Filipino priest wins 'environmental hero' award

Fr Edwin (Edu) Gariguez of Philippines has been awarded an 'environmental hero' award by the Jesuit-run Xavier University in the country for his battle against a nickel mine to protect Mindoro Island's biodiversity and local communities. Xavier University bestowed a doctorate in humanities on Fr Edu for his sustained and significant efforts to protect the environment and indigenous peoples.

Fr Roberto Yap, university president, said Fr Edu's ministry is an inspiring response to Pope Francis challenge "to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor." He said: "the vocation you have patiently and perseveringly pursued in the peripheries has truly been serving the faith that does justice and ecological stewardship."

Fr Edu is executive secretary of Caritas Philippines and of CBCP-NASSA, the social development, humanitarian and advocacy arm of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. He received the award during the university's graduation ceremony in Cagayan de Oro City in March. He is also one of the convenors of Alyansa Tigil Mina, a countrywide coalition of organisations and individuals acting as a watchdog over violations in laws and policies related to the mining industry.

In 2012 Fr Edu won the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest award for grassroots environmental activists. Two years before that he participated in an 11-day hunger strike on Mindoro to protest the government's environmental clearance for the project.

In July 2015 he was one of the keynote speakers at the annual national conference of the National Justice and Peace Network, a visit to Britain facilitated by CAFOD. He talked about his vocation as priest to live among the poor and how in serving the local church of Calapan in Oriendal Mindoro he worked to empower the indigenous people to speak up for their land. Where the central government was very keen to encourage mining investment, Fr Edu took a different view that life was much more important. He explained that for the people their land was "life," providing all their needs and they could not survive without it. It was to support an alternative world view that Fr Edu became involved in looking at alternatives for more sustainable development. He called himself an "accidental environmentalist".

Link: Goldman Prize video of Fr Edu Gariguez www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibXQjiau3II