Philippine bishops ask Aquino to scrap mining law

There are many well-known negative effects of the mining industry, which uses a tenth of the world's annual energy supply and accounts for the second-largest source of greenhouse emissions. Farmland, plants, animals and humans all suffer from mining, which pollutes the groundwater, rivers and irrigation lines, leaving open sores of unusable land in its wake. The Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation, located in Mankayan, Benguet, dumps its mine tailings into the Abra River. The Manila Times has reported that pollution from the Lepanto operation has caused a 30% reduction in rice production in the Cervantes and Quirino areas, communities which rely on rice planting. Additionally, mining pollutants kill the marine life which many coastal residents depend on for their daily survival.

Open pit mining -- the standard method for extracting ore such as gold and copper -- also impacts the environment in a unique way: By destroying natural habitats, this mining removes a link in the ecosystem chain, adversely affecting the biodiversity of an entire region. BHP Billiton, one of the world's largest mining firms, recently secured a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for the exploration of nickel deposits in Barangay Macambol. This area is located between the Pujada Bay Protected Seascape and Landscape and Mt. Hamiguitan Range, a newly-established wildlife sanctuary that is home to the endangered Philippine Eagle.

Ideally, mining should be stopped altogether, just on environmental grounds. But if mining must happen, then at least it should help the nation's economy -- and be done in an environmentally responsible way. Currently, mining in the Philippines does neither. The Mining Act violates an article in the Philippine constitution which allows the state to exploit the country's natural resources in concert with corporations, provided that Philippine citizens own at least 60% of those interests. However, the Mining Act permits mining firms to be 100% foreign-owned and, most surprisingly, allows the repatriation of all profits. The only money to be made by the Philippines, according to the act, comes in the form of an excise tax. But this is a pittance. The 2005 excise tax collection of the Lafayette Mining subsidiary Rapu-Rapu Mining amounted to only 1.5% of the company's total revenue. Obviously, this is not a fair deal for the Filipino people.

In April of 2008, I called upon then-president Macapagal-Arroyo to encourage the act to be repealed in Congress, rather than letting loose a protracted battle between the legislative and judiciary branches. As I suggested at that time, solving the issue within the House of Representatives would give Filipinos a much needed measure of confidence in their elected officials. Now, while the nation is still in a honeymoon period with their newly elected leader, the opportunity that Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo squandered by doing nothing on this matter is firmly in the hands of President Aquino. He should take this opportunity to make the ancestral land of the Filipino people work for them in an environmentally responsible way.

In addition to calling upon Congress to address the problems of the current act, Mr. Aquino should make sure that the DENR includes the voices of domestic mining interests, non-governmental environmental groups and the local communities directly affected by mining in a fresh, progressive and transparent discussion that crafts the most sustainable future possible for the country's vast, untapped mineral wealth. The local communities that bear the brunt of the harmful environmental impact of mining should also be compensated more than the measly local business tax and other small fees they currently receive from mining companies. A portion of the larger piece of the tax pie, such as shares of remittances from capitals gains and dividend taxes -- all of which now go to the national government under the Mining Act -- should be reinvested in those communities.

Since 2004, $1 billion has come from overseas into the Philippine mining industry. Considering the country's proximity to resource-hungry China, the government hopes to increase that figure to $10 billion over the next three years. But if the Mining Act is repealed or ruled unconstitutional, lawmakers must find ways to keep current foreign investors from leaving in the face of major profit margin reductions, and also attract future foreign investment. Improved tax incentives, for example, could be granted when firms upgrade to more environmentally-friendly mining methods or purchase supplies from local businesses. Longer tax holidays can also sweeten investment incentives. Additionally, Congress should demand that the DENR uphold its mandate to "conserve specific terrestrial and marine areas representative of the Philippine natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations."

The Philippines may hold one of the largest caches of gold and copper in Southeast Asia. These resources can be exploited responsibly, with limited damage to the ecosystem, and done in concert with eco-rebuilding plans. And the market value of these resources must translate directly to the economic well-being of the Filipino taxpayer. Repealing -- or at the very least, rewriting -- the Mining Act would be a good first step in insuring that the national patrimony of the Philippines is not unfairly exploited by foreign interests. The mineral riches of the Philippines can certainly help its citizens by creating jobs and boosting the economy, but mining the land must be done in a way that limits the damage to the environment, maintains an interest in foreign investment and keeps a fair share of the profits in the hands of the Filipino people.

Reynard Loki

Underground Desert Living Institute
http://www.udlu.org/

13.7 Billion Years
http://www.13point7billion.org/

For decades, the Filipino people, especially the marginal fishers, small holder farmers and indigenous communities have been suffering from the adverse impacts of mining. The past governments of Ramos and Arroyo are desperate for foreign investments in mining to resuscitate the economy which have been kept afloat with remittances from the millions of Filipinos toiling abroad. An archipelagic country with one of the planet's high biological diversity in terms of endemism, the fragile ecosystems where most people depend for their livelihoods have been in constant destruction from mining activities. Income from mining did not benefit the Filipino people, but rather they have been victims of human rights violations, natural and anthropogenic-induced disasters aggravated by mining...people are getting impoverished. They don't get the benefits from mining but instead their ancestral lands have been devastated. Desolate. Situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire and the typhoon belt, the country is frequently subjected to seismic activity and heavy precipitation brought by the annual tyuphoons, an average of 20 hit most pregions of the archipelago annually, and the accelerating effects of climate change - flash floods, mass wasting, pollution, drought. The Filipinos are a peace-loving people, but not docile. Time is running out. The Aquino government should stop mining and prosecute those mining companies who have wreak havoc and destruction to communities and the environment...May GOD the Almighty bless the Filipino People in their fight against mining...