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Recent reports by a US-based environmental Think Tank and the CAFOD have shed light on human rights and environmental abuses perpetrated by a Philippine mining company called Amcor. Sourced information in both of the reports cite sourced information that Amcor owner Pedro Tan bribed government officials and community leaders to silent grassroots opposition to their mining project in Mati in the southern Philippine province of Davao Oriental. The US report, entitled: “Mining Injustices in the Philippines 2008: A Year in Review,” claims that Amcor’s owners refused to follow the environmental and ethical standards of their former joint venture partner, Australian mining firm BHP Billiton, and the Philippine government. According to dozens of sources in the report, Pedro Tan bribed government officials to look the other way. This is the reason the foreign mining partner refused to continue the project with Amcor because Amcor is not willing to obey environmental and community rights laws. A former employee of Amcor, who asked to remain anonymous in the report, claimed that it was widely known in Amcor that they were providing false information to the government, the community, and their business partner on how to make the project sustainable and minimize environmental impact.

This has been covered pretty extensively in the media already although BHP Billiton has not confirmed that Amcor pressured them to violate environment standards.