Isn’t it ironic that the biggest threats against our very own homeland usually come from among us – shameless and greedy violators who want to destroy the country’s protected areas?
It is therefore a welcome development that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), in an order signed by Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna and dated Dec. 19, 2022, cancelled three Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) overlapping the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL) and Masungi Geopark Project.
The canceled MPSAs cover 1,343 hectares of the protected area. The canceled MPSAs are those granted to Rapid City Realty and Development Corp., Quimson Limestone Inc. (QLI) and Quarry Rock Group Inc.
“This is a significant step toward the preservation and protection of the ecological services and natural resources of the UMRBPL,” said the Upper Marikina Watershed Coalition (UMWC) on the cancellation, which comes after three years of tireless campaigning by the coalition and its partners.
On the ground
The crucial thing now is to ensure that the cancellation is enforced and takes effect on the ground. The coalition is looking forward to seeing this.
More often than not, companies resort to bribing local government officials to skirt around national laws or policies. We must guard against this.
Protecting the environment and its defenders
Indeed, the fight to protect the Upper Marikina Watershed and the Masungi Geopark Project continues.
Some quarries have claimed vested rights within protected areas and have maintained presence on-site.
“Additionally, harmful resorts and land grabbers posing as farmers and IPs have reportedly ramped up harassment against environment defenders and incursions into reforestation sites,” the coalition said.
Preventing another Ondoy
Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape is a 26,000-hectare protected area declared through Presidential Proclamation 296 in 2011 after the damage wrought by Typhoon Ondoy.
However, recent studies have shown that despite the National Greening Program and other interventions, the forest cover of the protected area is almost gone at 20 percent and continues to decline.
Aside from being home to a diverse array of flora and fauna, it is also home to indigenous Dumagat-Remontado indigenous cultural community.
The cancellation of the quarrying agreements will help ensure not just their safety but the preservation of their cultural heritage and sacred mountain for years to come.
Thank you DENR for acting on this.
But we must remain vigilant in protecting our protected areas.
Nickel Asia Corp. improves ESG score
I also hope that companies that are into the business of developing our natural resources become conscious with the way they do business.
It’s a relief to hear that Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC), for instance, is taking ESG performance seriously.
It announced recently that it was able to improve its Environmental, Social and Governance performance this month based on the latest assessment by its external ESG rating partner Sustainalytics.
According to the report, NAC was able to earn an ESG risk score of 33.6 during the assessment period from December 2022 to February 2023.
This is an improvement on its previous rating of 43.7.
The latest report covered more than 70 management ESG performance indicators, while NAC’s previous rating, released in July last year, was assessed through publicly available disclosures and followed Sustainalytics’ core framework that included nearly 30 ESG indicators.
Sustainalytics, a Morningstar company, is one of the leading independent ESG and corporate governance research, ratings and analytics firms in the world.
Following the latest result, NAC was able to improve its risk score by 10.1 points, and now ranks 54th out of 210 firms across the globe assessed by Sustainalytics under the Diversified Metals category and 37th out of 174 global firms under the Diversified Metals Mining sub-industry.
Jose Bayani Baylon, senior vice president for Sustainability, Risk, Corporate Affairs and Communications, said the improvement in their score confirms that their sustainability strategies have put them on the right track to achieving an ambitious goal of becoming the premier ESG investment in the Philippines and among the top 25 in market capitalization of the listed companies in the Philippine Stock Exchange.
It is always a positive step when Philippine companies try to improve the way they do business. I hope they realize that their operations affect everyone on the planet, including their very own stakeholders.
In the long run, doing it right will benefit everyone and greenwashing, as some companies do, only does more harm than good.
JTI Philippines is Top Employer for 2023
Speaking of companies, a Japanese company operating in the country, JTI Philippines, has been certified as the number two Top Employer for 2023, marking the second time that it has received the national accreditation. Top Employers Institute, a global institution, gave the recognition.
JTI general manager John Freda said the certification sends a strong message to current and future employees that JTI recognizes that its people are its greatest assets.
The Top Employers Institute highlighted JTI’s implementation of diverse initiatives to promote employee well-being including a digital platform, LifeWorks, which is a confidential employee assistance program available 24/7 to support its Philippine team.
“Being certified as #2 Top Employer in the Philippines for the second year in a row is a celebration of everyone at JTI who brings their passion and commitment to work, every single day,” Freda said.
Kudos to John Freda and his team. I met him quite a number of times in the past and I’ve seen his passion in leading a global company that operates in a complex society like ours.
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Email: eyesgonzales@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.