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Conference Delegates Call for Mining Moratorium
Also Urge Scrapping of 1995 Mining Law

Aware of the effects of mining in their localities, residents and local government officials in mining-affected communities have been campaigning for a mining moratorium to ensure biodiversity and agricultural sustainability. Already in Oriental Mindoro, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial board) has passed an ordinance declaring a 25-year moratorium on all forms of mining in the province.

By ELMER D. SAGBIGSAL
Bulatlat.com

Participants to the National Conference on Mining hold a picket in front of the office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in the Cordillera last May 9. (Photo by Artemio A. Dumlao)

Delegates to the recent National Conference on Mining held in Baguio City called for the repeal of the 1995 Mining Law. The delegates, last May 6-8, also called for a moratorium on the processing of all mining applications while developing an alternative law for mining industry. They further demanded the cancellation of Financial Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) with two giant mining corporations, the Western Mining Corporation (Philippines) Incorporated covering 99,400 hectares and Climax-Arimco Mining Corporation who had been granted FTAA after the passage of the mining act.

After hearing the testimonies of mining-affected communities through case studies and community sharing of experiences, the more than 150 participants to the conference, came to the conclusion that seven years after its passage during the Ramos administration the Philippine Mining Act has only brought miseries to the people particularly upland communities.

The three-day conference was sponsored by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Tebtebba Foundation, Cordillera Peoples Alliance, Philippine Indigenous Peoples Link, Legal Rights and Natural Resource Center, KALIKASAN People's Network for the Environment, Center for Environment Concerns and Diopim Committee on Mining Issue.

A resolution was adopted calling for the scrapping of the mining act and was presented in a picket-rally to the office of Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Baguio City on May 9. Neoman dela Cruz, MGB Regional Director for Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), received the resolution and promised to forward the demand to the higher authorities. In Quezon City on May 10, a dialogue between MGB Assistant Director Edwin Domingo and selected conference representatives was held at the MGB office.

Mining for whom?

In his keynote address to the conference, Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna acknowledged the country`s richness of natural and mineral resources while also presenting the fact of its poor, hungry and exploited people.

"The Philippines is among the world`s leading mineral producers of copper, nickel, chromite, zinc, gold and silver, but who benefits from all these resources? - the transnational corporations (TNCs), the biggest haulers of our resources,” Ocampo told the delegates.

The Bayan Muna representative added: "We are against the imperialist mining by which our mineral resources are mined mainly to benefit foreign mining giants and local comprador elites."

Ocampo lambasted the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for its pro-mining stance. "Even the DENR is becoming more brazen. It has been busiest not in protecting the environment but in giving mining permits and extending the duration of existing ones while blocking disputes from being resolved or hastily resolved in favor of mining interests,” he said.

Franco Tito, barangay captain of Mt. Diwata in Mindanao, on the other hand, accused government of fomenting trouble in mining communities. Mining activities on Mt. Diwata had been peaceful, he said, until the entry of MARCOPPER-Southeast Mining Corporation.

Tito said that the operation of small-scale miners was stopped in 1998 after the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). The TRO, he said, was a handiwork by JB Management Mining Corporation, owned by Monkayo mayor Joel Brilliantes, allegedly in connivance with the Southeast Mining Corporation.

"They are our oppressors who were determined to take full concession authority over the gold rush area on Mt. Diwata,” the barangay captain said. “Worst, their pursuit for personal gains has already claimed 82 lives from 1999 to 2001."

"We are as good as dead because we have lost our source of living that used to feed about 40,000 miners and residents," Tito added.

Impact of mining

After the effects of mining methods on mountains and forests, the greatest threat are mine waste and tailings, said Engineer Catalino Corpus Jr. of Mine-Watch Asia. Long ago, he said, the Palawan Quick Silver Mines in Palawan dumped mercury-laden mine tailings into the sea. The firm closed down in 1975.

Twenty years later, residents of coastal areas in the island province were found positive of the dreaded Minamata disease-mercury poisoning that damages the brain, liver and other vital organs, said Corpuz.

In Negros, the tailings pond of Maricalum Mining collapsed thrice, releasing tons of tailings along Taongan River down to the coast of Sipalay, Corpuz also said. Spilled toxic waste reached one meter deep covering 500 hectares of farmland affecting 500 families and several fisherfolk. According to experts, it will take another 10-12 years for the farmland to recover.

A few years ago, Marcopper Mining Corporation in Marinduque spilled out 1.6 million cubic meters of toxic mine tailings into the Boac river, putting an end to the life of the once productive river as well as some 823 hectares of productive riceland, said Elizabeth Manggol of Sacred Heart Pastoral Center.

Manggol lamented it would take years for the Boac river to be rehabilitated. “Marinduque island will never be the same again," she said.

In the Cordillera, Antamok River is virtually dead as a result of the diversion of the water and the dumping of toxic mine wastes into the tailings dam which was built across the river, said Jill Cariño, executive director of Center for Women Education Research in the Cordillera.

Cariño disclosed that topsoil in the open pit mine was scraped away and was never restored making the area prone to erosion and unable to sustain the growth of vegetation. The mountains have been denuded, natural springs and water sources have long been dried up and dust from the abandoned open pit mine and dumped rock and soils hang in the air.

Mining pollution victims of Itogon and Marinduque have sought payment for economic damages and social dislocation caused by the spill. Above all, they want the full rehabilitation of the river and the affected communities. Their appeal has not been heeded, however.

Moratorium

Aware of the effects of mining, local government officials in mining-affected communities have been campaigning for a mining moratorium to ensure biodiversity and agricultural sustainability. Already in Oriental Mindoro, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial council) passed an ordinance declaring a 25-year moratorium on all forms of mining in the province.

In a similar resolution, the Provincial Board of Aurora also called for banning mining operation. In Capiz, Provincial Board member Gaudencio Reyes said they employ legislative action to drive out Mt. Isa Minera from their province. The first resolution re-iterating the strong opposition of mining in Capiz and another resolution strongly object to the awarding of MPSA to the Theresa Marble Corporation.

Alternative

The present pro-TNC policy on mining should be replaced by new policy that is guided by a framework that supports the Filipino people’s effort toward nationalist industrialization and genuine agrarian reform, said Engineer Corpus. Mineral resources are the bedrock of industrial economies, he said.

Ocampo also concluded: "From factories to farm, trains to airplanes, laptops to cellphones, nails to nuts and bolts and toilet bowls- the products of mining go into virtually everything the modern economy has to offer. We need a modern economy to achieve the goals of human development." Bulatlat.com

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