Mati diocese starts anti-mining drive; priests smell bribery in ‘donation’

DAVAO ORIENTAL, Philippines – Catholic priests renewed a campaign against mining in the province after the announcement by a consortium of two large-scale mining companies that, three years after the government lifted its closure order, it would go full blast in its operations.

One of the priests, Father Alfe Alimbon, alleged that the Asiaticus Management Corporation (AMCOR) offered the diocese a huge donation which was turned down by Mati Bishop Abel Apigo because it was seen as attempted bribery.

AMCOR, a consortium of the Austral-Asi Link Mining Corporation and Hallmark Mining Corporation, has been granted a 17,000-hectare concession area for the extraction of nickel laterites, iron, and cobalt. It denied it was trying to bribe the diocese, saying the mining company has been a “big donor” and even helped in building a church in Barangay Dawan in Mati City.

“Not all clergy people here are opposed to our mining operation. There are those who support us,” AMCOR manager Dr. Arvin Carlom said without identifying the clergymen who favor its mining operations.

The late former environment secretary Gina Lopez had the company closed down in 2017 for violating environmental laws, but the government allowed it to resume operations again in 2019.

“We are aiming for a full blast operation soon. We will be putting up our processing plant, which is very costly so that we don’t have to send our minerals abroad. That is the direction of our company, which is in line with the plans of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,” Carlom added.

Signature campaign

The province’s Catholic diocese has started mobilizing to stop AMCOR and other miners through a signature campaign and the use of church pulpits to create public awareness of the adverse effects of mining on the environment, among others.

Davao Oriental Governor Corazon Malanyaon has frowned on mining operations and named a retired general to lead a crackdown on illegal miners and go strict on holders of mining concession permits in the province.

Malanyaon earlier said the capitol would be intolerant of environmental law violations of mining companies allowed to operate by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

‘Big donor’

Father Alimbon, a chancellor of the Diocese of Mati, alleged that an executive of AMCOR offered what priests saw as a bribe during a meeting with new Mati Bishop Apigo at the Saint John of the Cross Clergy House.

Alimbon told Rappler on Thursday, July 28, that a group of priests witnessed Apigo being told by the executive to say how much the diocese needs for its churches, and that the bishop politely declined.

He quoted an executive as telling the bishop, ‘You tell us, bishop, how much you need from us, and we will give it to you anytime. We will fund the construction of your new churches.”

Carlom said Bishop Apigo’s predecessor, the late bishop Patricio Alo, did not lead a resistance against the operations of AMCOR that has invested more than P2 billion in Davao Oriental.

“We had a good relationship with the former bishop of Mati,” says Carlom. Bishop Alo passed away in April 2021.

Carlom added, “We have been operating here since 2002, and we have not seen opposition to our mining operations except for a few priests who are really against us. But we will continue to engage them through dialogues.”

He claimed that the company has helped many families with their livelihood in various villages in the province, and they have supposedly become AMCOR’s supporters.

Carlom said only 7% of people living in the mining company’s host communities were opposed to the firm’s operations, a claim that could not be independently validated as of this posting.

Threat posed by mining

Father Alimbon said local Catholic leaders vocal against the mining operations have been bashed and threatened, but this would not stop them from pressuring government into stopping AMCOR’s operations in Magum, Pujada Bay, and Salingcomot in Mati City. 

“We are against mining in the entire province of Davao Oriental,” he said.

In a petition, the anti-mining activists said Mati has witnessed the deteriorating condition wrought by mining in Mount Hamguitan and Pujada Bay. 

They said areas in the mountain range alone have been flattened by massive cutting of trees, causing forest denudation, soil erosion, and siltation. Some 4,778 hectares of mining concession areas overlap on five major drainage water systems and watersheds which either drain to Pujada Bay or the Davao Gulf, the main sources of water for many communities, they said.

One mining site is situated on a fault line, the petitioners added, and “no mining should take place on Mount Hamiguitan or near Pujada Bay which are centers of biodiversity with high eco-tourism potential.”

Carlom said AMCOR has been operating outside the Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary.

“Besides, we really don’t know whether or not there are viable mineral deposits there. No right-minded mining company would ever mine that place because it will be more of a loss than a gain,” he said.

Carlom, however, admitted that the company’s 17,000-hectare mining concession area covers part of Mount Hamiguitan, but the firm gave up 7,000 hectares “because we respect and appreciate the value of Mount Hamiguitan.”

He said, “We are 5.8 kilometers away from the buffer zone.” – Rappler.com