Group says mining will not fuel Asean growth
By atm.admin - Posted on October 22nd, 2008
The environmental group Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) scored the 8th Asia-Pacific Mining Conference held in Manila last week claiming that the meeting of mining stakeholders in the region is not a welcome development.
In a statement sent to GMANews.TV, ATM said the much-taunted super-cycle of mineral prices has gone bust.
“Prices are plummeting even faster than they skyrocketed a few years ago," the statement said.
ATM said the nickel’s value has plunged over the past year to less than $10 per pound. Copper’s price is reported to be at its lowest in over a year and seems set to continue its plunge.
The group claimed that the objective of the mining conference was to come up with regional policies that will promote regional cooperation among Asean member-countries.
But with mining multinationals competing with each other and falling investments up for grabs, the ATM said Asean member-countries may be in a race to the bottom, a prospect which does not bode well for integration and cooperation.
The group quoted Secretary Joselito Atienza of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources who reportedly said that the conference "will also promote environmentally sound and socially responsible mineral development practices in the management and utilization of mineral resources."
"But the Mines and Geoscience Bureau’s inability to protect the environment and welfare of the miners, public opinion about mining is currently low," the ATM statement said.
The group also accused the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples of laxity and general incompetence.
The Philippine Asset Reform Report Card, a major survey done earlier this year, revealed that there was a section on ancestral domains that states more than half of all respondent indigenous people’s communities has to contend with extractive industries.
The prevalence of conflicting territorial claims showed what a failure the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act and NCIP have been at protecting IP rights, the group said.
“As the PARRC survey covered more than half of all ancestral domain claimants and title holders in the country, we consider this to be an institutional failure of the highest order," the ATM statement said.
ATM is a network of mining -affected communities, indigenous peoples, religious, academic and civil society groups opposed to large-scale mining in the Philippines. (GMANews.tv)
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Ganyan talag trabaho nila namumuna
Ganyan talaga yan namumuna. Trabaho nila yan. Diyan sila kumakain. lalong malaki ang kanilang bonus kapag mayroong rally bayad kasi yang mga rally na yan. Hanapbuhay upang makakain yan lang naman. Marunong kayang magsaka at magtrabaho ng matino yang mga namumuna yan? Hindi kaya mangungulikta din lang ng pera bahay bahay tulad ng simbahan? Sa palagay ko hindi, kasi kung silay marunong nandoon sana sila sa sakahan dala kanilang kalabaw at wala sa pamumuna.
Namumuna kulang naman ng kaalaman. Wala namang ginawang produksyon na makain ng tao. Sila lang yata ang kumakain common tao hindi.
"Mining will not fuel economic growth of ASEAN". Saan kaya nag-aral ito taong ito ng natural resources profile, use and distribution? Doctor kaya siya ng economics o license economist? Ang galing pa naman magsinungaling. Ok lang kung walang damit pero nakadamit naman gawa ng makina galing mina, gamit pa ang internet na galing din mina.
Siguro hindi niya alam ang corporate giving at philanthropy ng mga negosyo/business (local at international) ay siyang ikinabuhay ng mga not for profit at non government organization (NPO at NGO).
Woe to you hypocrites bishop, priest and spokesperson of antimining, you wil tumble on your own path and be responsible to the hunger and lives of resource dependent population. Woe to you hypocrites bishop, priest, spokespersons of antiming you said "no to mining" but you are using the products and utilities from it. Woe to you hypocrites bishop, priest, spokesperson of antimining you condemn the workers but you yourself did not lift a finger to improve their lots. You wash white yourselves with your words full of guile but eating the flesh of the common people. Get back to your God and Saviour and take heed of His second coming this time of the end, or else you will get the eternal damnation. Do not let your time to be occupied by unproductive opposition to any development. Stand to help to make meaning of your human existence, after all resources are from God given to man for man's use and hapiness and for the honor of the Creator. Strive for knowledge, relation to God and relation to Humanity.
Ganyan talag trabaho nila namumuna
Hello anonymous,
Our work is not merely to criticize. If it were so, we will not have invested in time and effort to inform, coordinate and work with the people of Mindoro (and the rest of our Sites of Struggles), and especially the Indigenous Peoples.
Your accusation display your total lack of understanding on development work. You simple equate development with economic growth. The debate on this formula has been long settled. Growth alone will never solve poverty. Material wealth alone can never provide all the basic necessities, more respond to the higher needs of the individual and society.
One does not need to be a PhD holder or an economist to analyse development. In fact, analyzing development from a purely economic perspective has been rejected already. Development has many facets (social, political, cultural, spiritual, ecological), and economics is merely one of these facets. To give economics premium over the others is non-scientific.
We know that corporation do engage in CSR (corporate social philanthropy), but I seriously doubt that the Mindorenos (or the rest of our Sites of Struggles against large-scale mining) will ever be contented with the dole-outs and hand-outs of these CSR activities. Again, do no make the mistake of equating CSR with development. It doesn't follow.
But I digress. You again use the misleading notions that because we are against large-scale mining, we are responsible for the hunger and poverty in the rural areas. Because we are against large-scale mining, we should not be using the modern amenities of lie such as cars, and clothes and technological devices. You are either blinded by misinformation or completely ignorant.
Understand the basic principle: the minerals that they will get from destroying our forests, water resources and mountains, will not be for the benefit of Filipinos. The foreign companies will bring all these to their mother-countries, so that THEY can use it for THEIR industrialization.
Unless the Philippine government comes up with its National Industrialization Plan and the Mineral Downstream Development Plan, all minerals that will be taken from our lands will be for the consumption of already rich and developed countries.
At the end of the day, we are left with denuded forests, destroyed watersheds, contaminated coastal areas, displaced indigenous peoples and a still impoverished countryside, because the LGUs were not able to collect taxes and the corrupted use of revenues from these extractive industry.
Jaybee Garganera
National Coordinator, ATM
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