Mangyan hunger striker at DENR taken to hospital

A Mangyan tribe member from Mindoro Oriental who is staging a hunger strike at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) office in Quezon City was rushed to the hospital Sunday morning. A photographer at the scene, who declined to be identified, said Jose Cruzado was brought to a nearby hospital after he experienced dizziness. His condition is already stable and is now resting. “Pina-check up siya sa ospital dahil nahilo kaninang umaga. Sabi ng mga duktor, kailangan na daw niyang kumain. So pinakain na siya. Hindi na siya (hunger) striker ngayon (He underwent a check-up this morning because he felt dizzy. The doctors said he needed to eat already, so he was already fed. He’s no longer a hunger striker)," the witness said in a phone interview with GMANews.TV. Cruzado, who is in his mid-forties, is among the 25 hunger strikers who have been prodding the DENR to revoke the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) it issued to Norwegian mining firm Intex Resources, which would operate a nickel project in Mindoro Oriental. The protesters, composed of indigenous peoples, priests, and other affected residents of Mindoro Oriental, started their indefinite hunger strike last Tuesday against the mining project. [See: Group launches hunger strike vs mining-project in Mindoro] The ECC opens 11,216 hectares of land for nickel ore extraction, a big portion of which is part of a critical watershed catchment of Mag-asawang Tubig and Bucayao River systems, the largest source of water for the irrigation of about 40,000 hectares of rice lands in Calapan City and the towns of Naujan, Baco, and Victoria, according to the protesters. Priest Edwin Gariguez, spokesperson of Alyansa Laban sa Mina, said the DENR’s granting of ECC to Intex was a “brazen act of betrayal of public trust." The mining project violates the 25-year moratorium on large-scale mining in the province, according to Gonzales. Instead of a revocation, DENR Sec. Jose “Lito" Atienza only issued a 90-day suspension of the ECC issued to Intex, pending investigation on the supposed damages and risks that the nickel mining project could bring. Last Friday, Atienza told reporters that his department could only issue a suspension. The final say, the DENR chief said, depends on Mindoro Oriental’s local government. - GMANews.TV