Letter of Appeal to the Honorable Paolo Javier

Date: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 7:01 P.M.
Subject: Your email to the Office of Rep. Javier, Paolo S.

HREP Website Visitor: Save NWPP – no mines in the protected area

The Honorable Paolo Javier
Congressman, Province of Antique
Philippines

October 24, 2011

Dear Congressman Javier:

I am a native of Pandan, Antique and I am very proud of my province and my hometown. My years of residence in the United States have not obliterated nor diminished my love and concern for my hometown and my province.

This brings us to the purpose of my letter. I am deeply troubled by DENR’s approval of ore mining in San Roque, Libertad where the Northwest Panay Peninsula (NWPP) Natural Park is closely situated. The NWPP has been decreed as a protected area under Presidential Proclamation 186.

Aside from the NWPP getting demolished and the Natural Park’s rare birds and animals’ untimely annihilation, human lives in the surrounding communities and their environment will also be destroyed. They will become sacrificial lambs to those who do not care a whit about other people’s well-being except their own.

My readings on the provinces that had mines in operation belie the economic gains postulated by the mine’s perpetrators and supporters because the affected areas were eventually reduced to rubble. Such devastation could have been prevented except that it is too late for them. The damage has been done.

But it is not too late for us because we can learn from their mistakes. As such, we come to you for help. As the congressman of Antique, the residents of Pandan and Libertad are relying on you to see to it that the same fate does not happen to them. You have the position, power, authority, and influence to save them from the impending doom.

I support Pagtatap, the organization of Pandananons, in their fight against the mine in San Roque. Please join our opposition. Say “NO to MINING,” and the people of Pandan and Libertad will forever be indebted to you.

Respectfully yours,
Thelma Mantac Ramos