Diwalwal bidding done, tribesmen up in arms

Trouble’s a-brewing at the Mount Diwalwal gold rush. Hill tribesmen in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental are set to blockade field offices of the Philippine Mining Development Corp. in the two provinces. The state corporation had promised them a portion of the mine a year ago, but didn’t deliver. Two of the three syndicates that rule the site reportedly bullied the Malacañang-attached officials to desist. The syndicates’ word is law. But the tribesmen, invoking the Ancestral Domain Act, will flex their own muscle in taking over the PMDC outlets.

The syndicates are not supposed to be in Diwalwal in the first place. The slope was an off-limits forest reserve when they barged in in the 1980s. They traffic in controlled goods: mercury, cyanide and dynamite. But at the height of gang wars in 2002 the PMDC negotiated with them, thus imbuing them with legitimacy. Gloria Arroyo then converted the 8,100-hectare forest into a mineral reserve for PMDC to bid out. The 729-hectare gold-rush site landed in the hands of the syndicates. Injured was the interest of Picop paper mill, Diwalwal timber licensee since 1962.

The three gangs form the invisible government of tens of thousands of fortune hunters. Environment officials can’t stop the unlicensed small miners from stealing state-owned gold resources, and polluting forests and rivers. Picop has been begging the courts to restore its right to the trees it dutifully had planted over four decades. Last week six persons perished in landslides triggered by unbridled digging; local authorities evacuated 200 miners.

To complicate matters, the bidding for yet another slice of Diwalwal is under suspicion. The PMDC closed last Monday the 24th the submission of offers from prospective private operators of a gold vein. From published rules, the winner will be announced on Dec. 3. One of four tribal datus sees bid rigging. Spotted cooking the results were two political party mates, a high environment official and a Malacañang darling. The latter bragged that the Chinese firm he represents was one of only two bidders. The other is also from China. Whichever wins, the two are expected to combine under the Malacañang man’s game plan.

In Monday’s House discussion on Arroyo’s impeachment, minority Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan said the favored Chinese firm is Geograce Corp. From news releases, this company chaired by former natural resources secretary Michael Defensor, recently was introduced to Arroyo. Ilagan also said the other firm is either ZTE Corp., to which Arroyo illegally awarded Diwalwal in July 2006, or its front. PMDC execs had suggested then that ZTE, a telecom supplier, tie up with a real Chinese miner. Among the firms mentioned in minutes of meetings were: Shantung Gold, Hunan Copper, Jiangxi Copper, and CMMC.

Another snag: Southeastern Mindanao Corp., a filer for mine permit way ahead of everyone, has sought legal action against the PMDC bidding. SEM has six pending cases with the Supreme Court covering the gold site, and PMDC is a party in two. It asked the SC to site the agency in contempt for rushing the bidding while the area is still under dispute. The SC in turn ordered the Solicitor General, as PMDC counsel, to justify non-punishment. The datu too is decrying the bidding for overtaking PMDC’s long-promised grant to them of a mine operating agreement.

* * *

You’d think justice grinds slow only on the poor. But the two 25-year-old collection cases I featured recently concerned a middle-class homebuyer and a millionaire. And get a load of this: even billionaire Lucio Tan’s beer company took 11 years to win a damage suit. The fight likely isn’t over.

In 1997 Asia Brewery Inc. sued archrival San Miguel Corp. for hiding nearly two million of ABI’s beer bottles in three warehouses. Only last week did the court finally rule — that SMC pay ABI P130 million in lost revenues. The legal fight included a sheriff’s raid on SMC depots and testimonies of seven witnesses about the hoarding plot.

The case of unfair trade practice expectedly will drag on. Litigants usually don’t accept lower court verdicts and lawyers find ways to elevate to the Court of Appeals. Those with deep pockets even go all the way to the Supreme Court because they don’t trust CA rulings either. And even when the SC issues final decisions, some losers simply don’t obey orders.

* * *

Reader Alberto Madrilejos lauds the Comelec’s making prospective presidential candidates in 2010 to commit to a debate. But he adds:

“All presidential aspirants should be made to sign a promissory note that whoever wins will not invoke that obnoxious ‘executive privilege’. More so, in a congressional investigation of crime. Never again should we be made helpless witnesses to abuse of presidential prerogatives.”

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]