11 years
living in mining disaster
Marinduque
Victims Still Cry for Justice
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)
Posted by
Bulatlat
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.
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
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