Who profits?

In a keynote speech to the Regional Convention of Mindanao Lawyers in Nov. 2007, Justice Carpio, who famously authored the dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court decision on La Bugal-B'laan v. Ramos (aka the decision that removed the last legal obstacle to the Mining Act of 1995) Justice Carpio spoke about mining in the Philippines and the myth of the economic miracle. The speech, titled, "Closing the gaps between law and justice," very neatly sums up the most outstanding objections of mining-affected and mining-threated communities, civil society, the church and economists. We offer a sizable excerpt of the speech for download in PDF format.

One of the most telling paragraphs follows:

"Let me repeat that: the DENR Secretary, doing his own arithmetic, publicly admitted that, under the profit sharing formula in DAO 99-56 approved in La Bugal the government will receive "somewhere from zero to nil" in the mining revenues of foreign contractors. "Zero to nil" means not even a pittance. The Filipino people will receive nothing, zero, nil, ni sinkosin wala, in the profits from the estimated P47 trillion mineral wealth of the country."

Who profits from mining in the Philippines? Certainly not the Filipinos.