Filipino priest wins major environmental award

Fr Edwin Gariguez with Fr Frank Nally

A Filipino priest whose work protecting the environment by leading a grassroots movement on the Philippine island of Mindoro has been named as one of six winners of the 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize, which honors grassroots environmental heroes from the global south.

Fr Edwin Gariguez, 49, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace of the Philippines Bishops' Conference was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for "fearless" leadership in protecting the environment and his community, it was announced on Monday. The foundation noted the priest's leadership in a grassroots movement to protect the biodiversity of Mindoro Island in the northwestern Philippines as well as its indigenous Mangyan people from an illegal nickel mine.

"We are very happy that he got this significant international prize," said Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila, Gariguez's bishops commission chairman. Pabillo said the award shows the group's "recognition of what we are doing in Mindoro, protecting the indigenous people and protecting the environment especially against large-scale mining." He added that, "we hope that this can be a big sign for people that there are others outside the Philippines who appreciate what we are doing to preserve the environment".

Gariguez, nicknamed Father Edu, served as administrator of Mangyan Mission before he was appointed executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace and its National Secretariat for Social Action in 2010. He had come out of an 11-day anti-mining hunger strike with 25 Mangyans less than three months earlier to stop operations of the Norwegian mining company. The Goldman prize cited Gariguez's struggle in the late 1990s against Intex, then known as Mindex, when the company proposed to build an open-pit nickel mine near two biodiversity areas, using acid leaching process to reach mineral ores. The process would produce toxic waste.

Gariguez co-founded the Alliance Against Mining, a broad coalition of thousands of Mindoro residents, elected officials, civil society groups, church leaders and indigenous people who oppose mining on the island. Activists protesting with the group reportedly received threats of violence and verbal harassment. The department then indefinitely revoked Intex's permit and stopped mining operations, the prize's site states. Major funders, including Goldman Sachs, took away the company's funding, leading Intex to make an unsuccessful attempt to sell the $2.4 billion project in 2010. Shortly after the botched sale, Intex's CEO resigned because of "severe setbacks," according to the foundation.

For Judy Pasimio, who campaigned with Gariguez and the Alliance Against Mining, the award also "recognizes the contribution of the Church to ending the Mangyan's struggle with Intex". She said: "this struggle is not just about protecting the environment, but is really about the survival of the Mangyans, which Father Edu and the church fought for". She feels, "he is an example of the priest who does not just stand and preach in the pulpit, but who is really in touch 'with the people' he is serving". In his acceptance message, Gariguez offered his prize to Mangyan people. "It's not only money that counts for them, but also the spirit ties with the land, which mining companies do not understand" he said. He underlined that his key inspiration has been the social teachings of the Church.

Fr Edu visited London in 2008 to raise support internationally and stayed at the Columban Fathers house in Hampstead. He set up a laptop on a table in the Columbans' reception room and showed visuals of the environmental and social problems caused by mining in many areas of the Philippines, a country whose government has vigorously encouraged investment by foreign mining corporations.

There were images of barren holes in the landscape - with denuded hillsides increasing vulnerability to typhoons, contaminated rivers, and homeless communities. Lush rainforest and fertile fields in the proposed project area of Mindoro featured too. He smiled when he pointed out himself in some of the images and Church leaders prominent behind the banners. Fr Edu emphasised how the Catholic Bishops have come out strongly against mining in the Philippines. He was grateful for the solidarity offered by Columban Father Frank Nally, who is part of the London-based Working Group on Mining in the Philippines.

Goldman Prize winners

The Goldman Environmental Prize, now on its 23rd year, was established in 1989 by late San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. The other award recipients, who were selected by an international jury, are:

Ikal Angelei of Kenya, who is risking her life fighting the construction of the massive Gibe 3 Dam, which would block access to water for indigenous communities around Lake Turkana.

Ma Jun of China, who is working with corporations to clean up their practices with an online database and digital map showing which factories are violating China's environmental regulations.

Evgenia Chirikova of Russia, who is mobilizing fellow Russians to demand rerouting of a highway that would bisect Khimki Forest, Moscow's "green lungs."

Caroline Cannon of the United States, who is battling with her Inupiat community in Point Hope in the Arctic Circle to keep Arctic waters safe from offshore oil and gas drilling.

Sofia Gatica, an Argentine mother who, after losing her infant to pesticide poisoning, is organizing local women to stop indiscriminate spraying of toxic agrochemicals in neighboring soy fields.

Each winner will receive $150,000.

For more information on Mangyan Mission see: www.mangyan.org

For more on the Goldman Prize: http://goldmanprize.org