Savior

As oil saved the desert-based Arabic communities, minerals will save our own economy from the chronic cycle of poverty.

In the aftermath of last week’s great quake, we now know that the island of Bohol rose from the sea. This explains the limestone and coral base on which the island sits.

Many other islands were pushed up from the sea by seismic activity, explaining their extraordinary mineral content. Samar island, for instance, is not hospitable to agriculture because of its highly mineralized topsoil. Mining, not agriculture, will save Samar from chronic poverty.

We now also know from the geologists that Zambales started off as an island until it pushed into the Luzon mainland. This explains the rich mineral potential of the province. The minerals were pushed up from the earth’s crust because of seismic activity.

Baguio, now one of our thriving cities, began as a mining town. Around the city are seemingly inexhaustible mines extracting gold for generations.

It might be a misfortune that our archipelago sits on what is called the Ring of Fire, a long stretch of active volcanoes and even more active fault lines. The entire archipelago is precisely a creation of volcanic and seismic activity.

There is an upside to that, however. A compensation of sorts, if you will. The archipelago is loaded with minerals.

If we do not safely and productively extract those minerals, the compensation for the perils posed by quakes and eruptions will be for naught. Imagine of Dubai or Abu Dhabi decided they would not extract the oil underneath them. Those places would still be populated by nomadic tribes roaming the empty desert.

If we do not safely and productively extract the minerals we were gifted with, that is almost a sin. We forego the means to liberate from poverty our poorest communities, those trying to eke a living off hardscrabble earth.

For three years now, our mining industry has been almost on a standstill. For an unduly long time, the Palace wrestled with a “mining policy” that will produce better revenues for government. When it finally came out with a clarification of its “mining policy”, it turns out the revenue schemes required legislation. That legislation is hardly moving in the Congress, currently embroiled by controversies over the pork barrel.

Meanwhile, vital investments are withheld. Opportunities for job-creation, the most vital thing our economy needs now, are foregone.

Once before, from the mid-nineties, the mining industry found itself pretty much in the same condition of uncertainty. The Mining Act of 1995, a global standard for environmental protection, was impounded as the Supreme Court sorted out questions regarding its constitutionality.

There was a window opened for investment inflows after the Court upheld the constitutionality of the Mining Act in the middle of the last decade. With that window, Sagittarius Mining, for instance, took over from where Western Mining left in the middle of the tangle over constitutionality of the law. They prepared to restart the Tampakan mine, which sits on one of the largest and purest copper veins ever found. The over $5 billion expected investment in the project is the largest single direct investment into our economy.

Local ordinances, pressure from environmentalists and, finally, government’s protracted dilly-dallying over its “mining policy” discouraged Sagittarius from continuing full speed on the project. Earlier this year, they laid off personnel. The word in the market is that they might sell off the entire project, as Western Mining did before — out of exasperation over the constantly shifting policy environment.

A second investment project tapping into parts of the same large copper deposit, however, chose to brave the odds and push through with its project.

The King-King Copper-Gold project centered in Pantukan, Compostela Valley is the second largest mining investment after Tampakan. The huge mining project is expected to begin commercial operations in 2017.

The Pantukan project is the result of a partnership between Filipino-owned Nationwide Development Corporation (Nadecor) and American-owned St. Augustine Gold & Copper Ltd. The partnership is sinking $2 billion into the Pantakan mine.

The project has an expected mine life of 22 years. It is expected to yield several million tons of gold and copper ore.

The Nadecor-St. Augustine partnership is 60-40 in favor of the Filipino-owned company. To further seal the partnership, St. Augustine is offering nearly 40% of its own shares to Nadecor.

We hope approvals for this project go through a less turbulent course with our sometimes unpredictable bureaucracy. All the policy uncertainties have built up huge opportunity costs for our economy thus far. We need a firmer, more predictable policy environment to pave the way for our minerals for drive poverty alleviation in our economy.

Confident

It takes a supremely confident man to do what Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada did this week. While the national leadership dilly-dallies on the matter of apologizing to Hong Kong for the Luneta hostage fiasco, the Manila Mayor went right ahead with a resolution clearly apologizing for the incident.

Estrada plans to travel to Hong Kong next month to personally offer apologies.

All inquiries into that fiasco establish shortcomings on the part of Filipino officials. The reluctance of our national leadership to issue formal apologies for those shortcomings can only be the product of some emotional or psychological disability.

While Hong Kong authorities await an apology, our relations with our neighbors will be needlessly difficult. The advisory on tourists travelling to our country curtails potential benefits for our country. A hint of bad faith will complicate all our diplomatic dealings.

Estrada did right. The ice must be broken. Apologizing for official shortcomings is a dictate of mature diplomatic behavior.