This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. IV, No. 43,
November 28 - December 4, 2004
Occupational hazards in mining
Beyond the Glitter
Conclusion
Mining
employs only 1% of the country’s total labor force yet poses great hazards not
just to workers but the communities as well.
BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
A Department of Health (DoH)-awarded
study by Dr. Ana Marie Leung, convenor of Save the Abra River Movement (STARM),
reveals that 75% of LCMCo mine workers sustain mine-related injuries ranging
from simple cuts to fractured bones. The study also disclosed that underground mine workers are
exposed to extreme heat, loud noise, vibration of equipment dust and fumes,
among others.
“These occur because
corporate mining uses cyanide and other toxic chemicals and employs heavy
machinery that emit fumes underground” Leung said. She refuted LCMCo’s
Project Development Manager Jake Foronda’s claim that LCMCo does not pollute
the Abra River.
Leung welcomes the
announcement made by Engr. Felizardo Gacad, Jr. chief of the Mines Environment
and Safety Division of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Cordillera
Administrative Region (MGB-CAR) that it will look into STARM’s findings on
LCMCo, saying that “it is but fitting for the government to check hazardous
mining effluents.”
A 1997 report by the
Institute for Occupational Health and Safety and Development (IOHSAD) said that
the leading types of accident in the mines, according to frequency, are: being
hit by falling objects, suffocation from chemical fumes, and crushing injuries.
Dr. Ponciano Aberin, head of
the DOH-Cordillera’s People with Disability Affairs, found out in 2003 that
many miners suffer from hearing defects due to blasting operations in
underground tunnels.
Inherently unsafe
Joan Carling, chairperson of
the militant Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), said that the evaluation on
mining safety should come from the people and not from mining companies whose
only interest is to extract profits. She added that compared to the profits
raked in by mining firms, the actual benefits extended to host communities are
way too small.
“Mining will always be a
part of the economy,” Carling said,” but the problem right now is the kind
of technology used and the entities benefiting from these.”
Carling pointed out that
mining operations have been in the country for centuries, “but until now, we
cannot even produce our own sewing needles,” she said.
She also noted how corporate
mining does not support national industrialization, being heavily dependent on
foreign investments.
An alternative mining policy
is being prepared by progressive party list Bayan Muna representatives in
Congress in the wake of a nationwide opposition to the Philippine Mining Act of
1995 (RA 7942) and the National Policy Agenda to Revitalize Mining in the
Philippines (EO 270) as detailed in the Mineral Action Plan
(MAP).
According to Carling, the
proposal for a new mineral policy is based on a national industry that ensures
the protection of our environment and the direct benefit of communities. “It
should be geared away from dependence to foreign investment and foreign debt”,
she said.
CPA called on mining
companies to “look beyond the glitters of gold and money, and promote the
welfare, interests and rights of communities and the protection of the
environment”.
MAP: not an answer to the
fiscal crisis
Last September, President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, signed the MAP, signaling what Kalikasan – People’s
Network for the Environment (K-PNE) called a “frenzied rush to mine all
Philippine mineral resources.”
Under MAP, government
agencies are mandated to resolve issues between communities and mining
corporations in order to attract foreign capital into the mining industry.
K-PNE national coordinator
Clemente Bautista scored government claims that MAP’s implementation would
lead to a more prosperous minerals industry that could help ease the
government’s budgetary and fiscal woes.
In fact, Bautista says,
“the liberalization of the mining industry, which MAP is all about, will
worsen the fiscal crisis.”
The MAP allows 100 percent
repatriation of capital and profits, a 10-year tax holiday, capital tax
exemptions, duty-free importation of equipment and machinery and other rights
and privileges that tend to trample upon rights of host communities and the
wanton disregard of the environment. It
also shortened the processing time for mining applications by downgrading the
participation of local government units in approving mining projects in their
respective areas and harmonizing conflicting laws such as the Indigenous
People’s Rights Act (IPRA) with the Mining Act.
Bautista said that these erroneous economic policies are one of the major reasons in the government’s low revenue collection and a ballooning budget deficit. Bulatlat
© 2004 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Publications
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