Stop mining at Mt. Hilong-Hilong!

Questions: Why is still mining allowed in Mt. Hilong-Hilong by the Philippine government? Who benefits from all these?

Gina Lopez rallies Surigaonons vs. mining

By Vanessa L. Almeda on January 24 2013 7:04 am

CANTILAN, Surigao del Sur (MindaNews / 23 Jan) – Staunch anti-mining advocate Regina Lopez rallied residents in the seven towns of Surigao del Sur last Monday to oppose mining in eco-tourism sites.

Some 6,000 advocates chanted and raised their fists to mark their strong anti-mining stance against the continued degradation of an ecosystem area that has already started to grow brown and murky.

The subject of their protest is the MarcVentures Mining and Development Corporation (MMDC) operating in the Mt. Hilong-Hilong ranges that is seen to threaten a major river serving a major irrigation in three towns in the province.

Lopez's attendance to this quiet and rustic town sent buzzwords to locals who for months have pinned hopes of her presence so they will be able to bring their cause to national attention.

Chito Trillanes, head of the Social Action Center (SAC) in Lanuza town, said Lopez's presence "has been a long dream of our people to find a link to bring our issues to the national government."

Jeanette Palang-Zayas, municipal councilor, said they have high hopes that Lopez's presence and commitment to help in their anti-mining cause will get to the President's ear as soon as possible.

The managing director of the ABS-CBN Foundation was in provincial capital Tandag City a day before the Cantilan sojourn as part of her two-day sortie in the province.

The Cantilan gymnasium was filled to the rafters with participants from this town and neighboring areas, as well as students from local public schools, fisherfolks, farmers, women and religious groups, bank employees, retirees, and ordinary folks gathered to see Lopez.

Johnny Lugo, chair of Barangay Linintian, said 80 to 90 percent of his constituents are solid against mining.

Linintian is one of the populated barangays of this municipality, which has 17 barangays. Five barangays are opposing the operations of MMDC, which residents blamed behind the murky waters of the Cantilan River due to siltation.

Miguel Azarcon, kagawad of Barangay Parang which is close to where MMDC operates, lamented how his riceland in Sitio Tuog has turned into a brownish pond of silt. He complained of the government's alleged continued inaction against MMDC's operation that he claimed destroyed agricultural activity in the area.

MindaNews photo by Vanessa L. Almeda

A solid reason why we need to stop all mining operations in Mt. Hilong-Hilong - to give the Philippine Eagle a chance to recover!

------

A breeding of endangered species is futile without habitat protection.
by Martin Williams

While captive breeding of animals is to be lauded, it should not overshadow the task of protecting the ecosystems they live in."

"In the Philippines, I've visited a project that includes captive breeding the national bird - the Philippine eagle. I had read an article in which the writer was impressed by the way semen is collected from male eagles - which act as if mating with humans they bond with. Yet the work was far from frivolous, with a dedicated team focused on attempts to raise young eagles, as well as striving to protect the remaining forest tracts where wild eagles survived.

One comment from an eagle biologist was especially striking: his mentor had told him they were like people sitting at the bedside of a dying relative, keeping them company before the inevitable demise. It seemed a bleak prognosis. I responded that species can sometimes bounce back, given the chance."

Complete article here: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1110950/breeding-endangered-species-futile-without-habitat-protection

Martin Williams is a Hong Kong-based writer specialising in conservation and the environment, with a PhD in physical chemistry from Cambridge University.

Progress as of October 25, 2012:

Letter to the DENR with attached signature - SENT
Letter to the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines - SENT
Letters with attached signatures to the three main TV networks in the Philippines - SENT
Letters with attached signatures to the major newspapers in the Philippines - SENT
Letter and attached signatures to the Philippine Eagle Foundation - SENT

Current status - waiting for replies

Next move:
Letters to the Senate and House of Representatives in the Philippines

Please continue to invite your network and sign the petition so we can gain more strength and have a louder voice.

We need to raise awareness on a wider level. So if you know of anyone in your home country who can also support this petition through media exposure and links with international environmental organisations, any form of assistance to raise awareness is very much appreciated.

Please follow the instruction- copy and paste the letter and sending it directly to the email address provided.

If they could only speak, the Philippine Eagle and Mt. HIlong -HIlong are surely grateful for your support and efforts. They will only be able to speak through us - WE ARE THEIR VOICE, AND THEY ARE IN CRITICAL DANGER !

Thank you very much to Causes.com for actively supporting this petition.

=========

Cause Leader Uses Petition Tool to Fight for the Philippine Eagle
Posted Sep 28, 2012 by Alejandro De La Cruz

Mt. Hilong-Hilong is home to the Philippine Eagle and one of the last forests in the Philippines.

The area surrounding Mt. Hilong-Hilong in the Philippines has been designated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as a protected biodiversity area. The Philippine Daily News reported earlier this year that the region boasts one of the last remaining forests in the Philippines and is home to the Philippine Eagle — the second largest bird and the only blue-eyed raptor in the world. Yet, the DENR recently granted permits that allowed a company to run exploratory mining projects in the region that some environmental advocates suggest will lead to the depletion of the forest and the eagle's natural habit. The news led cause leader Zammerly Zamudio to create a petition on Causes.com asking the DENR and the president of the Philippines to preserve Mt. Hilong-Hilong's ecological wealth and deny mining permits in the region. 10,000 people signed her petition and she spoke to us last week regarding her next steps.

Zammerly began using Causes a year ago and said this is her first major petition. She told us that environmental issues around the world are important to her, but local impact is where she wants to funnel her energy. "…It would be unacceptable to ignore what's happening in the Philippines (where I was born), particularly with the high probability of the extinction of the Philippine Eagle and the destruction of the rainforest due to logging, mining and other kinds of extractions. We are all connected, and if a species disappears somewhere in the world, the consequences will not be confined locally. It will surely have a global impact, even if it [is] not immediately felt."

The Philippine Eagle is the second-largest bird in the world and makes its home in the forests of Mt. Hilong-Hilong.
Zammerly's petition copy includes the email addresses of three key players at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources because she understands it's more effective to send direct emails to politicans. "This is to encourage people who signed the petition to be heard directly by the incumbent. This gives the petition…a fast-track result."

Zammerly is prepared to submit the petition signatures to three different sources. Her ultimate success will be to see mining banned from the region and the status of the Philippine Eagle to reflect a healthy and thriving life in its native habitat. "I will be submitting the signatures to [a] senator, the Philippine Eagle Foundation and the DENR secretary (again), and the President of the Philippines." She is sending copies of the signatures to the Philippine Eagle Foundation because they've been a proponent of Mt. Hilong-Hilong's preservation for years and she hopes to gain their support in her campaign. Yet, Zammerly knows more petition signatures will push her campaign to new heights. "To be honest, if I can generate 20,000 or ideally over 100,000 then that would surprise me. I am very grateful to those who have supported this cause."

Visit Zammerly's petition page to learn more about her campaign and progress, and remember to share your thoughts in the comments section.

Great News for the Philippine Eagle! But we need to continue the campaign to stop mining in Mt. Hilong-Hilong. We're almost there, just a few hundred signatures left so we can submit our petition to the concerned departments and authorities. Please help gather more signatures. Thank you!

=====

Philippine Eagle to fly soon over Pangasinan dam
By Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon

The rare and endangered Philippine Eagle may soon be flying over the San Roque Dam watershed in San Manuel, Pangasinan, once San Roque Power Corp. (SRPC) succeeds in creating a sanctuary for the national bird.

Tom Valdez, SRPC vice president for corporate social responsibility, shares this optimism after a team of volunteers from the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) saw a pair and an offspring of the Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) thriving in the forests of Calanasan town in Apayao recently.

"There is an ongoing research on the eagle's habitat. If the researchers find that the eagles habitat in Apayao will match what we have here, then we can transfer a pair of eagles in the [San Roque] watershed," Valdez says.

The Philippine Eagle is in the brink of extinction because of continuous hunting and deforestation.

Protected area
"Fortunately, the newly discovered eagle pair and its forest habitat at Calanasan are in an indigenous protected area, which is spared from logging, hunting and other forms of human exploitation," Valdez says.

In creating the eagle's habitat, Valdez says SRPC launched last year a five-year massive tree planting activity in the 9,000-hectare watershed.

"We called it 'Grow a Tree' and this is also part of our commitment to the National Greening Program of the government. San Roque will plant trees in 500 ha in the next five years," Valdez says.

In July last year, some 1,200 people from 18 groups planted 22,000 seedlings in a 50-ha area of the watershed during the project launch.

Tree planting
This year, Valdez says, 18 groups, including the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines and the local chapter of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) have planted trees in different areas of the watershed since June 15.

"Our target this year to plant 50,000 seedlings in 100 ha. But we prepared 67,000 seedlings for the year. We are now on our second year, so we will continuously do this in three more years," Valdez says.

He says many more groups have been volunteering to join the tree planting activity.

The San Roque Dam, which was blamed for the widespread flooding in eastern and central Pangasinan as Typhoon "Pepeng" struck in 2009, was launched as Pangasinan's new face of ecotourism in March.

Bernie Errasquin, Radyo ng Bayan station manager and KBP-Pangasinan president, says that on their way to the tree-planting site, they descended to the dam's reservoir to ride on a thatch-roofed, wood-decked, nipa hut-inspired boat and cruised for 45 minutes on the reservoir.

Other wildlife
While on their way to Sitio Sapuac, they were treated to the scenic views of the Cordillera and Caraballo mountains and the reservoir's serene water.

"There were also wild ducks swimming and flying along the way," Errasquin says.

The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines found during a visit in 2008 that more than 2,000 Philippine ducks (Anas luzonica) and 40 bird species, nine of them endemic, live in the reservoir area.

Valdez says that based on the PEF research in Apayao, the Cordillera mountains can be an eagle habitat.

"But based on the results of this survey, the extent of good forest habitats which the expedition team saw in Apayao and nearby provinces, the Cordillera seems to be an eagle stronghold too," Valdez says.

The eagles were earlier thought to be thriving only in the forests of Mindanao.

"When we finally have them here, the eagles will become the rallying point in protecting our watershed," Valdez says.

=============

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/245033/philippine-eagle-to-fly-soon-over-pangasinan-dam

Latest News about the Philippine Eagle -

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 20 July)– While it is crucial to seek more donors to save the Philippine eagle from extinction, the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) admitted that it is utterly careful in accepting funds for the survival of the country's national bird.

At the Philippine Eagle Center in Malagos district, 12 of the 36 Philippine eagles in captivity are still up for adoption.
Dennis Salvador, PEF executive director, told MindaNews that there are companies that are insistent to support the foundation.
But Salvador clarified that the foundation has a policy in screening their partners, especially if the company is involve in resource extraction.

"Ang iba namimilit (Others are persistent). But sometimes, their intentions are clear, which is to whitewash their companies, to make it appear that they are green. But people nowadays can see through, so we are becoming strict in screening the donors rather than expose the foundation to criticisms," he explained.
Salvador, on the other hand, stressed that there are some instances when they have to work with some of the companies "because they [PEF] wanted to influence them and to promote greener solutions in what they do."

President Fidel Ramos officially declared the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) as the national bird in 1995.

For the whole story, visit: http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2012/07/21/pef-wary-about-donations-for-survival-of-philippine-eagles/

Hello everyone!

Thank you all for your support. This week has been pretty hectic with all the other causes that needed our help last week. Two other big causes for us were The Save Lennox Campaign and Save the Arctic. One we lost - Lennox (RIP our beautiful boy) and one we are going full steam (Save the Arctic).

In having said this, I appeal to you to not forget about the plight of the many endangered species of Mt. Hilong-Hilong - most especially the critically endangered Philippine Eagle.

We are nearing our goal of 9000 signatures, please do not stop now. Help us!

For those who have already signed, you're all amazing!

Thank you all once gain for those who are relentless in helping this petition gain awareness and support.

Our fight is far from over. The longer it takes for us the reach a significant number, the happier the mining companies and their cohorts are. They think that they are proven right that no one would even bat an eyelid about the plunder they do to this region. They just gladly stuff their bank accounts with blood money and happily share it with their accomplices.

Please click the link to view the list of endangered and vulnerable species native to Mt. Hilong-Hilong.
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sitefactsheet.php?id=9783

These species and their habitat can only be heard through us. They need us.

We need to gain momentum once again. Please help - tell everyone to sign the petition.

"The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

We have surpassed the 8000 mark this week! Woohoo! THANK YOU!

NO time to rest as it is not yet over, we need to keep at it until we have 9000 signatures to send to the incumbents at the DENR (Philippines).

Please continue to ask everyone that you know to sign the petition.

And in doing so, let us make this group stronger - JOIN US! The more we are, the stronger our voice, the more challenging it would be to ignore all of us. And the more we are, the merrier it would be to share are victories with one another, no matter how big or small.
https://www.causes.com/causes/524743-help-save-the-philippine-eagle/actions/1663486

Thank you again, everyone, for your genuine concern and efforts for this petition:
a. of saving Mt. Hilong-Hilong from further destruction, and
b. preserving the habitat of many of its endemic species.

Have a great weekend!

(I'm off to have brunch with my family :D xx!)

Senate Bill 2156 - MT. HILONG-HILONG RANGE PROTECTED LANDSCAPE ACT (MHHRPL) OF 2010

STATUS: Still PENDING in the Philippine Senate since 2010 (WHY????) .... For more info - http://www.senate.gov.ph/lis/bill_res.aspx?congress=15&q=SBN-2156

...SECTION 13. Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources. - Any exploitation of or utilization of nonrenewable resources within the MHHRPL shall not be allowed. Renewable Energy projects, within the protected landscape shall be permitted only through an act of Congress except energy from wind, sun, and water sources and not more than one (1) megawatt capacity for mini-hydro power: Provided, That these renewal energy projects are established outside the strict protection zone, adopt
reduced impact technologies, and undergo the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system as provided by law: Provided, Further, that the Management Board endorsement has been obtained.

SECTION 15. Prohibited Acts and Penalties. - The following shall be the prohibitions and penalties applicable to the MHHRPL, in addition to the prohibited acts as provided in the NIPAS Act and its Implementing Rules and Regulations:
(1) The penalties and qualifications prescribed in Articles 309 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code depending on the value of the resources involved in connection ith the prohibited act and/or a fine at least triple the value of the said resources shall be imposed on any person who:
(a) Takes, destroys, collects, disturbs or possesses any wild terrestrial or aquatic plants, animals, flora or fauna, sand, rocks or by-products derived therefrom, within particularly identified regulated or prohibited areas zones in the MHHRPL including
private lands without the necessary permit, authorization or exemption, Provided, That the hunting of animals shall be absolutely prohibited except for scientific research and for traditional hunting by the IPs/ICCs;
(b) Cuts, gathers, removes or collects timber or any forest products, within particularly identified regulated or prohibited areas or zones in the MHHRPL including.... For the proposed bill itself - http://www.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/97018323!.pdf