Arroyo gets Chretien’s assurances on Marinduque clean-up

NEW YORK — President Arroyo has secured no less than the official commitment of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to require a Canadian mining firm to clean up the environmental mess it left behind in Marinduque.

Before she flew back to Manila, the President told reporters here that one of the most concrete results of her two-day state visit to Canada was Chretien’s assurance that Canadian government agencies would help facilitate the clean-up of mine tailings that spilled from the ponds of Marcopper in the early 1990s.

Canadian firm Placer Dome is Marcopper’s foreign partner.

"They have a free enterprise economy and they don’t dictate on their corporations, but they do believe that Canadian corporations should be good corporate citizens and have corporate social responsibility," Mrs. Arroyo quoted Chretien as saying.

"So they (the Canadian government) said it would facilitate the parties getting together... Now they are beginning (to discuss) how to solve the problem. They are working on a solution," she added.

Chretien, the President said, informed her that Placer Dome had told him that it had spent $50 million to rehabilitate the affected areas in Marinduque and was willing to shell out $30 million more, of which $12 million will be for the clean-up and $12 million for compensation.

"But (Marinduque) Rep. (Edmund) Reyes said that is premature because we don’t even know how much it will cost us to study what (the clean-up) will entail," she said.

Before she left Manila, the President said she conferred with Marinduque Gov. Carmencita Reyes about the issue.

"So we notified the Canadian government that I am going to take it up (with Chretien)," she said.