Borongan diocese holds virtual concert to save Homonhon 

Eastern Samar’s Catholic Church hosted an online concert to drum up support to save the remaining biodiversity on Homonhon Island.

Tuesday’s music event featured performances by some local singers and priests, including Bishop Crispin Varquez of Borongan.

The 30-minute-long concert was streamed on the Facebook page of Este News, the diocese’s media agency.

The diocese said that the online concert was just the first of a series “to raise awareness about what mining companies have done to denude the island of Homonhon”.

Homonhon has made headlines recently after the national government allowed a Chinese-manned vessel to load chromite ore on the island amid coronavirus threat.

The decision angered many residents whose only appeal was to delay the loading operations while the province is on lockdown.

The disappointment also triggered growing calls to stop all the mining operations on Homonhon, located off Guiuan, the province’s southernmost town.

An online petition on Change.org, which was started two weeks ago, to shut down the mining operations already got more than 12,500 supporters as of April 29.

Mining operations have been ongoing since early 1990s on the historic island, where Christian faith first arrived in the Philippines 499 years ago.

The local Church has also been at the forefront in raising environmental awareness to protect the island.