Anti-Mining Activist Shot Dead

Another anti-mining activist was shot dead around 4:30 p.m. today, environmental group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment reported.

Eliezer “Boy” Billanes, chairman of Socssargends Alliance for Genuine Developmet (Socssargends AGENDA), was killed by still unidentified men.

Billanes’ group leads the opposition to the Tampakan Copper-Gold project in South Cotabato of the Xstrata, one the biggest mining companies in the world.

Billanes is also a member of Defend Patrimony, a national multisectoral alliance opposing the mining liberalization policy and large-scale mining projects of the government.

Kalikasan-PNE said that Billanes is the 20th anti-mining activist killed under the Arroyo administration. Other regional leaders of environmentalist groups activists killed were Romy Sanchez of Save the Abra Movement (STARM), Noli Capulong of the Southern Tagalog Environmental Action Movement (STEAM), Eladio Dasi-an of Defend Patrimony Negros Oriental and Fernando Sarmiento of Panalipdan New Bataan.

Kalikasan PNE said, “We believe these killings are part of the dirty tactics of the Arroyo government and transnational mining companies to sow fear among mining-affected communities and coerce the growing and widening resistance of the people in the Philippines opposing anti-people and anti-environment large-scale mining projects.” (Bulatlat.com)