, Monkayo, ComVal; and Surigao del Norte are ignored by the Arroyo government. It should be noted that mining has insignificant contribution to the domestic economy and employment while no measures have been put in place to reverse the continuing damages to the ecosystems and people of the said areas.
The green group challenged Nograles to go to these areas and see for himself what local communities have lost: indigenous people’s ancestral domain, once productive farmlands, biological diversity, pristine rivers and marine ecosystems.
Charter Change for liberalization will further aggravate landlessness, land-use conversion, whole-sale exploitation of biodiversity and natural resources, food insecurity, and the destruction of environment. Filipinos will be deprived of the right to use the country’s resources for their own benefit. Local industry and agriculture, which cannot comprete with big transnational corporations, will also be destroyed.
Environmentalists will heighten the opposition to the Arroyo-engineered Charter Change and join the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine freedom, democracy, just and sustainable society.##
I would like to share this statement from environmental group Panalipdan on the environmentalists stand on Arroyo's Charter Change. Thanks. Read to empower towards biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and Filipino people's liberation. Big thanks.
Environmentalists to Nograles: stop fooling the people, Charter Change is anti-Filipino and anti-environment
Panalipdan-Southern Mindanao Region, a broad alliance of environmentalists and peoples’ organizations, lambasted today House Speaker Prospero Nograles for pushing the Charter Change which seeks to allow 100% foreign ownership of Philippine natural resources.
Nograles is the author of House Resolution 737, which seeks to scrap the 40% limit of foreign ownership of lands, resources and enterprises and has reportedly gathered 163 signatures of the congressmen/women.
The green group believes that Arroyo-engineered charter change also aims to add more teeth to the already notorious 1995 Philippine Mining (Republic Act 7942), that the Supreme Court again affirmed in 2005.
Amending the 1987 Constitution is to pave way to intensified environment and economic plunder and degradation due to liberalized mining and privatization of freshwater and energy resources.
The full-blown implementation of a liberalized, privatized, and deregulated mining industry will come into reality once charter change has been enacted. The constitutional overhaul will allow 100% foreign-ownership of our lands and the exploitation of our natural resources. Charter change will actually further open the country to unbridled foreign exploitation and plunder.
No amount of touted revenues and compensation can pay for the permanent damage to the environment, the displacement of indigenous communities, and the loss of lives and livelihood that will result from large-scale and foreign mining.
It is very disgusting that the lessons from our people’s tragic experiences with large-scale foreign mining in Boac, Marinduque; Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte; Rapu-rapu, Albay; Didipio, Nueva Viscaya; Masara, Maco, ComVal Province; Diwalwal, Monkayo, ComVal; and Surigao del Norte are ignored by the Arroyo government. It should be noted that mining has insignificant contribution to the domestic economy and employment while no measures have been put in place to reverse the continuing damages to the ecosystems and people of the said areas.
The green group challenged Nograles to go to these areas and see for himself what local communities have lost: indigenous people’s ancestral domain, once productive farmlands, biological diversity, pristine rivers and marine ecosystems.
Charter Change for liberalization will further aggravate landlessness, land-use conversion, whole-sale exploitation of biodiversity and natural resources, food insecurity, and the destruction of environment. Filipinos will be deprived of the right to use the country’s resources for their own benefit. Local industry and agriculture, which cannot comprete with big transnational corporations, will also be destroyed.
Environmentalists will heighten the opposition to the Arroyo-engineered Charter Change and join the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine freedom, democracy, just and sustainable society.##
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Group ready to start Sulu Sea drilling
Excerpted from Business/Shipping Section
Manila Bulletin, October 3, 2009
The Department of Energy (DoE) announced the start of exploration for hydrocarbons in the South Sulu Sea under DoE’s Service Contract 56 (SC-56) with the arrival Friday of the drill rig, West Aquarius.
The SC-56 contractors are ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Philippines B.V. [ExxonMobil], Mitra Energy (Philippines SC-56) Limited [Mitra] and BHP Billiton (International Exploration Pty Ltd) [BHP Billiton]. ExxonMobil is the operator of SC-56.
The DoE said West Aquarius, a semi-submersible rig designed to operate in the water depths of up to 3,000 meters and drill up to a maximum depth of approximately 10,000 meters, leaves Indonesia for the South Sulu Sea project.
The deep water exploration well, Dabakan – 1 will be drilled in 1,800 meters of water, a record for the Philippines.
Similar to other exploration projects, discovering gas and oil under the SC-56 is very challenging with uncertain results.
The DoE said it is very pleased to have ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, and BHP Billiton, the world’s largest integrated resources company, recognize the potential of the Philippines oil and gas sector and bring their technical and financial strengths to bear on this complex project.
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http://taboan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/god-help-us-break-free-from-a
http://taboan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-post-eid-bombs-festival-in
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thats my daughter. thanks for the compliment. she's a green advocate, too. :))
ang ganda naman ng ngiti mo..
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