Learning from El Salvador
The Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) warmly commends the historic move of the El Salvador government declaring a nationwide ban on metal mining to protect its increasingly scarce water sources from threats of mining pollution.
The declaration of El Salvador as a “mining-free” territory is a powerful example of a people asserting its sovereign rights over its national patrimony, the latest in a series of victories brought about by more than a decade of the Salvadoran people’s struggles against destructive mining projects.
In 2009, the then-newly installed left-wing government of the FLMN instituted a moratorium on metallic mining projects to heed the people’s clamour. In response, Australian-Canadian mining company OceanaGold filed a damages suit before the World Bank International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an investor-state tribunal, against El Salvador for allegedly causing millions of dollars in undertaken mineral exploration activities and in loss of potential profits.
Seven years later on October 14, 2016, ICSID was forced to rule in favour of the El Salvador govern- ment and dismiss the damages suit for OceanaGold not having any concrete legal basis for its claims.
Here in the Philippines, OceanaGold’s Didipio mine is among the 28 large-scale mining projects that were closed down or suspended through a historic order by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that heeded the longstanding demands of frontline communities and social movements to hold large-scale miners accountable for violating various environmental and social regulations.
President Rodrigo Duterte should take El Salvador’s cue and assert our country’s national sovereignty and patrimony against mining plunderers. We urge Duterte to decisively uphold the DENR mine closure and suspension order and demand just compensation from the notorious mining criminals.
As we carry on the defense of our lands, lives and environment, we hope that the people of El Salvador and the Philippines continue to harness inspiration and lessons from each other’s solidarity and successes. We also enjoin the global people’s movement against mining liberalization and plunder to further amplify our common struggle and help replicate our victories across the world.--