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In recent years, many countries in the developing world have liberalized their mining codes in an effort to encourage foreign direct investment by corporations engaged in nonferrous metals mining; Guatemala and the Philippines are examples of two such countries. Nonferrous metals mining is, however, an activity with substantial potential for enviro...
Citations
Although located in Southeast Asia the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, share many characteristics with the nations of Latin America including the preponderance of Roman Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, like its Latin American counterpart, has been influenced by liberation theology, an interpretation of the scriptures mandating a preferential option for the poor. Although the church in the Philippines has historically been aligned with the rich and powerful members of society, the Vatican II encyclicals, the plight of the poor during the 1970s and the depredations of the conjugal Marcos dictatorship provided a fertile ground for liberational praxis. This chapter discusses: the history of the church in the Philippines, including its transition into a ‘church of the poor;’ the role of women in the church; the role of diocesan social action centers; the church’s basic ecclesial community movement; the church’s activism for land reform; its opposition to the wave of extrajudicial killings that has plagued the Philippines, and the church’s environmental activism, specifically its opposition to mining. With the 1991 commitment of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines to become a Church of the Poor many liberation concepts have been enshrined by the church as a whole and are reflected in the church’s commitment to the poor and marginalized during an era of neoliberal globalization.
In recent years, the government of the Philippines (adhering to the precepts of neoliberalism) has promoted large-scale mining as a method of stimulating economic development. Mining, an activity with substantial potential for environmental harm, is staunchly opposed by the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, particularly on the island of Samar. The crux of the church?s opposition to mining are the adverse environmental consequences that mining may impose upon the rural poor who, engaging in subsistence agriculture and aquaculture, are vitally dependent upon access to natural resources. Should there be a mining-related environmental disruption, these people will be thrust from subsistence into destitution. The commitment of the church to act on behalf of the poor emanates from the conciliar documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the fertile ground for liberation theology in the Philippines provided by the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986), and by the commitment of the church in its 1992 Second Plenary Council to become a church of the poor. Samar contains quality mineralization set amid a wealth of biodiversity, grinding poverty, a simmering Maoist insurgency, and a vulnerability to natural hazards such as typhoons and El Niño induced drought. The opposition of the church to mining on Samar demonstrates the commitment of the church to be a church of the poor and how this praxis stands in contradistinction to the intellectual hegemony of neoliberalism.
