A joint launching of the mining advocacy campaigns of the Dioceses of Bacolod, Dumaguete, Kabankalan, and San Carlos will be held Monday at the John Paul II Cultural Center, Sacred Heart Seminary in Bacolod City.

The activity, "Aton Banwa, Pangapinan Ta! Lungsod Nato, Panalipdan Ta!" is a forum where the unified position of the four bishops of Negros Island on large-scale mining and its imminent proliferation in Negros will be issued, a press release from organizers said.

Experiences of territorial communities adversely affected by mining operations in Sipalay City, the provincial government of Marinduque in the aftermath of the 1996 Boac River mining disaster, and the people of Samar in their recent initiative to defend their island's physical resource base against legal logging and large-scale mining will be shared with the people of Negros, the press release said.

Initiating the activity are Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra, San Carlos Bishop Jose Advincula, Jr., Dumaguete Bishop John Du, and Kabankalan Bishop Patricio Buzon.

The position of the Negros Church will be read during the affair.

Video showings and case presentations on concrete experiences of territorial communities and local government units on large-scale mining operations will be made by Marinduque Rep. Edmundo Reyes Jr., Fr. Cesar Aculan of the Diocese of Calbayog and Samar Island Biodiversity Foundation, and Sipalay City-based community leader, Rene Capa.

The clergy and lay leaders of the dioceses of Bacolod, Dumaguete, Kabankalan, and San Carlos, the official representatives of the archdioceses of Jaro and Capiz and the dioceses of San Jose de Antique, Kalibo, and Romblon, will attend the launching.

The provincial governments of Negros Occidental and Oriental Negros, and the mayors and congressmen of Negros Occidental have been invited to attend, the press release added.*

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