smi and the catholic church

Posted on July 26, 2011 by durianpost
BY ROGER M. BALANZA
Catholic bishop under fire for opposing mining

The Sagittarius Mining Inc. (SMI), behind the multi-million dollar mining project in South Cotabato, has friends and foes in all corners of the society.
Among the foes is the Catholic Church which has been actively campaigning against SMI.
The credibility of the Church and Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez in opposing SMI, has been put to a test lately with no less than a noted Jesuit taking the side of the corporate giant. Another missile has been fired by an evangelist against the bishop.
As the matter now stands, SMI and mining have become issues among the public and environmentalists, but also a hot topic in the religious sector.
Accorsing to academic and management professor Jesuit priest Emeterio Barcelon, Gutierrez does not speak for the entire Catholic Church on his stand against open-pit mining.
"The burden of proof is on him when in fact open-pit mining is a safer method", said Barcelon, who can speak with authority.
Barcelon was former rector and later president of the Ateneo de Davao (1974) and later vice-president of Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City.
Schooled in New York University and Harvard, he taught at the Asian Institute of Management for five years.
Barcelon is joined by an evangelist who said it is time for Gutirrez to come out of his myopia and accept modern concept of mining,
Citing not only the local but the global impact of the Tampakan project in terms of benefits, Pastor Ben Barnuevo, a regional evangelist church leader.
He called on the South Cotabato Catholic Church leadership to be open to modern ways of mining.
"The Catholic Church's opposition against the open-pit mining method is only a matter of adjusting to the modern concept of responsible mining" says Pastor Barnuevo, South Central Mindanao Ministry Director and South Mindanao District Minister for the Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines (CAMACOP).
CAMACOP is one of the largest evangelical groups in the Philippines with a roster of 2,917 local churches all over the country.
The South Cotabato provincial government, purportedly due to strong pressure from the local Catholic Church, passed an environment code banning open-pit mining in the entire province.
"I recommend a review of the environment code and I hope they let us participate in the review", Pastor Barnuevo said.
Aside from the Tampakan project, a proposed coal mine project in Tboli, and the local quarrying industry in South Cotabato have felt the impact of the ban.
Although the code has yet to take full effect pending the required publication of its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), there are reports that the provincial government has stopped processing new applications for quarrying permits.
Pastor Barnuevo, however, clarified that as far as he knows the Catholic Church as a whole is not against mining. The pastor even noted Biblical teachings on responsible development of our minerals such iron and copper.
"The South Cotabato Catholic Church just needs re-assurance that modern responsible mining exists", Pastor Barnuevo said.
Insisting that the Tampakan project should continue, Pastor Barnuevo said that it is everyone's role to ensure that responsible mining is practiced and observed in the province.