Preventing an ecological disaster

Mining has always been repugnant to the residents of communities surrounding the mining sites. And this is true in the case of large-scale nickel- mining operation on Mindoro island which is being strongly resisted by the local folk. They fear the venture would cause environmental havoc. Indigenous peoples, farmers, fishermen, political, religious and civil society leaders in both Mindoro Occidental and Mindoro Oriental are calling for the immediate cancellation of the permit granted to the Aglubang Mining Corp. to extract nickel over an area deep in the mountains totaling 9,720 hectares.

The government approved in 2001 the mineral production sharing agreement of the Aglubang Mining Corp., a subsidiary of the Crew Minerals of Canada. But the Department of Environment and Natural Resources revoked the agreement as quickly as it was granted because the authorities found out that it posed a grave threat to critical watershed that would adversely affect farming, the livelihood and even health of the people.

In canceling the permit, then Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez said that the Mindoro Nickel Project was one case where sustainability was bound to fail. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is fully aware of the situation. Her administration is committed to create wealth without sacrificing the integrity and vitality of Mindoro’s natural systems. What does it gain the nation to be short-sighted and merely think of money, when an irreparable damage to the environment will cost human lives, health and livelihood capacity of our farmers and fisherfolk, endangering the food security of our people?

But the move to shelve the nickel- mining venture turned out to be only temporary. In late 2005, the Office of the President reversed the DENR decision revoking the Aglubang’s mining permit. The Canadian firm’s president Jan Vestrun trumpeted that there was a change in attitude of the government of the Philippines towards mining, from that of tolerance to active promotion.

The government’s turnaround defies logic because the very law invoked by the project proponents—Republic Act 7942 (Philippine Mining Act of l995)—expressly provides in Section 19 thereof that among the areas closed to mining activities are watershed areas. Since the area covered by the Mindoro Nickel Project is within a protected watershed reservation, where is the justification to reverse the cancellation of the mining permit?

It is an undisputed fact that the Mindoro Nickel Project does not have an iota of social acceptability on the part of the Mindoreños. Without the consent of the people as required by law, the mining venture is deemed illegal and the mining permit issued to Aglubang Corp. is void from the start.

The public opposition is reflected in separate resolutions adopted by the municipal council of Sablayan, Mindoro Occidental and the town’s 22 barangays expressing their vigorous opposition to the mining project. In an open letter to President Arroyo and Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, Sablayan Mayor Godofredo Mintu said any major mining operations would greatly affect agriculture production and endanger social and economic conditions in Sablayan which is one of thee leading rice and corn-producing towns in Mindoro.

Recently, according to Mayor Mintu, a killer typhoon battered the province, causing heavy flooding and landslides that damaged crops and rendered the national highway impassable for several weeks. He warned that large-scale mining would deplete the town’s remaining forest and vegetation cover, aggravate river and soil siltations that would cause an ecological disaster.

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Who says that the political career of former Agrarian Reform Secretry and Bulacan Gov. Roberto Pagdanganan is dead? Pagdanganan ran against Joselito Mendoza, brother of ex-Gov. Josie de la Cruz, in the 2007 gubernatorial race in Bulacan. Mendoza was proclaimed winner but Pagdanganan filed a protest with the Commission on Elections on the ground that he was cheated. Reports filtering out from the poll body indicate that Pagdanganan has won over the incumbent governor in the recount.

But just as the Comelec was about to render a decision declaring Pagdanganan the winner, Mendoza went to the Supreme Court to stop the Comelec from issuing its resolution on the electoral dispute.

The former governor filed his protest on July 1, 2007. The Comelec started the revision of the ballots on April 28, 2008 and surprisingly, it was finished on July 10, 2008. However, Mendoza filed a counter-protest. The poll body began revising the ballots covered by his counter-protest on July 21, 2008. In a strange move, Mendoza asked the Comelec to stop his own protest since the recount favored Pagdanganan by giving him additional 46,134 votes.

As shown in the summary of votes and certificate of proclamation, Pagdanganan garnered 348,834 votes compared to Mendoza’s 364,566 for the entire province, which means that the incumbent governor was ahead by 15,732 votes. But spurious and marked ballots from the protested precincts totaled 60,069, which had to be deducted from Mendoza’s vote count. On the other hand, the votes to be deducted from Pagdanganan totaled only l,797. In the final computation after the recount, Pagdanganan was credited with 350,632 votes against 304,497 for Mendoza. This gave the protestant a winning margin of 46,135 votes.

The dispute would have been settled had Mendoza accepted the outcome. But he did not and instead filed a motion to suspend the proceedings on March 27, 2009. He based his motion on the ground that not all the necessary documents for the proper and valid resolution of the protest were in the hands of the Comelec. Pagdanganan opposed his opponent’s motion citing the fact that the protest was already submitted for resolution upon presentation of the memoranda of the two parties on Feb. 20 and 29. After this, he argued that the parties should have no more participation whatsoever in any action or proceeding the Comelec may undertake in the resolution of the case, like the examination or appreciation of the contested ballots.

On April 29 this year, the Comelec denied Mendoza’s motion. Unfazed by the setback, he filed a motion for reconsideration on May 11 but this was likewise dismissed by the poll body on May 26.

Availing his last legal recourse, Mendoza filed a motion for prohibition and certiorari with the high tribunal. About three months have lapsed but there has been no word yet from the court about the case.

Not only Pagdanganan but all his fellow Bulakeños are eagerly awaiting the tribunal’s verdict. If the court has already reviewed the case and analyzed the supporting documents, it should find time to render its decision. We know that the SC is saddled with a heavy backlog of cases, but we are inclined to believe that it will not dilly-dally on its ruling especially if the facts are clear and the determination made by the poll body on the rightful winner and legitimate governor of Bulacan was fair and just. –Fel Maragay, Manila Standard Today

f_maragay@yahoo.com