MINING DESTRUCTION IN THE PHILIPPINES
By Anabelle E. Plantilla
Undermining the nation
History repeats itself with frightening regularity in the Philippines.
The last Asean mining conference held in Makati was marked by the‹unknown at the time‹illegal dumping of wastewater by Lafayette Mining Corp. into the waters off Rapu-rapu Island. Will the second conference to be held on Philippine shores be graced by a similarly "auspicious" event? Will, like last time, the President sit alongside the guilty, like she sat with the executives of Lafayette, who by then were well aware of the situation at their mine, but scrambling to cover it up?
Is history doomed to repeat itself, two years over, with government none the wiser, still desperate to entice mining money to our shores no matter the cost to local communities and ecosystems?
Through the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, which further opened up mineral resources for unrestricted exploitation by Transnational Mining Corporations (TNMCs), the government has reaffirmed the economic orientation that views the Philippines as a mere resource export base for extracted raw materials. Under this orientation the economy is directed mainly towards the fast extraction of mineral resources which undergo semi-processing prior to their export for the international market by "major" companies like Xstrata Copper, Coral Bay Nickel Corp., Oceana Gold Ltd. and Anglo American Exploration Phils., Inc.
The Mining Act clearly favors foreign interests which have control of both capital and technology.
The Alyansa Tigil Mina, a network of NGOs and CSOs united against the destructive practices of large-scale mining, deplores the government's policies of liberalization which virtually ensure a sellout of the country's sovereignty and patrimony to globalized TNCs.
What we protest against is the wanton exploitation by "major" corporations and their "juniors" like TVI Pacific Inc., Lafayette Mining Ltd., Crew Minerals Corp., MRL Gold Philippines Inc., Atlas Consolidated Mining Development Corp., of the mineral resources of not only the Philippines but developing countries across the Asia-Pacific region.
We condemn the gross environmental destruction caused by large-scale, open-cast and mechanized mining operations which virtually destroy the lands, forests, rivers and oceans leading to habitat alteration, loss of rich biodiversity and irreversible impacts on climate change.
We reject and repudiate the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. The provisions of the law are spurious and oppressive, immoral and antipeople. It condemns the very poorest and marginalized of us the indigenous peoples‹the original caretakers of these lands‹to suffer even more as they watch their lands ruined.
And most of all we call on the Filipino people and
our government to remember not simply the failure at Rapu-rapu or the
disaster of Marinduque, but the long decades when there were mines open
across the Philippines, and mining firms extracting metals and minerals
from the lands of some of our poorest provinces‹all of which remain
staggeringly poor until this day. Remember that mining has failed its
promises to us before, and be certain that it will fail us again. The
continued trust in the extractive minerals industry undermines not only
the administration's own tenuous credibility, but the very future of the
Filipino people.
