This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 8, March 25-31, 2007
11 years living in mining
disaster For
11 years, Marinduqueños have been seeking justice from the various courts in the
country and abroad to determine the liabilities of Marcopper Mining Corporation
and Placer Dome, Incorporated (bought by Barrick Gold in 2006) over the
disasters their 30-year mining operations have caused the people and environment
in Marinduque island. Worse, Marcopper even has unpaid tax liabilities due to
the province amounting to millions of dollars.
By Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns (MACEC)
BOAC, Marinduque
-- In a rare display of solidarity and volunteerism, thousands of
Marinduqueños from all walks of life led by the Marinduque Council for
Environmental Concerns, gathered together on March 24 to clean-up both
embankments of the 26-kilometer Boac River to commemorate the 11th anniversary
of the infamous environmental disaster which caused the death of the said river
in 1996. This is in response to the Pastoral Letter issued by Marinduque’s
Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista, an Executive Order circulated by Governor
Carmencita O. Reyes and a Resolution adopted by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
© 2007 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Marinduque Victims Still
Cry for Justice
Posted by
Bulatlat
Evangelista emphasized in his letter to the faithful which was read in all the
Sunday masses on March 18 that: “It is high time for the entire Marinduque
community to work together in reclaiming the integrity of our creation as part
of our responsibility before God to enrich the beauty and bounty of our
remaining natural resources. In this sense, our collective dignity as
Marinduqueños will wipe out the infamy which the Boac River disaster of 1996
brought to our island-paradise. However, the local church and the local
governments have the common tasks to continuously seek justice for our people
and for our environment.”
Delayed Justice
Marinduqueños have been seeking justice from the various courts in the country
and abroad to determine the liabilities of Marcopper Mining Corporation and
Placer Dome, Incorporated (bought by Barrick Gold in 2006) over the disasters
their 30-year mining operations have caused the people and environment in
Marinduque island. These include the criminal cases filed separately by the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources against John Eric Loney, an
Australian who was the President and CEO of Marcopper, Steven Paul Reid, also an
Australian national and Resident Manager of Marcopper Tapian Office, and Pedro
Hernandez, a Filipino who served as Senior Manager for Maintenance.
They were the officials of the mining company during the collapse of one of the
dredge tunnels of Marcopper’s Tapian Pit on March 24, 1996 that caused the
biologic death of Boac River, the biggest and longest waterway in Marinduque.
These officials were charged for violation of the Philippine Water Code, the
Anti-Pollution Law, the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, and the Revised Penal
Code docketed in the Municipal Trial Court in this town as Criminal Cases Nos.
96-44 to 95-55 (People of the Philippines v. John Eric Loney, Steven Paul Reid
and Pedro Hernandez). The said criminal cases have been dragging for eleven
years already.
MACEC Executive Secretary Myke Magalang explained that “the delay in the
administration of justice for the victims of environmental disaster in
Marinduque and the unconscionable plunder of our environment are reflections of
inefficiency in the bureaucracy of the country, including the judicial branch.”
Court records reveal that after the filing of the cases in April 11, 1996, the
accused Marcopper officials filed a Motion to Quash before the Boac MTC. After
the exchange of various pleadings, the complaints for violation of the
Philippine Water Code and the Anti-Pollution Law were quashed/dismissed by the
lower court but the accused mining company officials were arraigned for the
remaining cases on May 28, 1997.
The prosecution appealed the ruling at the Regional Trial Court in Marinduque
while the accused sought the intervention of the same court praying for the
quashing also of the cases for violation of the Philippine Mining Act. On March
20, 1998, the RTC reversed and set aside the ruling of the lower court and
reinstated all the criminal cases filed against the accused. This ruling was
appealed by the accused in the Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court.
Eight years after, the Supreme Court finally upheld the RTC ruling on February
10, 2006 and ordered the reinstatement of all criminal cases, which in effect,
remanded the same to the court of origin. The only progress of the cases was on
November 22, 2006 when the provincial prosecutor filed a manifestation and
motion to set cases for hearing and only after MACEC presented a computer
downloaded copy of the Supreme Court decision.
Magalang assailed “the extreme inefficiency of the justice system because it is
unimaginable why until now the prosecution and even the Municipal Trial Court of
Boac were not officially furnished with copies of the Supreme Court decision.”
The prosecution’s manifestation informed the Municipal Trial Court that “it is
in possession of what appears to be a computer generated copy of the decision in
G.R. No. 152644” and opined that it would perhaps suffice in “paving the way for
the resumption of the hearing.”
Magalang further emphatically said that such “is indeed a grave insult to the
already disillusioned and disheartened people of Marinduque who are continuously
suffering and threatened to die one by one from heavy metal poisoning. That is
why we are calling the attention of the Department of Justice to direct the
panel of prosecutors to prioritize this case of the Filipino people against the
foreign nationals and officers of the multinational mining company which
plundered our national patrimony. We also call on the Supreme Court to
officially transmit copy of its February 2006 Decision in order for the
Municipal Trial Court of Boac to expedite the hearing of the cases.”
Unpaid local taxes
Another important concern that MACEC strongly pursues is to find ways and means
to compel Marcopper Mining Corporation and Placer Dome, Inc to pay their unpaid
real property taxes to the province of Marinduque and the municipalities of Boac,
Mogpog, Sta. Cruz and Torrijos which totaled PhP1,048,624,496.80 ($21,773,764.46
at an exchange rate of $1=P48.16) as of the second quarter of 2006.
“This is an extreme insensitivity of a company which amassed billions of dollars
in profits and which claims to be a good corporate citizen of the country but
neglecting its primary duty to pay legitimate taxes to the government. This is a
period when poor Filipinos are trooping the local treasury offices in the
country to pay their basic real property taxes. But the mining company which
caused destruction to the people’s health and the island’s environment preferred
to go to Court to sue the provincial government of Marinduque to question the
tax assessment schedule imposed by the local government,” explained Magalang.
According to the records of the Provincial Treasurer of Marinduque officially
furnished to MACEC, Marcopper has standing tax debts of PhP1,013,101,529.51
($21,036,161.32) in the municipality of Sta. Cruz for the period 1980 to 2006Q2;
PhP11,164,686.80 ($231,824.89)in the municipality of Torrijos for the period
1983-1996Q2; PhP1,194,977.89 ($24,812.66) in the municipality of Mogpog for the
period 1999 to 2006Q2; and, PhP23,163,602.60 ($480,971.81) in the municipality
of Boac for the period 1985 to 2006Q2.
On May 3, 2006, the provincial government has already sought the intervention of
DENR’s Legal Department. Governor Carmencita Reyes in an official communication
enlisted the agency’s legal assistance “to enable the Province of Marinduque to
collect the outstanding real property taxes from Marcopper amounting to more
than P600 million . . . we have suffered enough from the corporate negligence
and recklessness of this mining giant. They have exploited our resources but
left us poor and desolate. Our plea from the company to restore, restitute and
rehabilitate the damage areas fell on deaf ears.”
Magalang argued that “the huge amount of outstanding taxes of Marcopper should
have been used by Marinduque for the medical needs of the victims of the mining
disasters, providing the basic infrastructure and books for the various schools
in the province, provision of alternative livelihood opportunities for the
displaced mine workers, and other projects and programs for the sustainable
development of the province.”
He added that “now is the time for Marinduqueños to unite and make these issues
as primary concerns in the coming elections to choose the best candidates for
the various local positions. We have to scrutinize more deeply the promises and
political agenda of the candidates for local positions in Marinduque. This is an
imperative to every Marinduqueño if only to champion our cause of obtaining
justice for our people and the environment.” Bulatlat