Published May 8, 2017, 10:00 PM By Gemma Cruz
Araneta
Many years ago during President
Gloria Arroyo’s first term, a mining conference was held in Metro Manila. The
former president proudly declared that the Philippines was on the threshold of
becoming one of the ten largest “mining powers” in the world, and because of a
reinvigorated mining industry, our country was on the verge of an economic
takeoff like never before. To end her keynote speech, the former president
exclaimed, “We should not be poor!”
Remarkably, when the then president
was addressing those 300 hundred delegates, representing 7 countries, who
attended that mining conference, the Philippines had already given 40 percent
of its territory as concessions to multinational mining companies. Yet, poverty
was still a principal concern, as it was during the watch of Presidents Corazon
Aquino, Fidel Ramos, and Joseph Estrada. What could have gone wrong? Why didn’t
mining eradicate poverty and bring about prosperity as promised?
The newly appointed secretary of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources was the ineffable Michael
Defensor, rapidly confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, unlike the
combative Gina Lopez. At that same conference, he jubilantly revealed that the
top 23 mining companies and the 37 exploration projects were expected to
generate US$ 5 to 7 billion in new investments, in the next five years, which
meant the government would earn at least P100 billion a year in taxes. He
bragged that the Arroyo administration would not only wipe out the country’s
fiscal deficit, but also and more importantly, put an end to the curse of
chronic poverty.
Also present at that conference was
the debonair Ignacio Bunye, presidential press secretary and spokesman, who
assured one and all that safeguards and safety nets had been incorporated in
the mining plans to protect the rights of “affected communities.” I felt that
he was anticipating violent objections from environmentalists and civic action
groups.
How blessed we are; we have been
sitting on tons of gold, silver, zinc, copper, nickel, cobalt, not to mention
natural gas, heavy water, oil, semi-precious stones like agates and jades.
However, exploiting these precious natural resources has been deadly and
devastating not only for those communities living around the mining areas but
also for the environment in general. The example that refuses to be forgotten
is Marinduque, an island of Region IV-B’s Mimaropa, with an area of 959 sq.
kilometers and a manageable population of less than 300,000. Marcopper
conducted mining operations there for 20 years with no safeguards at all. As a
result, the rivers and waterways and farmlands in Marinduque have been poisoned
beyond salvation. The incidence of poverty was recorded at 71.9 per cent. In
like manner, the riverside dwellers of Bataraza, Palawan, the Subanons of
southwestern Minadanao, the Mangyans of Mindoro Oriental, the Tagbanuas,
B’laans, Batak, Cordillerans, and Tau’t Bato are today not a centavo richer
because of broken promises of mining companies.
During that conference, the
“International Business News” published a glowing report about the Philippines
having an estimated US$ 1 trillion in unexplored mine wealth which, if properly
exploited can generate as much as US$ 3 billion in annual gross sales and P500
million in yearly taxes for the government. Will someone please check out those
figures and the predicament of the above-mentioned communities? We have to know
if those promises made before an international audience were ever fulfilled.
More than a decade ago, supposedly
on the threshold of mining boom, President G. Arroyo declared, “We should not
be poor!”
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