OPEN LETTER TO
ANTIQUE GOVERNOR EXEQUIEL JAVIER,
MAYOR JONATHAN D. TAN OF PANDAN,
AND MAYOR NORBERTO RAYMUNDO OF LIBERTAD,
ON REPORTED PLAN TO LAUNCH MINING OPERATIONS
IN THE TWO MUNICIPALITIES

September 20, 2011

Dear sirs,

We have received disturbing information about a plan to launch mining operations in Pandan and Libertad. We would like to inform you that we are totally against any such operations because of their well-known disastrous impact on the environment and the serious health hazards they pose on the residents of the two municipalities. Moreover, the planned mining sites would be within the Northwest Panay Peninsula, which has long been declared a Protected Area by the Philippine Government. This fact alone would make these planned operations not only highly questionable and detestable but also clearly illegal.

The history of the Philippines, and the world in general, is littered with dreadful accounts of what happened when town after town dared having a mining operation in their midst. Their stories illustrate clearly that the mining industry is one of the most environmentally destructive industries on the planet. Apart from its numerous adverse effects on the land, air, water, plants, and animals, mining has been identified with various serious diseases and the deaths of tens and thousands of people. The dead include mineworkers who are killed in mining accidents, and non-mine workers who die as a result of illnesses attributed to the air and water pollution that they become exposed to living in or near mining environments.

Mining does provide jobs and money, but these have not proved to be good enough reasons to risk the terrible effects of mining.

For the sake of our towns and our people, we therefore urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that the planned mining operations do not become a reality.

Please find herewith the signatures of the concerned residents of Pandan and Libertad with the following message: WE ARE AGAINST THE PLANNED MINING OPERATIONS IN PANDAN, LIBERTAD, AND ANYWHERE ELSE IN ANTIQUE!!!

Yours respectfully,

Asian Friendship Society, DB Foundation, Guia Elementary School Mothers Club, International Green Scout Movement, Pagtatap Foundation Inc., Pagtatap USA, Pandan Antique Foundation, Pandan Bay Institute Alumni Association, Pandan Public School Teachers Association, Philippine Elementary Schools Principals Association-Pandan Chapter, Pandan Parish Social Action Group, Retired Teachers Association, Senior Association of Pandan, Supreme Pupil Government Organization, Youth for Environmental Science Organization