This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 41, November
20-26, 2005
Destroying Rapu-rapu
Through Mining What
used to be a haven for endangered species has now become a site for mining
operations. The residents call it destruction, but the government calls it
development. BY
AUBREY SC MAKILAN RAPU-RAPU ISLAND – In 2001,
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited Rapu-Rapu island (about 600 kilometers
from Manila) and said that development will finally happen here at last. How can
this be done? She harped on the Rapu Rapu Polymetallic Project as one of the
24 priority large-scale mining projects
included in her 10-point program from 2004 to 2010.
Billed as the flagship of the country's revived mining industry, the
Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB)
projected from it a potential investment and revenues of $42 million and $246
million, respectively. The MGB also said that the government stands to collect
an annual excise tax, without incentives, of about $4.2 million. The project, one of the
first new mining ventures approved after 15 years, went into commercial
production this year. The company has exported some 4,000 ounces of gold as of
October to a refiner in Hong Kong. The project is operated by Lafayette Phil.
Inc. with Lafayette NL of Australia, LG Collins and KORES of South Korea.
The Lafayette open-pit
mining in Rapu-Rapu has an initial mine life of six years. This is expected to
yield around 50,000 ounces of gold annually, 600,000 ounces of silver, 10,000
metric tons of copper concentrate and 14,000 metric tons of zinc concentrate per
year, according to the MGB. Still a fourth class
municipality Mining is not new to the
people of Rapu-Rapu, a fourth-class municipality in Albay (Bicol Region). During World War II, the
Japanese Imperial Army mined in Barangay (village) Sta. Barbara, with residents
working the mines out of fear. After the war, Hixbar Mining Company introduced
open-pit and tunnel-type mining in the same area. When the company stopped its
operations in the 1970s, it left three of four rivers contaminated and a wide
tract of land barren and useless. Since then, residents have noticed a strong
and noxious odor of water flowing from the area. In 1980, Benguet
Consolidated, Inc. (BCI) conducted explorations at Ungay Point in Barangay
Pagcolbon but left shortly thereafter. Toronto Ventures Inc. (TVI) followed BCI
which further explored the same area and established roadways to the site.
Spinifex, on the other hand, studied the feasibility of mining operations.
However, the company never explored and mined the area extensively. "Mining has been part of
Bicol economic activity for more than a century but the industry remains
backward and has hardly uplifted the lives of the local population,” said
Beverly Quintillan, spokesperson of the Bicol chapter of the Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan (Bayan, New Patriotic Alliance) and member of Defend Patrimony!, an
alliance opposing the Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s mining liberalization
program. “Instead, foreign corporations like Lafayette and their government
sponsors are the only ones profiting in wiping out our rich mineral resources.” Based on a 2004 study
conducted by Dr. Emelina G. Regis, director of the Institute for Environmental
Conservation and Research in Ateneo de Naga University, gold mining in Bicol did
not alleviate poverty but actually worsened poverty of local communities. She
cited what happened in the gold mining communities in Luklukan Sur, Jose
Panganiban, Camarines Norte and Sta. Barbara, Rapu-rapu island in Albay. Her study also reported
that aside from environmental degradation, pollution and health problems brought
about by gold mining operation, residents become poorer when government fails to
rehabilitate the degraded ecosystems on which the people depend to eke out a
living. Special economic zone In May 2004, the President
issued Proclamation No. 625 which classified as a special economic zone certain
areas of Barangays Malobago and Pagcolbon. According to the guidelines
of the 2004 Investment Priorities Plan, businesses engaged in the exploration,
mining and processing of minerals must be at least 60-percent Filipino-owned to
qualify for Board of Investments (BOI) incentives. These include an income tax
holiday, exemption from taxes and duties on imported spare parts for equipment,
tax credits, exemption from wharfage dues and export taxes, and additional
deductions from taxable income. The endorsement of the
Rapu-rapu project for ecozone status was first proposed by the Department of
Trade and Industry in the wake of the BOI’s decision to exclude foreign-owned
mining projects from its list of investments qualified for incentives. The BOI’s
decision happened after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional certain
provisions of the Mining Act of 1995 in January 2004, especially those that
pertain to financial and technical assistance agreements with foreign investors.
But in December 2004, the Supreme Court reversed its own decision and ruled on
the Mining Act’s constitutionality. At stake Rapu-Rapu may have gotten
its name from the Bikol word yapu-yapu which means an object that is too
distant and scarcely visible. The word also means a distant object floating on
the sea which describes the geographical characteristics of Rapu-Rapu which is
55 kilometers from the Albay mainland. According to the 1995
census, the island of Rapu-Rapu has a land area of 5,589 hectares and a
population of 9,132. Situated north of Lagonoy
Gulf, southwest of Pacific Ocean, and east of Albay Gulf, fishing and farming in
the upland areas are said to be the primary sources of livelihood. However, the
mining for gold, silver, zinc and copper in the area has threatened not only the
people’s livelihood but also the environment. In the same study by Regis,
Rapu-Rapu was described as a “fragile island ecosystem.” “Eleven rural barangays and
the town of Rapu-Rapu are dependent on a limited water supply produced by the
watershed of the island. At present, some areas of the forest in this watershed
are already denuded, thus endangering the availability of water and worsening
the present state of the water supply. With mining, competition between the
residents and the mining company for the limited water resource becomes even
more serious,” it said. The study added,
“Destruction of the island for the sake of few jobs generated from mining
activities will result in reduction in the productivity of the land for farming
and coral reefs for fishing.” Destruction of
ecosystem? The unique biodiversity of
Rapu-rapu may also be destroyed, the study said. Endangered species like the
yellow-colored oriole and species of pitcher plant may be found there. Residents
have also said that there are large brown-colored bats and a rare mollusk called
the golden cowry which may be found in the deeper portions of the coral reef at
Malobago and Ungay Points. The study said that
destruction of the coral reefs is possible due to the siltation/sedimentation
coming from mine tailings and contamination from released heavy metals or
pollutants brought about by acid mine drainage. Coral reefs supply the
needed fishes of the local inhabitants as well as those in the coastal areas of
Albay Gulf and Lagonoy Gulf that support the fishery needs of the provinces of
Albay, Camarines Sur, Sorsogon and Samar. Even the whale sharks’
habitat will be affected. The whales have become a tourist attraction in Donsol,
Sorsogon and this has helped raise its status from fourth to fifth-class
municipality, according to Carina Escudero, a cinematographer and scuba diver. On
March 16, 1994, Miracle Mile Mining Corp. registered with the MGB to explore
2,767 hectares. To date, it has not yet started exploration. On the other hand,
Lafayette registered on August 29, 1997 for the exploration of 1,719 hectares.
Together, these companies will mine a total of 4,486 hectares which account for
about 81% of the island. Bulatlat © 2005 Bulatlat
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