Mindanao Solon Says Confab Will Liberalize Further Rp's Mining Industry

Mindanao solon says confab will liberalize further RP's mining industry

By H. Marcos C. Mordeno with a report from Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews

10 October 2005

MALAYBALAY CITY -- The 6th Asia Pacific Mining Conference in Manila on October 11 to 13 will open further the country's natural resources to foreign exploitation and will result to environmental destruction and displacement of indigenous peoples, upland dwellers and fisherfolk, Bayan Muna representative Joel G. Virador today said in a press statement.

The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines will host the conference on behalf of the ASEAN Federation of Mining Associations. Earlier this year, the Chamber also initiated an international mining conference in Manila, dubbed "Open for Business: Mining and Minerals as New Drivers of Growth."

Virador said that instead of backing transnational mining conglomerates, the government particularly the Department of Environment and Natural Resources should investigate and cancel the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement of mining companies "for seriously damaging the environment and for failing to prevent fatal accidents involving contract miners."

He singled out Lepanto Consolidated Mining, Sagittarius Mines Inc., TVI Resource Development Corp., and Hinatuan Mining Corp.

"The government must consider the detrimental costs of these mining industries. Six to seven billion dollars of investment is cheap compared to the irreparable damage of toxic wastes in our environment. Money cannot heal the effluence of negligence and abandonment," the congressman said.

The World Bank estimates Philippines losses of over $2 billion annually due to environmental degradation, according to Virador.

The World Bank estimate only includes damage from water pollution, mismanagement of fishery resources, and air pollution in four urban centers. It excludes social costs and the loss of quality of life, he stressed.

"Liberalizing the mining industries has been associated with grave destruction such as deforestation, slope destabilization, soil erosion, desertification, water resource degradation, defertilization, crop damages, siltation, alteration of terrain and sea-bottom topography, increased water turbidity and air pollution. It has benefited only the foreign companies at our expense," he said.

He added: "It has displaced thousands of indigenous peoples and upland dwellers, peasants and fisherfolk. We must totally oppose and resist the total sell-out of our country's finite wealth. It is the Filipino people and the future generation who must benefit from the country's natural resources and not foreign transnational companies."

Globally, the Philippines ranks third in gold, fourth in copper, fifth in nickel, and sixth in chromite.

But the Philippine mining industry's future is in resource-rich Mindanao. The island has 80% of the country's deposits of copper, nickel and gold according to a policy paper prepared by the Mindanao Business Council (MBC) for the 12th MinBizCon held in Cagayan de Oro City in October 2003.

Emboldened by the Supreme Court's "landmark decision upholding the constitutionality of the Mining Law in our country and the extent of foreign participation in large-scale mining," the Arroyo Administration is now in full gear to sell the mineral resources of the Philippines.

The MBC is pushing for a "sustainable mining" in Mindanao. But mining projects here have been met by opposition from various sectors as quite a number of them have allegedly encroached on the indigenous people's ancestral domain.