Oprah's wealth & the Philippines' untapped $1 trillion in hidden treasure

You ask us if we own the land and mock us, saying, “Where is your title?” Such arrogance of owning the land when you shall be owned by it. How can you own that which will outlive you?  — Kalinga tribal chief Macliing Dulag (when confronted by a military engineer)

Congratulations to America’s “rags-to-riches” TV star Oprah Winfrey, not only for her positive impact on her nation and the world through her inspirational programs and civic causes. This writer wishes to extol her as an enterprising, self-made tycoon who has made herself into a trusted global brand name and her enterprise into a business empire. CNN reported that Forbes magazine estimated Oprah’s net worth at US$2.7 billion. Wow!

Oprah Winfrey personifies the innate superiority of the enlightened free-enterprise economic system, which allows talent, individual initiative and free competition to create wealth for people and nations. Oprah is also a positive role model for media and showbiz stars who deploy their fame and pop culture influence to help change our world for the better — such as her TV shows endorsing books and promoting reading, or her civic endeavors to aid women and young people.

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Congratulations to Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) honorary president and steel industrialist Domingo Lee for having been appointed by President Noynoy C. Aquino as the new Philippine ambassador to China, including Mongolia and North Korea. He was a childhood friend in Tarlac and loyal ally of the late Senator Ninoy Aquino. I recall the late President Cory C. Aquino once telling me that Lee and his wife regularly visited Ninoy in jail during the martial law years when most of their friends and even kin had abandoned them during those darkest days of crisis. Ambassador Domingo Lee’s late Tarlac lumber-trader father Lee Chieng Kee used to buy lumber products from my late dad Lee Tek Hong’s sawmills from the 1940s to 1960s, and they shared the same ancestral roots in the seaside barrio or village of Chio-chun in Fujian province, southeastern China. Hopefully Ambassador Lee can help the Philippines economically benefit from the stunning “economic miracle” of China. 

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Is it true that the responsible and sustainable mining of our immense, God-given mineral resources — described as one of the richest on earth — can pay off all the Philippines’ foreign debt and transform it into a prosperous, mine-rich nation like Australia or Canada? The Philippines has the world’s second biggest gold reserves next only to South Africa, among the top reserves in copper, plus others like nickel, chromite and zinc.

How can we depoliticize mining so that legitimate domestic and foreign investors can unleash the country’s vast mineral resources for national progress and hopefully wipe out poverty in our society, similar to oil-rich Brunei, Bahrain, or mineral-rich Canada? 

How can a national government with iron political will, guts and idealism ensure that social justice and equitable distribution of wealth will prevail, if the mining industry of the country is indeed allowed to thrive without self-destructive politicking or exploitative carpetbaggers? 

How can rural people in the mineral-rich mountains and provinces — especially the estimated 12 million poor and oft-discriminated-against indigenous peoples — be safeguarded in terms of their ancestral lands, their share of the riches of their homelands as well as the preservation of their natural environment and ancient cultures?

On May 27 last year, this writer witnessed at Edsa Shangri-la Hotel the historic unity and peace declaration of leaders from the Mandaya, Manobo, Mangguangan and Dibabawon tribes of Monkayo in Compostela Valley province of eastern Mindanao. They resolved their past conflicts over the fabulously rich Diwalwal gold mine area in Monkayo in their ancestral domain lands, which the four tribes jointly own. They told this writer that five of their tribal leaders had been assassinated in cold blood, plus other violent incidents due to rivalries over Diwalwal’s famous gold.

The tribal leaders asked the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) led by chairman, Atty. Roque N. Agton, Jr. — himself a member of the Bagobo tribe of Davao — to endorse to the state-owned Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC) their invitation to Jake Mining Corp., led by president Eric R. Tagle, to help them mine Diwalwal. 

When asked about Tagle’s background, the businessman said that he had been an executive of the former Apex Mining Corporation since 1983, and that his firm Jake Mining Corp. was the assignee and successor to Apex in Diwalwal. Research shows that Tagle is president of Milestone Paper Products, Inc. a manufacturer of corrugated or carton boxes for packaging; he is also a former director of Manila Banking Corp. (bought by China Banking Corp.) and one of the top horse owners in the country. 

On May 14, 2008, The New York Times had a lengthy special feature on the untapped potential of the Philippine mining industry entitled “Miners shun mineral wealth of the Philippines,” describing our 7,107 isles as having mineral wealth estimated at “between $840 billion to $1 trillion.” In gold mineral reserves alone, the Philippines is ranked No. 2 on earth next only to South Africa.

In 2005, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that allows 100-percent foreign investor ownership of mining ventures due to their high capital-intensive and even challenging technological requirements, and the Philippine government, led by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2008, was quoted by The New York Times as optimistically predicting that Australia-like inflow of foreign investments to Philippine mining could reach $9 billion by this year, 2011.

However, the boom in Philippine mining with regards to foreign investments and local developments has not yet happened. When this writer asked Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje how much foreign direct investments (FDI) entered this sector last year and how much the forecast is for this year, Mines and Geosciences Bureau director Leo L. Jasareno texted: “Projected mining investment in 2011 is $1.44 billion. This is slightly larger than last year 2010 at $1.2 billion.”

It’s apparent that despite earnest efforts by government leaders, much needs to be done and more pro-investor reforms should be implemented to woo world-class mining investors here. 

Fraser Institute, one of the leading international mining research groups, ranks the Philippines among the world’s top five most-mineral-rich countries, but its annual global survey places the country near the bottom of the list of 65 mining countries and regions on earth in terms of being an investment destination. Sadly, the Philippines ranked near chaotic Zimbabwe, despite our being a democracy and one of Asia’s pioneers in mining during the American colonial era with such firms as Benguet Mining, Atlas Mining and others, which helped created the then-progressive city of Baguio in the prewar years. 

What are the challenges and problems that the national government, led by President Noynoy Aquino, should decisively address, so that the Philippines can become rich? 

Foreign and domestic investors cite some of the main hurdles: a horribly slow bureaucracy and too much regulatory red tape, laws that let local government politicos have too much influence over the development of mineral resources, the unregulated and Wild, Wild West-type influx of illegal and small-scale miners, excessive political corruption, and peace-and-order problems in the rural hinterlands, where most mines are located. 

Like the economy of the Philippines as a whole, the history and present situation of the local mining industry in recent years is still one filled with untapped potential and so much wasted opportunity. 

Entrepreneurs, civic organizations, ordinary citizens and other sectors should depoliticize Philippine mining and the whole economy, modernize our various industries so that economic growth can be accelerated, and true social progress with equitable distribution of wealth can happen.

For decades, the Philippines has been a naturally rich country with mostly poor people, despite rich arable lands, rich fishing areas and seas, and the mind-boggling riches of our mineral reserves. Isn’t it time for genuine reforms, decisive action, less politics and more common sense? 

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