Rapu project test-run THE provincial governments of Albay and...

Rapu project test-run

THE provincial governments of Albay and Sorsogon strongly endorsed yesterday allowing Lafayette’s Rapu-Rapu polymetallic project to conduct a test-run and its eventual resumption of operations after its installed systems and remediations measures have passed all tests as required by the Pollution Adjudication Board.

In an unprecedented joint statement, Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzales and Sorsogon Gov. Raul Lee said their region’s biggest investor is entitled to test its compliance with all the required remedial measures under the law and it would constitute a grave injustice if it were not allowed to do so, adding there was no point in letting the company spend P400 million to put them in place if it would be closed down.

If that were the case, Gonzalez and Lee said, all investors should be warned before they invest in the country that their investments will not have the full protection of the law and that our government is not capable of fairly and consistently enforcing the law.”

Lee said Sorsogon has suffered enough from the fish scare hoax that was used by groups opposing the project. “We must move on while making sure we do not see a repeat of that hoax. I will not allow thousands of our poor fishermen to be sacrificed again by a heartless few whose narrow interest is to stop mining throughout the country at all cost.”

The issue is no longer the spills at Lafayette but rather whether the new management is true to its word to fully comply with all the conditions and rules for its resumption of operations, they said.

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