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KALIKASAN PEOPLE’S NETWORK FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
26 Matulungin St. Central Dist., Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, 1100
Tel./Fax; +63 (2) 924-8756; E-mail: kalikasan.pne@gmail.com
Website: www.kalikasan.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 3, 2012

On the eve of Aquino’s new mining policy
One nation in action against destructive, irresponsible mining

Grassroots and advocacy organizations across the Philippines converged today in a multi-sectoral protest action in front of Malacanang as an opening of an intensified national campaign against the government’s mining liberalization policy and foreign mining operations in the country.

Delegates from the recently concluded Third National People’s Mining Conference joined hundreds of activists under the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), Defend Patrimony! Alliance and the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) to strengthen calls for the scrapping of the Mining Act of 1995 and the imposition of a moratorium on large-scale mining.

“Seventeen years after the enactment of Mining Act, over a million hectares of our lands were owned and plundered by foreign mining corporations, conflicts and violence proliferated in mining affected-communities, and our environment was devastated and polluted. We call for a moratorium on mining applications and operations on all foreign, large-scale, magnetite and offshore mining transnational corporations. This must stand until we are able to put in place a pro-people, pro-environment mining law,” said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.

“The vast experiences and analyses documented show the destructive and irresponsible nature of current foreign-driven mining operations. From the pollution and siltation of water systems and agricultural lands, to the socio-economic and cultural displacement of grassroots communities, we the people have had enough of mining that does not serve our democratic interests and aspirations,” added Bautista.

All regions and sectors were represented in the people’s protest that marched to Mendiola to pressure Pres. Benigno Aquino III to cease from promoting the liberalization of the mining industry to foreign capital. They explained that this cause not only environmental degradation but also human rights violations by the mining corporations.

Bautista asserted that “mining has recorded at least 40 human rights violations under its belt since 2001, composed of 37 politically-motivated killings, 2 frustrated murders and a case of enforced disappearance. Communities have also suffered from the state-sponsored terrorism of military forces, as well as from the billions of pesos worth of deceptive greenwashing or PR gimmickry by mining TNCs and their local lackeys.”

Among the highlight calls to action formulated in the people’s conference include the stoppage and moratorium on these destructive operations by mining transnational corporations (TNCs) and their cohorts, an end to mining-driven human rights violations, militarization of communities and corporate greenwashing, and the advancement of the People’s Mining Bill towards the nationalization and needs-oriented approach of the mining industry.

“We have warned of Pres. Aquino’s new mining policy overriding local environmental codes and remaining toothless against current mining laws as the start of worsened mining liberalization. This protest marks the beginning of an intensified national campaign that will broaden networks and alliances, strengthen public opposition and protest. This all is to advance the people’s agenda of nationalizing the mining industry and refocusing it towards ensuring public interest, domestic development and environmental safety,” ended Bautista.###

Reference: Clemente Bautista Jr., National Coordinator – Kalikasan PNE 0922 844 9787

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Statement on the 17th anniversary of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995
Posted on 03 March 2012 by admin
Press Statement
March 3, 2012

REFERENCE: Renato M. Reyes, Jr, BAYAN secretary general
 

Today is the 17th anniversary of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. This law represents the worst in our country’s adherence to neo-liberal economic policies. This law has opened the floodgates to widespread plunder of our natural wealth, unprecedented environmental degradation and worsening human rights violations. We remember all our martyred activists who fought for the environment and the defense of our national patrimony.
 

The Mining Act today faces unprecedented opposition from a broad cross-section of society, including inside and outside parliament, indigenous communities, schools, church groups, environmental groups as well as a raging armed resistance in the countryside. There is a growing clamor to stop destructive large-scale foreign mining in so many provinces and regions nationwide.
The Aquino government has promoted mining in its effort to draw more foreign investments to the country. It engages in deception when it says it will come out with a new mining policy that will be acceptable to all stakeholders, both the mining firms and the anti-mining groups. From all indications, the Aquino government has acceded to the demands of the big foreign mining firms and is now merely concerned on how to make this acceptable to the opposition groups.
 

The benefits of mining are belied by the insignificant contributions it has on the national economy: 1.36% gross value added to GDP from 2005-2008, and a mere 0.44% average share to total employment from 1990-2004.
 

Truth is, so long as the mining is geared towards exports and so long as the overall economy is dependent on foreign investments and imports, the mining industry will only serve the interests of private profits and will NEVER lead to national development and industrialization.
 

As it stands, mining remains an extractive industry that does little to develop the economy. The foreign mining firms and their local counterparts are merely interested in the export of our resources, which has grown at a rate of 27.96% from 2005-2010.
 

New economic orientation
 

Mining can only contribute to national development if it is part of a program for national industrialization. This would require a reorientation of the export-oriented, import-oriented, foreign investment-led, debt-and-remittance-driven economy. To stop chaotic environmental degradation, mining should be geared towards meeting people’s domestic needs rather than private profit margins and global market demands. The Philippine government must invest in the necessary industries to process our mineral wealth and make these serve further industrialization including manufacturing and agricultural modernization.
 

The current mining policy is merely a reflection of a bankrupt economic policy that places our hopes on the benevolence of foreign investors. It is time that we assert our national interest and sovereignty. It is time we put domestic needs and environmental protection at the forefront of profits. It is time we junk the Mining Act o 1995 and pursue a nationalist and pro-people mining and economic policy. ###
 

Fool’s gold
Manila Times

Published : Thursday, March 01, 2012 00:00

Written by : Giovanni Tapang, Ph.D.

PROMETHEUS BOUND
By Giovanni Tapang, Ph.D.

There is a flurry of activities all over the country towards the weekend as we mark the anniversary of the signing of RA 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 on March 3. Last Tuesday, a Luzon Conference on Mining and the Ecology was held at the University of Santo Tomas. The conference was organized by the Luzon Coalition for Ecology, the Save Palawan Movement and the University of Santo Tomas.

On the weekend before that, a similar conference was held in Iloilo at the Rose Memorial Auditorium of the Central Philippines University in Jaro. Last January, an International Conference on Mining in Mindanao was also held in Davao. Church groups under the Ecumenical Bishops Forum also had their regional discussions in Bicol, Zambales and Cebu early this year to tackle their response to current mining practices in the country.

Capping these conferences is the Third National People’s Mining Conference being held today and tomorrow (March 1 and 2) at Tagaytay. Organized by Kalikasan PNE, the Ecumenical Bishops Forum, Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP), Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Phils), Stewards of Creation and the Defend Patrimony! Alliance, the conference brings together more than 200 organizations and formations to consolidate the people’s experiences with mining-affected communities, formulate national and local campaign strategies, and tackle emerging issues and legislative measures related to mining.

The conference will be capped by a joint multisectoral action in Mendiola to bring attention to the issues to Malacanang. Already, the North Luzon network Amianan Salakniban and other groups went down to Metro Manila last Tuesday with a protest caravan denouncing destructive large-scale and magnetite mining across Luzon. Together with Kalikasan PNE and other grassroots activists from Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon they picketed the offices of the Chamber of Mines and other mining corporations in the country.

These conferences and mass actions have several common calls: a moratorium on mining in the country, to scrap the current Philippine Mining Act and to pursue a genuine pro-environment and pro-people mining policy in the country.


 

The Aquino government earlier floated a draft executive order on mining that would increase the government share in revenues and to address some issues on the issuances of permits and environmental compliance. The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, the Joint Foreign Chambers, and the Philippine Mining Exploration Association recently criticized the leaked draft executive order’s proposed addition of additional no-mining zones and higher taxes and government share from mining.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, author of the People’s Mining Bill (HB 4315) and bill on Mining Zones (HB 4726), expressed doubt that President Aquino’s executive order would not be able to go beyond the defects of the Mining Act of 1995 in terms of lopsided benefits to foreign owned and backed mining firms, lack of environmental safeguards and the disempowerment of local communities.
 

The executive order is expected to, among others, introduce competitive bidding for mining rights, impose a wider ban on mining in some areas, as well as a new provision on increased economic valuations on projects before they are approved.

Noting that one of the biggest problem in the current Mining Act is the export-oriented nature of mining in the country, Casiño authored the People’s Mining Bill which seeks to reorient the mining industry framework towards domestic economic development, environmental safety and community welfare. Among its key provisions are centralized and strategic planning for mining in the country, the reorientation of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) as a scientific research institution under the DENR for exploration activities to identify strategic mineral resources, the creation of Multi-Sectoral Mineral Councils for designated mining areas and stronger and stricter provisions ensuring environmental sustainability, access to justice, and protection of human rights for affected communities. HB 4315 or the People’s Mining Bill, is one of the alternative mining bills filed in Congress.

We should be worried of the possible increase in social and environmental impacts as a result of intensified mining liberalization. The Philippine mining industry is on track to collect $1.44 billion worth of investments by the third quarter of 2011 and is targeting to collect $1.22 billion more this year. Without a clear plan of building downstream mining industries for local industrialization and reorienting the mining industry for domestic production, this lodestone of mineral wealth will become fool’s gold for our country. We will just be squandering these minerals if we continue on this path of allowing foreign plunder of our resources.

The government should be worried since the impacts of this export-oriented mining policy is seen in all fronts: in the environment, in the economy and in human rights. It should not wait for the issue to become full blown and should take steps towards siding for domestic industrialization and stop mining liberalization once and for all.

Dr. Giovanni A. Tapang is the chairperson of Advocates of Science and Technology for the People.
 

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News Release
March 2, 2012
Reference: Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, 09209035683

Casiño and Pacquiao, tag team against large scale mining
Calls on other People’s Champs to fight large scale mining

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño delivered a privilege speech yesterday hitting large scale and open pit mining in the country, especially now that the 17th year of the destructive Mining Act of 1995 is about to be commemorated in March 3. Last Tuesday, Sarangani Rep. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao also delivered a speech on the issues concerning his district.
According to Casiño, “Yesterday, Rep. “Manny, The Pacman” Pacquiao; the Eight-Division World Champion- expressed in no uncertain terms that we all must “Get ready to rumble” and meet head-on the problems, issues and concerns that affect our constituents. In a way, we should all be “People’s Champions” in the legislative ring. Para tayong si pacman kapag ipinaglalaban natin ang interes ng mahihirap at kapos, lalo na kapag mabigat ang kalaban,”

“Still, I have to warn you that there is a bigger, tougher challenger- a challenger that will make your archrival Floyd Mayweather Jr. look like an amateur boxer. This is an enemy that threatens to literally flatten and lay to waste your district, as well as mine, as well as all other districts in this country where mountains and minerals abound. I am referring to indiscriminate, environmentally destructive, flood-inducing, landslide causing, life-threatening large-scale mining,”

“Oo, mga kapwa ko kongresista, pagmimina po. At hindi basta pagmimina. Ito po yung large scale, open-pit mining, the kind that irreversibly levels entire mountains, turns to mud whole rivers, poisons the sea and its marine life, and leads to the mass killing of our constituents, especially when there are storms or sudden, strong rains,”

“There is a long list of environmental destruction wrought by large-scale, open pit mining. Aside from Maricalum Mining in Negros Occidental, we have Marcopper Mining in Marinduque; La Fayette in Rapu-Rapu Island; Benguet Mining in Itogon, among others. Of late, we have seen how indiscriminate mining has wreaked havoc in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, and Compostela Valley, where too much mining has occurred.

“Sa kasamaang palad, legal po ang open pit mining sa Pilipinas. Sa ibang bansa, ipinagbawal na po ito. The use of this method has been allowed under Republic Act No. 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. Congress should heed the growing number of our people who are critical of the current policy and are in fact pushing for the passage of a new mining law – a people-centered mining law,”

“Tulad ng sinabi kanina, mayaman at makapangyarihan ang mga mining companies. Kaya nga dapat, bilang mga People’s Champions din, masigasig tayo sa pagtatanggol sa ating kapaligiran, sa ating komunidad at sa ating kinabukasan. We must all be ready to defend our environment from the devastate effects of large-scale mining. After 17 years, it is time to repeal the Mining Act of 1995 and put in place a better law. Let us give the Mining Act the Pacman knockout it richly deserves,”

“More importanatly, we must be one in sending this message to the president:”Don’t let the mountains crumble!!!Do not sign the Executive Order that will bring continued nightmares of flooding, landslides and death to our people over and over again,”

“To the president, we issue this challenge: Sobra na, tama na ang mapanira at malakihang pagmimina!”

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Privilege speech / rep. Teddy casiño
Delivered on february 29, 2012

Yesterday, the lone representative for the province of sarangani delivered a privilege speech that was met with thunderous applause by the members of this august body.

And rightly so. For me, most especially, because my idol – rep. “manny, the pacman” pacquiao; the eight-division world champion – expressed in no uncertain terms that we all must “get ready to rumble" and meet head-on the problems, issues, and concerns that affect our constituents.

In a way, we should all be “people’s champions” in the legislative ring. Para tayong si pacman kapag ipinaglalaban natin ang interes ng mahihirap at kapos, lalo na kapag mabigat ang kalaban.

Kasamang manny, sayang at hindi ko mapapanood ang laban mo kay bradley sa las vegas, nevada. Wala po akong pamasahe papunta doon, but rest assured, bayan muna will be with you in spirit and will support you all the way.

Still, i have to warn you that there is a bigger, tougher challenger –– a challenger that will make your arch rival floyd mayweather jr. Look like an amateur boxer. This is an enemy that threatens to literally flatten and lay to waste your district, as well as mine, as well as all other districts in this country where mountains and minerals abound.

I am referring to indiscriminate, environmentally destructive, flood-inducing, landslide causing, life-threatening large-scale mining.

Oo, mga kapwa ko kongresista, pagmimina po. At hindi basta pagmimina. Ito po yung large-scale, open-pit mining, the kind of mining that irreversibly levels entire mountains, turns to mud whole rivers, poisons the sea and its marine life, and leads to the mass killing of our constituents, especially when there are storms or sudden, strong rains.

Many of us have not seen an open pit mine. And no words can vividly describe what it is and the horrible impact it has on the environment and ecology. So let me show you in pictures.

Open pit mining is the most destructive mining method known to man. It is a method that allows the mining corporation to do a david copperfield on a mountain. Kaya nilang patagin ito hanggang sa mawala ang mismong bundok.

In the visayas, in southern negros, we have seen the serious dangers posed by maricalum and philex mining corporations, both operating open-pit mines.

In 1996, mine tailings and waste water from maricalum mining corporation destroyed some 500 hectares of ricefields, after two of the company’s tailing dams overflowed because of a november typhoon. Residents then demanded that maricalum leave their town.

There is a long list of environmental destruction wrought by large-scale, open pit mining. Aside from maricalum mining in negros occidental, we have marcopper mining in marinduque; la fayette in rapu rapu island; benguet mining in itogon, among others.

Of late, we have seen how indiscriminate mining has wreaked havoc in cagayan de oro, iligan, and compostela valley, where too much mining has occurred.

Sa kasamaang palad, legal po ang open pit mining sa pilipinas. Sa ibang bansa, ipinagbawal na po ito. The use of this method has been allowed under republic act no. 7942 or the philippine mining act of 1995.

The question that we have to inevitably face is this: is open pit and other large scale mining operations worth the massive destruction, dislocation and conflict that it produces? Kaya bang tapalan ng pera ang epekto ng mapanira at malakihang pagmimina? Eh ang isang problema nga, napakaliit ng pakinabang natin sa mining. Under the mining act of 1995, all we get from our mineral resources is a 2% excise tax plus a host of tax breaks and non-fiscal incentives while in australia, they are slapped a 30% mining tax on top of their income taxes.

Many legislators, local government officials, non-government organizations, as well as religious and academic institutions have batted for a ban on open pit mining and a moratorium on all large-scale mining in the country. I say we should support that call.

Just last week, the committee on natural resources approved two resolutions supporting the mining moratoriums enacted via local ordinance by the provincial governments of negros occidental and capiz.

In south cotabato, the provincial government continues to implement an environmental code which bans open pit mining. Zamboanga del norte also has expressed its opposition to the practice, in a resolution passed by its provincial board. Elected local officials in zamboanga sibugay and palawan are adopting similar measures.

Even rep. Pacquiao strongly warned his local officials just this january to not to throw their consent to any mining activities in his district.

The opposition to large-scale mining is snowballing among our people. Matagal nang nilalabanan ng mga katutubo at mga residente ng mining areas ang ganitong kalakaran. Pero ngayon lumalawak ang kilusan. Of special mention is the ongoing efforts of the no to mining in palawan movement to stop the destruction of one of the few biodiversity frontier provinces of the country. They have gathered close to 6 million signature to stop destructive mining in palawan and have been asking government to listen. If president noynoy aquino has said that “kayo ang boss ko,” i think he has to start listening to the people who have risen to preserve the environment of palawan from permanent loss and destruction. This also rings true for the rest of the country.

Hindi ko po sinasabi na masama ang pagmimina. No. We recognize that mining is essential to nation building, but not at the expense of our environment and our people’s future and not for the benefit of foreign mining companies and the industries of their countries. Sad to say, this is the kind of mining that we have.

On march 3, we will be marking the 17th year of r.a. 7982, also known as the mining act of 1995. We are also expecting the issuance and enforcement of a new executive order that has been circulated by the palace to seek comments from all mining stakeholders.

Our sources tell us that this eo, will come as a surprise and a challenge to all lawmakers and elected government officials who have painstakingly opposed open pit and other large-scale, foreign mining in their towns, cities, provinces, and regions.

Our sources tell us that the eo will favor the rich and influential mining corporations; allowing them to maintain their destructive operations. All in the name of what they call “revenue needed for national development.”

From all indications, it seems the eo will not go beyond the flaws of the current mining act and other related laws and issuances. The current administration seems intent on keeping the philippine mining industry to the mere extraction and export of our finite mineral resources for the infinite needs of the international market and the highly-industrialized nations of the world. The draft eo still allows foreign corporations control over our national patrimony. It does not talk about developing our own downstream mineral and mineral-based industries, or limiting the use of our mines to just what we need. Sa ilalim ng mining act of 1995, masasaid ang ating mga yamang mineral nang hindi man lang nakinabang ang tao at bayan.

An executive order will not do to correct the problems of the mining industry. We need a new mining framework that mandates the state to pursue mining under a clear industrial strategy that will judiciously use our finite mineral resources. We need a new mining law that will establish centralized and strategic planning of the philippine mining industry through the crafting and implementation of a national industrialization program and a national mining plan. We need to explore, extract and process our minerals in the country so that we can advance towards industrialization without forgetting that our lands, our biodiversity, our indigenous peoples’ customary laws and our local governments are respected, conserved and developed according to our terms and our needs as a people and not by the dictates and mineral requirements of transnational and multinational firms.

Mr. Speaker, we also need a new mining policy that will put into practice a clear set of no-go zones for mining. We need to prohibit mining activities in our key biodiversity areas, prime agricultural lands, densely populated areas, lands subject for agrarian reform; critical watersheds and critical habitats; geohazard and climate disaster-prone areas; small island ecosystems; watershed areas; the remaining forests and buffer zones of the philippines if we want to preserve all the other natural resources we have for the generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, congress should heed the growing number of our people who are critical of the current policy and are in fact pushing for the passage of a new mining law – a people-centered mining law.

Tulad ng sinabi ko kanina, mayaman at makapangyarihan ang mga mining companies. Kaya nga dapat, bilang mga people's champions din, masigasig tayo sa pagtatanggol sa ating kapaligiran, sa ating mga komunidad at sa ating kinabukasan. We must all be ready to defend our environment from the devastating effects of large-scale mining.

After 17 years, it is time to repeal the mining act of 1995 and put in place a better law. Let us give the mining act the pacman knockout it richly deserves.

More importantly, we must be one in sending this message to the president: “don’t let the mountains crumble!!! Do not sign the eo that will bring continued nightmares of flooding, landslides and death to our people over and over again.

To the president, we issue this challenge: sobra na, tama na ang mapanira at malakihang pagmimina.

Thank you very much and good day.
 

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KALIKASAN PEOPLE’S NETWORK FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
26 Matulungin St. Central Dist., Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, 1100
Tel./Fax; +63 (2) 924-8756; E-mail: kalikasan.pne@gmail.com
Website: www.kalikasan.org

PRESS STATEMENT
1 March 2012

In the Third People’s Mining Conference
Communities, groups tackle destructive mining in the Philippines

Over 200 delegates congregated today to synthesize the people’s experiences on mining and strengthen the campaign against mining liberalization and plunder at the Third National People’s Mining Conference in Tagaste Retreat House, Tagaytay.

Organized by the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Defend Patrimony! Alliance, Center for Environmental Concerns–Philippines, Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas, Ecumenical Bishops Forum and the Stewards of Creation, the two-day conference gathered representatives from peoples’ organizations, sectors and regions all over the Philippines, especially from communities ravaged by foreign and large-scale mining.

“While the government of Pres. Benigno Aquino III continues to embark on the path of mining liberalization and accelerated plunder of our mineral resources, we will pave a radically divergent road towards the reversal of environmentally destructive and anti-people mining,” said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.

On the first day, experts and leaders discussed the state of the mining industry, its impacts on communities and the environment, and the people’s struggles against mining liberalization and plunder as well as for a people’s mining policy from the regional to the international level.

“The world financial crisis today has pushed global economies towards incredible price speculations and buffering of raw material supplies, to ensure that companies still earn billions from exploiting our natural resources. But when the demand for raw materials wane, a crisis of mineral overproduction will rattle the whole industry, and will leave mining-ravaged communities to suffer abject poverty and ecological destruction,” said Bautista.

Speakers from different regions confirmed this trend in their localities, highlighting cases of contaminated water systems and agricultural lands in the Abra River-covered areas, Palawan, and Surigao del Norte. Indigenous peoples, small-scale miners and other grassroots communities remain at threat of eviction from their ancestral domains and livelihoods, as was pointed out in Pampanga, Nueva Vizcaya, and Compostela Valley.

“Large-scale mining is not sustainable in these times of changing climate. We must also look into the compounding effects of mining and climate change, as recent disasters that swept mining-affected communities in Visayas and Northern Mindanao demonstrated. The vulnerability of communities to extreme weather events exponentially increase, and mining disasters such as mine tailing spills, landslides and flashfloods as a result of their forest-clearing operations are likewise amplified,” added Bautista.

Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino was resource speaker on the provisions and updates on House Bill 4315 or the People’s Mining Bill (PMB), which he co-authored with Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño alongside other progressive partylists. The PMB, currently part of a consolidated alternative mining law being pushed for approval in Congress, aims to reorient the mining industry towards local development, environmental safety and people’s welfare.

“As the onerous Mining Act of 1995 is anti-people and anti-environment, conference participants will take the Aquino administration to task in the crafting of mining policies. PNoy’s hyped executive order (EO) on mining, touted by his cohorts as the answer to mining problems, immediately folded to the media barrage of mining lobbyists. If Aquino does not have the backbone to confront pro-mining groups and crush the greed of mining companies, the people are ready and guarantee intensified protests and actions against destructive mining,” asserted Bautista.

Conference delegates are set to join Kalikasan PNE and various progressive groups calling for the scrapping of the Mining Act of 1995 in a protest action on March 3, the anniversary of the passage of the country’s mining law. Various organizations of workers, peasants, fisherfolk, church workers, indigenous peoples, environmental advocates, women, professionals and youths have pledged to attend the mobilization.###

Reference: Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator, Kalikasan PNE – 0922 844 9787
 

PRESS RELEASE
March 2, 2012

BAYAN leads Anti-Foreign Mining Protest at Mines bureau in time for the Phil. Mining Law’s 17th Year

Davao City --- The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) along with hundreds of small-scale miners from Pantukan, Diwalwal and farmers from Paquibato District burned a copy of the Mining Act of 1995 (RA 7942) in front of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau saying the law has worsened the country’s vulnerability to disasters, food insecurity, hunger and conflict arising from militarization.

RA 7942 has been highly controversial for its alleged “unconstitutional” provisions which allow 100% foreign ownership of mining operations, in as vast as 81,000 hectares in a period of 25 to 50 years and for its accommodating terms for mining investors such as 8-10 year tax holidays. BAYAN as well as the civil society has been calling for the repeal or scrapping of the law.

BAYAN Spokesperson Sheena Duazo said the influx of large and foreign mining corporations in Region XI has been blatantly aggressive citing the presence of big mining players from Canada, US, Australia along with other Asians such as China and South Korea in the region.

“We need a mining policy that will uphold national interests first before the greed for profit of mining TNCs. Amidst the worsening state of the Philippine environment, the hunger that stalks majority of the Filipinos, the Aquino government has not let up in granting of mining permits to foreign mine capitalists, while paying lip service only to environmental protection through its sham New Mining Policy which has failed as well to heed the peoples’ demands to stop large scale and foreign mining,” said Duazo.

BAYAN cautioned that one of the most notorious miners, Australian-owned RATEL Gold Limited, which has ravaged Nigeria in Africa is now in Pantukan in partnership with the United States-owned St. Augustine.

Another Aussie mining firm listed as Compostela Mining Limited has been exploiting the Tribal Mining Area (TRIMA) portion of Diwalwal starting a few years back.

 

Another alarming exploration project is that of Canada’s CADAN Resources which has a majority stake in PHILCO Mining’s operations in around 9,000 hectares in New Bataan alone.

BAYAN said that based on MGB data, almost 2 million hectares in Region XI have been applied for by mining corporations while currently, nearly .5 Million has of land are open for exploration and host to mining operations.

Duazo also adds that X-STRATA’s expansion in Davao Del Sur as well as INDOPHIL’s application in the boundaries of Paquibato, Davao City, and Kapalong Davao Del Norte is alarming for the Davaoenos especially amidst the Davao LGU’s strong stance against Mining.

“News reports say that MRC Allied, wherein business tycoon Lucio Tan has a huge stake, has applied for nearly a 16,000-hectare mining operation in Paquibato through Alberto Mining which is also behind the infamous Tampakan Mining Project in Surigao. This partnership threatens the remaining biodiversity in that area, the ancestral home of lumads and farmers,” said Duazo.

Promises of development obscure the plunder and destruction malevolently brought by foreign companies. As long as Third World countries like the Philippines fall prey to imperialist fallacies of globalization and its well-oiled methods for efficient exploitation, the corollaries will always be a poverty-stricken populace grieved with starvation and discord, ravaged forests and a dilapidated environment in general.

It is the government’s duty to ensure that the Filipino people benefit most from the country’s natural resources, and that the use of these resources lay down the fundamental building blocks for industrialization. Thus, BAYAN calls for the passing of the People’s Mining Bill by BAYANMUNA Rep. Teddy Casiño, which stresses national industrialization and agrarian reform – the foundations of genuine progress.

PASS THE PEOPLE’S MINING BILL!
STRUGGLE FOR GENUINE AGRARIAN REFORM AND NATIONAL INDUSTRIALIZATION!

For reference: SHEENA DUAZO,09496270377

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National industrialization as framework for an alternative mining program in the Philippines
Posted on 02 March 2012 by admin

http://www.bayan.ph/site/2012/03/national-industrialization-as-framework-for-an-alternative-mining-program-in-the-philippines/

Prepared by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) for the Northern Luzon Mining and Human Rights Summit
Baguio City, December 13-15, 2011

Introduction
 

In the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016 of the Aquino administration, mining has been identified as one of the priority areas that have the “highest growth potentials and generate the most jobs.” It is widely believed that the potential of mining is immense in the Philippines, which is considered one of the most mineralized countries in the world. Almost one-third of the national land area is said to be geologically prospective for metallic minerals (mostly gold, copper, nickel, and chromite) with the total value, based on a 2004 estimate of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), reaching as much as P47 trillion.
 

Meanwhile, in its Mineral Action Plan (MAP), the Aquino administration supposedly intends to promote industrialization in the mining sector by promoting downstream processing and manufacturing; developing community-based supplier industries/services; improving government benefits; and controlling exports of unprocessed minerals.
 

But while the present MAP is using the language of industrialization and the PDP is envisioning a mining industry that is “producing manufactured goods and industrial products based on an industrialization framework,” the government’s medium-term objective is to double mining exports by 2016 through the “generation of more investments in mining and mineral processing and mineral based manufacturing industries. Investments include attracting more foreign direct investments (FDI), which the PDP named as one of the challenges facing its priority industries and services as “multinational companies not already present in the Philippines bypassed the country.”
 

Fundamental weakness
 

This underscores the fundamental weakness of local mining and other strategic domestic industries for that matter. Despite decades of maldevelopment, Philippine governments including the current US-Aquino regime have continued to implement the disastrous neocolonial model of export-oriented, foreign investment-led growth as outlined in the PDP and past medium-term development plans. The state of the local mining industry, in fact, best illustrates how puppet regimes have facilitated the imperialist plunder of the country’s natural wealth, in the process squeezing us dry of precious resources and depriving us of much-needed industrialization while displacing our indigenous and peasant communities and wreaking irreversible havoc to our environment.
 

At present, the neocolonial mining policy is embodied in the Mining Act of 1995 or Republic Act (RA) 7942, which has allowed the intensified liberalization of the country’s mining industry. Since hurdling constitutional challenge in 2004, the Mining Act has facilitated the accelerated growth in mineral exports both in absolute value and as a percentage share to total Philippine exports.[i] Foreign equity in mining has also substantially increased in value and as a percentage share to total paid-up investments in the sector.[ii]
 

However, despite these supposed “developments”, mining continued to fail to contribute to industrialization. The contribution, for instance, of mining’s gross value added (GVA) to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) even declined this decade compared to its long-term average from the 1960s to 1990s and did not show significant improvement even after the Supreme Court (SC) declared the Mining Act constitutional.[iii] Though exports of mostly raw minerals grew substantially, the Philippines continued to rely on the importation of processed mining-based products for our own industrial needs, resulting in a perennial mining trade deficit.[iv] Other much-hyped economic benefits like employment and government revenues, meanwhile, were also negligible especially when measured against the social and environmental costs of large-scale mining operations.[v]
 

Need for genuine, comprehensive industrialization
 

Clearly, there is a need to overhaul the basic economic framework with which we pursue the development of our mining industry in order to maximize its potential benefits while reducing, if not eliminating, the possible harmful effects to the environment. The current framework, one that has been imposed on us and molded by decades of colonial occupation and imperialist domination, has made the economy over-dependent on the export of low-value added raw materials and semi-processed goods that mostly end up in the industrial countries.
 

For the mining industry, this is illustrated by the growing export of semi-processed mining products and unprocessed mineral ores and the long-term declining share of mining GVA to the domestic economy. The industry has very little capacity at value addition because of the lack of adequate vertical and horizontal linkages with the domestic economy. A program for national industrialization should be able to address this by establishing and promoting vibrant downstream activities that will process and refine the country’s mineral ores to create finished products with high-value added (and along with it, greater local economic activities and additional employment). This is the first major point on genuine, comprehensive national industrialization.
 

Some may argue that this proposal is no longer new. Industrializing the local mining sector by encouraging downstream industries, in fact, had been and continues to be attempted, or at least planned, by Philippine governments. In the 1970s, for instance, the Marcos dictatorship instituted plans to vertically link mining extraction with metal-based manufacturing industries. A nickel refinery (Nonoc Surigao Nickel Refiner) and copper smelting plant (Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining or PASAR) were put up.
But the industrialization plan failed to take off because while the country has massive ore resources, we have limited domestic capital resource to finance the capital-intensive processing and manufacturing activities. Thus, the country has to rely on foreign capital through direct investment or foreign loans as well as through the importation of the necessary technology and equipment. Furthermore, the pre-industrial domestic market has a very limited capacity to absorb the processed and manufactured mineral products. Unless these structural issues are resolved, plans for industrialization such as those outlined in the MAP are bound to fail.
 

This brings us to the second major point on national industrialization. For it to be sustainable, industrialization must be self-reliant and anchored on internal growth sources. Among the biggest stumbling blocks to the country’s industrialization is the lack of domestic capital as the neocolonial economic setup has allowed foreign monopoly corporations and banks to squeeze enormous amounts of resources from the country through the repatriation of profits, dividends, royalties, and capital as well as through ever growing payments for imports and foreign debt’s interest and principal. These are potential resources that can be used to jumpstart industrialization projects such as domestic linkages with the mining industry but are drawn out from the country.
 

Thus, we need to have a policy that will strictly regulate the flows of these resources to ensure maximum benefits not only by imposing regulation on volume outflows but also by requiring the transfer of technology. Another is by collecting the maximum gains possible from mining operations such as through taxes and royalties, which government is not aggressively pursuing because its main objective is to create the most favorable environment for private and foreign investors, and not to raise resources for industrialization.[vi] In addition, to create the sustainable domestic market that will utilize mining-based products, national industrialization should intend to develop basic heavy and medium industries and, given the huge agricultural modernization needs of the country, to develop the industrial capacity to produce rural producers’ goods like farm equipment and light motors.
 

Serving the people
 

The third major point on national industrialization is that ultimately, it is about the people, especially the poor and toiling masses who have long been exploited and oppressed by the current semi-feudal and semi-colonial system. Industrialization’s ultimate objective should not be to inconsiderately accumulate massive profits for the few but to ensure that the basic needs of the people are met. This means not only the provision by government of adequate social services and the production of basic consumer needs – although these are absolutely necessary – but also, that industrialization projects promote and strengthen domestic productive forces. It should not destroy jobs and livelihood but create more economic opportunities.
 

A key component of this point is the empowerment of local communities to determine which industrial or development projects will best provide long-term gains to them. Communities must have a strong say in designing and implementing development plans in their areas as opposed to a nationally-imposed central policy that ignores local concerns like what big mining companies are pushing against local government units (LGUs) that enforced mining bans in their areas.[vii]
 

The shift in economic orientation and priorities to make national industrialization a reality can only be achieved if the country’s economic sovereignty and patrimony are upheld and promoted. The wanton plunder of our mineral and other natural resources will continue for as long as we do not assert our right as a country to determine by ourselves the sort of economy that we need and the programs and policies that will cater to the specific development needs of our people.
 

How much gold, copper, or chromite does our economy really need to produce without exerting undue pressure on our ecosystem? What type of technology should we use that takes into account particular conditions of local mining areas? How can a viable commercial mining operation be possible without displacing but even creating fresh economic opportunities for indigenous and peasant communities? These questions are not asked by policy makers since the driving motive behind mining operations is to meet the requirements of the world market, in particular the industrial countries.
 

For sovereignty and patrimony
 

Finally, we could not exercise rightful ownership over our natural wealth and how we intend to use them for our own development agenda without asserting our independence from the clutches of imperialist domination and the plunder, exploitation, and oppression perpetrated by their monopoly corporations and banks. This is the last major point on industrialization – in the Philippines, it could only be the product of conscious political struggle for national democracy and sovereignty. The creation of favorable conditions for long-term national industrialization is presently being waged by the democratic mass movement led by workers and peasants including in the parliamentary arena; through the agrarian revolution being waged in the countryside to implement genuine agrarian reform; as well as through the peace process.
 

The global financial and economic crisis, meanwhile, is providing us fresh opportunities to advance the agenda of national industrialization. The imperialist crisis has further exposed the bankruptcy of global monopoly capitalism and the backward, oppressive, and exploitative mode of production it has imposed on semi-colonies like the Philippines. It has affirmed the legitimacy and underscored the urgency of our long held stance that we must generate local growth drivers and not overly rely on foreign markets and capital to industrialize. At the same time, the crisis has created a more fertile ground for arousing, organizing, and mobilizing all democratic forces to rally behind national democratic aspirations and build a truly sovereign and industrialized country. We have the forces, the resources, and the conditions to achieve national industrialization. We must seize the moment.
 

Sources and references
 

Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016, National Economic and Development Authority (Neda)
Danilo C. Israel, “National industrialization in Philippine mining: Review and suggestions,” Discussion Paper Series No. 2010-35, Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), December 2010
“The NDFP perspective on the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER),” A Paper read by NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee-CASER Member Randall B. Echanis at the Peace Forum initiated by the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform in San Mateo, Rizal on February 26-27, 2009 and Iloilo City, March 3-5, 2009
 

[i] From negative annual growth in the 1980s (-1.27%) and 1990s (-0.38%), mineral exports grew by 25.52% in the 2000s, and by 57.9% in 2005-08. The annual growth rate in its share to total exports also drastically improved from negative growth in the 1970s (-0.77%), 1980s (-5.08%), and 1990s (-15.39%) to 19.13% in the 2000s and to 45.41% in 2005-08.
 

[ii] Although lower than its average in the 1990s (202.77%), the annual growth rate of foreign equity in mining remained robust in the 2000s (130.9%), especially in 2005-08 (146.04%). Meanwhile, the annual growth rate of foreign equity’s share to total paid-up investment in mining increased from 76.69% in the 1990s to 317.74% in the 2000s (and in 2005-08, to 237.12%). Also, the percentage share of foreign equity to total paid-up investment in mining improved to 14.25% in 2005-08 from 9.7% in 2001-04.
 

[iii] Mining GVA as a percentage of the GDP in 2000-08 averaged 1.08%, which is lower than its average of 1.42% in 1960-99. Average for 2005-08 (1.38%), meanwhile, does not have a significant difference with the long-term average for 1960-2004 (1.36%). Basic data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).
 

[iv] Data from the BSP show that from 1990 to 2008, the balance between Philippine mineral exports and imports of mining-based products (i.e., metalliferous ores, non-metallic mineral manufactures, iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, and metal products) averaged $1.24 billion a year. Also, the mining trade deficit is higher in 2000s ($1.3 billion a year) than in 1990s ($1.19 billion).
 

[v] Employment in the mining and quarrying sector is growing by a small 1.17% annually in 1990-2008 as compared to the yearly growth in total employment in all industries of 2.53% during the same period. Employment growth in mining and quarrying, however, did accelerate in 2000s at 5.41%, and especially in 2005-08 with 7.65 percent. But as a percentage of total employment, mining and quarrying declined from 0.49% in the 1990s to 0.37% in 2000s. In 2005-08, its share total employment is still lower (0.42%) as compared to its 1990-2004 average (0.44%). In the past two decades, mining and quarrying employment has only contributed an average of 0.43% to total annual employment. Data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Meanwhile, data from the MGB and the Department of Finance (DOF) show that the share of revenues from fees, charges, and royalties collected by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-MGB; excise tax collected by Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR); taxes collected by national government agencies; and taxes and fees collected by local government units (LGUs) to total employment remained insignificant at just 0.5 percent.
 

[vi] Economist Winnie Monsod, for instance, noted in her Get Real column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (“Zero wealth in mining,” October 21, 2011), that the State, which supposedly owns all mineral resources in the country as stated in the 1987 Constitution, does not get any share in the profits of mining companies. The only government share is the 2% excise tax on metallic and non-metallic minerals (mandated under the Mining Act). Monsod quoted SC Justice Antonio Carpio, who in his dissenting opinion on the constitutionality of the Mining Act, argued that “The excise tax is not payment for the exploitation of the State’s natural resources, but payment for the ‘privilege of engaging in business’… the State must receive its fair share as owner of the mineral resources, separate from taxes, fees and duties paid by taxpayers. The legislature may waive taxes, fees and duties, but it cannot waive the State’s share in mining operations.”
 

[vii] In its “Consolidated position paper on mineral resource development,” the Philippines Australia Business Council, Australia Philippines Business Council, Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines told government to “act decisively” on its mining policy and bring an end to provincial ordinances that “defy” national law and “damage” international confidence in the country’s mineral investment policies. The paper was issued after South Cotabato and Zamboanga del Norte passed ordinances banning open pit mining. (Source: Riza T. Olchondra, “‘Decisive’ action on mining urged,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 7, 2011)

Undermining Philippines

While the mining industry players are assured about mining helping the country out of poverty, the people are convinced that the same industry will not bring any good but harm in this nation. Philippine Mining Act of 1995 is lethal.

or 17 years, Mining Act of 1995 or Republic Act No. 7942 had given this country and the Filipino citizenry not a benefit but a concentration of the military in the territory, displacement of inhabitants, devastated state and abandoned lands. Seventeen years is long enough to disprove their erroneous claim of upholding the nation which their hands had doomed to poverty.

Ironically, the government had also displaced its military men and arm forces authorized to use lethal weapon by assigning the very organization to use forces against the ancestral people, thus serving not the bonafide Filipinos but the foreign mining industry and its insatiable greed.

Due to its rich minerals—both metallic and non-metallic—and being one among those with the prosperous gold mines in Southeast Asia, iron, petrochemical oil, magnetite and other biodiversity, the Philippines became the target of both the local and multinational mining companies for extraction.

Most applicants of mining are foreign companies. And the mere approbation of every application—with Cordillera more than 32,000 approved and 73,000 in line, Southern Tagalog with 909,583.083 hectares application, CARAGA with 1, 884, 697 hectares of land miners area and 98.80% of metallic worth to be extracted in Bicol—both large scale and small scale mining, both legal and illegal—is but a threat to the system of this country and to the country itself.

Mining does not provide employment. In fact, from 1990-2008, it had only provided an annual percentage of 1.17 job opportunities t to people. It does not generate economy, for all mining and quarrying activities are only subject to 2% excise tax, highly favourable not to the Filipino but only to the foreign and big industries.

 

According to the constitution, the mining industry plays a big and vital role for the Philippines’ development and economy. The constitution is wrong. People’s need, not corporate greed. What this country needs is national industrialization not militarized area, unending human rights violation, chemically contaminated land, exploited, devastated and abandoned nation.

Their argument for seventeen years that the Mining Act of 1995 would provide additional jobs, better life and development to this country had been disproved by its very effect to the Philippines. The College Editors Guild of the Philippines condemns the lame government of Aquino administration for merely following the path that had led this country to its destitution.

Change not only the face, but the entire erroneous system. Scrap Philippines Mining Act of 1995. Now.
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Pauline Gidget Estella
Deputy Secretary General
College Editors Guild of the Philippines National Office
0915.335.20.21

Jonalyn Paz
Media Liaison Officer
College Editors Guild of the Philippines National Office
0916.474.44.12

College Editors Guild of the Philippines
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News Release
3 March 2012
Release: Cristina Guevarra, Hustisya secretary general 0949-1772928

Victims of human rights violations join protests vs 1995 Mining Act

“The very fact of human rights violations is reason enough to cease mining operations, at least until we figure out the best way to do it without sacrificing the dignity of our people,” said Michaella Ortega, daughter of slain environmentalist and Palawan broadcaster Gerry Ortega, on the 17th year after the passage of the Mining Act of 1995.

Victims’ group Hustisya joined environmental groups as they held a protest rally in Mendiola to call for the scrapping of the Mining Act of 1995.

The rally also served as culmination of the three-day People’s Mining Conference in Tagaytay, which was attended by more than 200 delegates coming from different regions where there are large-scale mining operations.

Environmental groups called for the junking of the Mining Act of 1995, saying it has allowed the outright plunder of the nation’s resources.

According to Hustisya, one of the convenors of the Task Force Justice for Environmental Defenders, there are already 10 environmental defenders slain under the current Aquino administration, most of them were anti-mining activists including Ortega. The group also said intensified militarization in the provinces under Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan also paved the way for more human rights violations.

“The growing nationwide protest against large scale mining is met with repression. Worse, the military becomes the mining companies’ private armies. Aquino also allowed the use of paramilitary groups such as the Special Civilian Armed Auxiliary (SCAA) as force multiplier to protect large mining companies and terrorize communities of indigenous peoples, farmers and small-scale miners,” Hustisya secretary general Cristina Guevarra said.

Guevarra concluded that, “the policy of allowing large-scale and destructive mining do not only rape our environment, it also resulted to numerous human rights violations including extrajudicial killings, especially in areas where the people’s opposition is strong.” ###

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HUSTISYA (Victims United for Justice)
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Telefax: (632) 434-2837 | E-mail: hustisya.media@gmail.com