Tag Archives: Anti-Mindoro mining

Anti-Mindoro mining farmer stages hunger strike in Rome

MANILA, Philippines—At the opening of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s World Summit on Food Security in Rome, a young farmer from Mindoro island went on a hunger strike to protest a mining project in his province.

The Mindoro Nickel Project, to be operated by Intex Resources, a giant mining company in Norway and located at Victoria, Oriental Mindoro, will cover 9,720 hectares of critical watershed areas and affect the rice farmers in the nearby towns, since the watershed area is the farmers’ main source for irrigation.

Together with Jonjon Sarmiento, a participant to the Civil Society Organization Forum Parallel to the World Summit on Food Security, 25 Mangyans and priests also started a hunger strike and fasting outside the offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Quezon City. “I am from this town. I am a farmer. I am a youth leader. I am here in Rome. So, I will join my town mates in their hunger strike while I am here in Rome,” Sarmiento said. Continue reading

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