The Diocese of Borongan in the province of Eastern Samar hosted an online concert on April 28 to drum up support to save the remaining biodiversity on Homonhon Island.
The event featured performances by local singers and priests, including Bishop Crispin Varquez of Borongan.
The 30-minute long concert was streamed on Facebook via the official page of Este News, the diocese’s media agency.
In a statement, the diocese said the online concert was the first of a series “to raise awareness about what mining companies have done to denude the island of Homonhon.”
Homonhon caught media attention in recent weeks after the government allowed a Chinese-manned vessel to load chromite ore from the island despite the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
An online petition on change.org to stop the mining operations on the island already got more than 12,500 supporters as of April 29, two weeks after it was launched.
Mining operations have been ongoing on the island since the early 1990s.
