Mining will not solve poverty in the Philippines

Our OFWs are running here and there and everywhere. Isn’t it just a sad state of life? Soon we will have many OFWs unemployed. Another catastrophic event coming!

The turmoil that began in Egypt and now Libya may continue to spread in the volatile neighboring countries having a domino effect. As P-Noy pointed out in his world map last week, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the south east, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.

To make matters worse, our OFWs in Taiwan who are caught in the middle of some government mishap may lose their jobs too.

We have gotten so used to employing our people off shores we haven’t quite mastered this trade. Just goes to show government inaction. Why can’t we create more jobs here at home?

I don’t really understand why we continue to make overseas domestic employment an industry (which by the way, seems to be the modern day slave trade) when we very well know – it is unstable, troubling, dangerous and more important it breaks the Pinoy family unit. If we can only protect our own industries and limit open trade, then, we can bring manufacturing and jobs back to this country. Until then, the saga of our OFWs continues.

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Why would people say “No to Mining” when we very well know that mining will help our country prosper?

Indeed our country is rich in natural resources but we remain one of the poorest in the third world category. Our leaders have tried to beat the odds by getting in foreign investments to jack up our economy. Unfortunately, we have never succeeded. So, in order to boost our economy many stakeholders like the businessmen, congressmen, governors – even the Presidents for that matter have agreed to exploit our natural resources to increase economic growth. These people have obviously outweighed the importance of environmental damage and degradation over economic development.

It is a sad fact to say but our people and our leaders are not yet ready to professionally manage our natural resources in an ‘environmentally conscious’ way. What all our leaders and their cohorts know right now is how to abuse our rich natural resources and make a fast buck out of this trade. Haven’t they destroyed our trees? Haven’t they ignored our marine life? Haven’t they already exploited a few of our mines? And with all that has happened and has wasted away, we continue to be poor.

In 1995 then President Fidel Ramos signed the Philippine Mining Act. You would think a president would protect our country’s interest but instead by signing it, he allowed foreign mining companies to exploit our mineral resources. According to Edwin Cordero Mercurio of Mercury News Online, “The Philippine Mining Act liberalized the mining industry by removing restrictions and offering numerous incentives such as tax holidays and easement rights – the right of mining companies to remove settlers and indigenous people from their ancestral abode.”

In January 2005, the Supreme Court declared that several provisions of the Mining Act of 1995 violate the Constitution. But a few months after the SC ruling, the GMA administration reversed its decision that revoked Canada based Crew Development Corporation’s mining permit. Isn’t this quite puzzling for a president to do?

In a press release by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources dated February 18, 2011, Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje directed all regional directors of the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau to refrain from accepting and processing new mining applications nationwide. I’m pretty sure he was instructed by P-Noy because when Paje was under GMA, he whistled a different tune. In fact, wasn’t he tagged as one of the mining czars of the Arroyo administration?

I hope Paje’s misplaced priorities then, is now following the “tuwid na daan” of   P-Noy as he will have to prove himself clean this time.

The DENR report shows that there are 2,180 mining applications at present that are pending in various regional offices. DENR has terminated more than 500 mining permits and applications that have remained inactive and incomplete in terms of requirements. Paje said that this clearing of “ageing” mining applications is in line with the department’s anti-corruption program.

Several mining permits to explore along with Mining Production Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) have been issued in many parts of the Eastern Visayas region – Samar, Leyte and Biliran. Even Homonhon, a historical island is once again threatened by the application of a large mining permit by the Cambayas Mining.

What has mining done to our land? It has caused destruction of forests and wildlife as in the case of the land use changes in the Rio Tuba Nickel Mines; water pollution in the affected coastal area of Colandorang Bay in Balabac due to an abandoned and un-rehabilitated copper mine; soil erosion like in the case of Infanta Mining in Brooke’s Point; the non-rehabilitation of mined out areas of Silica Mining in Roxas and the mining of nickel and chromite by Trident Mining Corporation and Olympic Mines in Narra.

How can mining in the Philippines improve the lives of the poor? Unfortunately, mining has not improved their lives. After almost 30 years of mining operations of Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corporation, the municipality of Bataraza in Palawan still lags behind other municipalities in the delivery of basic services: electricity, water, transportation, and education. The Bataraza community remains to be amongst the poorest municipalities in the province.

The mining business may be serving the interest of the country’s economy but it is not the solution to poverty. As a matter of fact, mining profits accumulate primarily to mining corporations, most of which are based outside the country; some go to the government, a good chunk goes to the government officials protecting the industry in the area and only trickles are allocated to the poor. Since our people are not literate enough to protect their land, the “gangsters” of the mining town takes control of the conditions just like pirates protecting their “gold” with guns and goons.

The tragic death of Dr. Gerardo “Doc Gerry” Ortega, a civic leader who championed the protection of Palawan’s rich biodiversity and an outspoken critic of mining operations in Palawan, spawned a ten million signature campaign – “No to Mining in Palawan”.

Managed by the Save Palawan Movement, the campaign aims to deliver a strong message to the Philippine and Palawan governments that mining must stop! (For more information go to www.no2mininginpalawan.com)

Surely, greed has allowed our leaders to destroy our beautiful land. We are already suffering the consequences of climate change. Why should we allow these rogues to savage our land? The future generation may have better solutions of utilizing our country’s natural resources at the same time enhancing its pristine form – let’s save and protect our beautiful biodiversity for them!