Mining: Boon or bane?

Next week, our country will be hosting the Mining Philippines 2010 Conference and Exhibit which targets CEOs and managers of mining companies, heads of exploration projects, investors and financiers, industry analysts and economists, service providers and suppliers and government regulators. Like a pimp, this conference will definitely entice prospective investors to covet our mines and cough out billions of their dollars into our coffers in the hope of pump priming our economy. But before we jump for joy, let us not forget that our Supreme Court has deemed it legal for holders of Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements (one of the mining permits that is being issued) to be foreigners thus, they can repatriate 100 percent of their profits. Let us not also forget the irreversible impacts of mining to the environment and the threat it brings to communities and our food security.

Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), an alliance of mining-affected communities and their support groups of NGOs/POs opposing the aggressive promotion of large-scale mining in the Philippines assessed our Medium Term Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2004 to 2010. During that period, the government targeted to undertake a huge number of large-scale mining operations expecting at least $6-billion worth of investments to boost the economy and create thousands of jobs. Nearing its target date, the government will surely miss almost all of its target outputs with mining investments totaling only $2.1 billion, or just 35 percent of the target investments. The mining industry’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) is only a measly 1.4 percent. It targeted 239,000 jobs but only 13,462 jobs were created. Worst, government failed to collect $7 billion in excise taxes. In 2007, the total taxes collected was just $.55 billion, or 8 percent of its total target.
These facts and figures debunk the claim that mining will bring economic growth and create hundreds of thousands of jobs. It is a misplaced economic policy; instead it poses serious threats to the gains of the country’s asset reform program and is in direct conflict with sustainable development initiatives. Large-scale mining has displaced and continues to displace small farmers and indigenous peoples from their ancestral domains. PhilDHRRA reports that 72 percent of extractive industries (mining and logging) located within ancestral domains operate without securing Free Prior Informed Consent from indigenous peoples. The DENR recognizes that mining pollutes the land and water sources such as rivers and lakes. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, water contamination from mining poses one of the top three ecological security threats in the world. The Mines, Minerals and Sustainable Development Report indicate that the most obvious impact to biodiversity is the removal of vegetation, which alters the availability of food and shelter for wildlife. At a broader scale, mining may impact biodiversity by changing species composition and structure.

Government has also failed to rehabilitate at least three abandoned and inactive mines and there have been no updates on the resolution of the Marcopper mines tailing spills in Marinduque and the Mabatas tailings dam that have affected communities in the area.

Given these findings, ATM recommends that government should rather pursue the revitalization of agriculture to achieve maximum impact on the economy. Focusing on rural development will benefit a greater number of people and this will also help ensure our food security. It can also create more jobs than mining and it is evident on the macro level perspective that agriculture holds the higher share to our GDP, significantly higher than mining. Thus, the new MTPDP must drop prioritizing the revitalization of the mining industry and Executive Order 270-A through which this priority is hinged upon must be revoked. The government must adopt a policy of “the whole Philippines is not open to mining unless certain conditions (asset reform, social justice, cost-benefit analysis, etc.) reveal that extracting the mineral is the best use and most economically beneficial option. The current Philippine Mining Act of 1995 is flawed, given that its inconsistencies with other laws are clearly manifested. A new mineral management law that promotes a balance of mining implementation with other laws must be enacted.

Too much risk and negative impacts are being introduced by the current policy on aggressively promoting large-scale mining. Thus, a moratorium must be imposed and permits for pending applications must not be issued and all large-scale mining operations that have questionable circumstances (resistance of communities, opposition of LGUs, flawed procedures) must be immediately suspended and reviewed. The principles of local autonomy must be respected. LGUs that have passed ordinances banning mining or issuing moratoriums must be respected and upheld. Should the government decide to retain its policy of aggressively promoting large-scale mining, several structural policies must be put in place prior to granting of application permits and actual mining contracts such as: finalization of a National Industrialization Plan that will indicate the actual minerals and metal needs of the country; completion of an accurate and realistic inventory of the actual mineral reserves; preparation of a mineral extraction plan that will respond to the actual needs specified in the National Industrialization Plan while considering other alternative uses of the targeted mineral lands. Finally, government must sign up to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) in order to practice and implement transparency and accountability of mining companies operating in our country. –ANABELLE E. PLANTILLA, Manila Times

orgsus@haribon.org.ph