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company, Crew Gold, which they believe would destroy their plans to expand sus¬tainable agriculture and ecotourism. The Chairman of the Chamber of Mines kept as¬suring us that a law to protect the environ¬ment was in place and that bad proposals would be refused. I pointed out that if that was so, many of the applications would have been immediately refused rather than encouraged and supported by those in authority
At our meeting with the World Bank, I chal¬lenged the country representatives to explain how the proposals for mass mining would bene¬fit the economy. Foreign companies were being offered low taxes and the right to take all their profits out of the country. Having encouraged mining so strongly, World Bank officials seem to have washed their hands of current developments, and said they had limited in¬fluence and were trying to counter corruption.
My visit to the Philippines was deeply mov¬ing. The land is so beautiful, the people so friendly, the Church so courageous and the risks to poor people’s livelihoods and fragile ecosys¬tems so serious. I found both the bishops and the Columbans magnificent. But victory will not be easy. The Government is determined to drive its proposals forward. The Church will resist. Lots of people will get hurt and precious lands will be damaged irreparably. Our taxes are funding the World Bank and EU pro¬grammes in the Philippines. UK companies are planning to mine there and all the com¬panies involved hope to raise funding in Lon¬don. We are increasingly conscious of the threat to the future caused by our misuse of the en¬vironment. In the Philippines, the threat is stark and immediate. The Church is committed to trying to prevent this destruction. This cam¬paign deserves all the support we can muster.
• Clare Short MP is the former Secretary of State for Overseas Development and MP for Birmingham Ladywood. Her visit to the Philippines was funded by the Columbans, the Catholic aid agency Cafod and Trócaire, the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
* The mining company TVIRD denies the allegations against it from the Church and from the indigenous people who spoke to Clare Short. It says it holds a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement with the Philippines Government within Canatuan. It points out that it has entered into an agreement for the development of the area with an organisation representing indigenous people, the Siocon Subano Association (SSAI). It claims that the partnership has brought benefits to indigenous people in the areas of health, education, liveithood, infrastructure and security. On 15 August the SSAI filed a complaint for libel against Bishop Manguiran and nine staff members of an NGO supported by the Church, the DIOPIM Committee on Mining Issues. With regard to the tribal leader who said he had been prevented from entering his land byTVIRD, the firm admitted that there were problems in 2002 when 13 people were killed in an ambush. However, it says it is not its policy to prevent Subanons from entering their homes in Canatuan. If such an incident occurred it would have been contrary to company policy.
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