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Corporate mining hazardous, unsafe

(Last of of two parts)

Corporate mining also poses health hazards to communities and mine workers themselves. A Department of Health (DOH)-awarded study by Save the Abra River Movement (STARM) convenor Dr. Ana Marie Leung reveals that 75% of LCMCo mine workers sustain mine-related injuries ranging from simple cuts to fractured bones. The study also disclosed that underground mine workers are exposed to extreme heat, loud noise, vibration of equipment dust and fumes, among others.

“These occur because corporate mining uses cyanide and other toxic chemicals and employs heavy machinery that emit fumes underground” Leung clarified. She refuted LCMCo’s Project Development Manager Jake Foronda’s claim that LCMCo does not pollute the Abra River. “LCMCo’s mine sites are upstream of the Abra River”, she explained.

Leung welcomes the announcement made by Engr. Felizardo A. Gacad, Jr. chief of the Mines Environment and Safety Division of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Cordillera Administrative Region (MGB-CAR) to validate STARM’s findings on Lepanto saying that it is but fitting for the government to check hazardous mining effluents.

A 1997 report by the Institute for Occupational Health and Safety and Development (IOHSAD) cited that the leading types of accident in the mines, in this order, are: being hit by falling objects; suffocation from chemical fumes; and crushing injuries.

Dr. Ponciano Aberin, chief of DOH-Cordillera’s People with Disability Affairs found out in 2003 that many miners suffer from hearing defects due to blasting in underground tunnels.

Worldwide findings show that in one year there are around 15,000 fatal mine-related accidents attributing the highest annual fatality rates to mining.

Inherently unsafe

Joan Carling, chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) said that the evaluation on mining safety should come from the people and not from mining companies whose only interest is to extract profits. She added that compared to the profits raked in by mining firms, the actual benefits extended to host communities are way too small.

Carling pointed out that whatever technology is employed in mining, it will never be safe because it is inherently a problem of corporate mining.

Mining employs only 1 % of the country’s total labor force, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), yet poses hazards not just to workers but communities as well.

CPA called on mining companies to “look beyond the glitters of gold and money, and promote the welfare, interests and rights of communities and the protection of the environment”.

Alternative mining policy

An alternative mining policy is being prepared by progressive party list Bayan Muna representatives in Congress in the wake of a nationwide opposition to the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 (RA 7942) and the National Policy Agenda to Revitalize Mining in the Philippines (EO 270) as detailed in the Mineral Action Plan (MAP).

“Mining will always be a part of the economy,” Carling said,” but the problem right now is the kind of technology used and the entities benefiting from these.”

Carling pointed out that mining operations have been in the country for centuries, “but until now, we cannot even produce our own sewing needles”, she said.

Corporate mining does not support national industrialization”, she said, “it is heavily dependent on foreign investments, it hasn’t built our own capital and we cannot guarantee that the host communities benefit from these”.

According to Carling, the proposal for a new mineral policy is based on a national industry that ensures the protection of our environment and the direct benefit of communities. “It should be geared away from dependence to foreign investment and foreign debt”, she said.

MAP: not an answer to the fiscal crisis

Last September, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with her signing of the MAP, signaled what Kalikasan – People’s Network for the Environment (K-PNE) called a “frenzied rush to mine all Philippine mineral resources”. Foreign capital was to be attracted into the mining industry that government agencies are mandated to resolve issues and constraints between communities and the foreign investors.

While government justifies this as a means to resuscitate a moribund industry, indigenous peoples in the Cordillera and other regions tag MAP as a complete sell-out of national sovereignty to foreign investors. In particular, CPA said that the MAP is another form of national oppression of indigenous peoples and an imperialist imposition to further exploit and control the nation’s mineral wealth.

K-PNENational Coordinator Clemente Bautista has earlier downplayed government claims that MAP’s implementation would lead to a more prosperous minerals industry that could help ease the government’s budgetary and fiscal woes.

“In fact, Bautista claims, “the liberalization of the mining industry, which MAP is all about, will worsen the fiscal crisis.”

The MAP, in implementing the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, allows 100% repatriation of capital and profits, a 10-year tax holiday, capital tax exemptions, duty-free importation of equipment and machinery and other rights and privileges that tend to trample upon rights of host communities and the wanton disregard of the environment. It also shortened the processing time for mining applications by downgrading the participation of local government units in approving mining projects in their respective areas and harmonizing conflicting laws such as the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) with the Mining Act.

Bautista said that these erroneous economic policies are one of the major reasons in the government’s low revenue collection and a ballooning budget deficit. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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