Incumbent and retired Palawan bishops have called on the reactionary state to ban mining on the island for the next 25 years to mitigate the destruction of forests and the irreversible local environmental damage.

The Catholic Church warned that extensive logging permitted over the past decades have severely damaged the forests on the island. Allowing large-scale destructive mining to continue in the area will worsen the situation.

One of the bishops’ concerns is the permit the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) itself granted to a mining company to cut down 27,929 trees in 2016. The company is now seeking permission to cut down an additional 8,000 trees this year. Concurrently, the DENR has allowed another company to cut down 52,000 trees for nickel mining.

The bishops said 67 mining exploration applications that cover 200,000 hectares in Coron, Taytay, and Araceli are pending approval. There are now 11 mining agreements or licenses covering 29,000 hectares of land in Palawan, which included even protected areas and watersheds.

Alongside the call for a moratorium, the church is demanding accountability from operating mining companies for damages they brought to the island. Currently, the companies have rehabilitated less than 25% of the 3,000 hectares mined in the towns of Narra, Sofronio Española, Brooke’s Point, and other areas.

The bishops are calling on the local government of Palawan to pass a resolution to halt mining on the island for the next 25 years. This is the call of the environment, farmers, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples being harmed by mining activities, they stated.