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IP group lauds CBCP mining stand

Taking people’s stand vs. Mining Act

BAGUIO CITY (Jan. 31) — The Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) today commended the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for “finally taking a pro-people, pro-national sovereignty stand” when it issued a pastoral statement calling for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995. The Episcopal Church of the Philippines (ECP) issued its own statement opposing the said Act just last year at the height of the Lepanto strike in Mankayan, Benguet.

The ECP passed a resolution calling for a mining law “inclined towards the people in this country, concerned with environment and ecological protection and not for the exploitation and ownership of foreign mining companies”. The ECP added that continued implementation of the Mining Act would further cause conflict between and among communities who will be affected by mining waste pollution and deforestation, among others.

The CBCP, meanwhile, affirmed its stand to repeal the 1995 Mining Act as the “adverse social impacts far outweigh the gains promised by transnational corporations”.

CPA Secretary General Windel Bolinget said that the government could not just ignore such broad support with the call to scrap the Mining Act. He also commended Senator Jamby Madrigal who passed a bill shortly after the CBCP statement was released supporting the call to repeal the Act.

Twenty-three priority mining projects have been identified under the Mining Revitalization Program of the Arroyo administration, including the Conner Copper-Gold Project in Apayao and Kalinga provinces by the Cordillera Exploration, Inc., a subsidiary of the UK-based Anglo American PLC.

The CBCP notes in its statement that mining areas remain one of the poorest in the country, specifically the Bicol, Cordillera, and CARAGA regions.

Threatened?

Meanwhile, Chamber of Mines President Philip Romualdez reacted that such call from the CBCP only puts at risk the economic potential of the mining industry in terms of labor employment. Romualdez is also president of Benguet Corporation, which has been operating in Benguet for more than 100 years now.

Bolinget said however, that large-scale mining operations employ highly mechanized procedures that actually displace human labor in the mine site.

He also cited that Lepanto mineworkers went on strike in 2005 due to unjust wages and subhuman conditions, belying the statement of the mining mogul.

A statement from Defend Patrimony, a national alliance against mining transnational corporations, said that the mining industry only employs less than 1% of the labor force and only contributes less than 2% to the country’s Gross National Product (GNP).

The National Statistical Coordination Board (NCSB) reveals that mining companies in the country employed only 115, 000 workers in 2002 while small-scale mining employed 300, 000 persons in the same year. The same data show that the agriculture and fisheries industry employed more than 11 million.

NCSB further reports that in terms of export earnings, gold earns an average of P27.77 billion annually while the agriculture and fisheries industry generates P123.2 billion per year.

Moreover, records of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reveal that 54% to 59% of gold it receives annually comes from small-scale mining.

Since the Supreme Court’s reversal of its earlier decision on the constitutionality of the Mining Act, protests from affected communities and activists escalated, alongside the aggressive entry of foreign mining corporations in the country.

Home to several ethno-linguistic groups collectively known as Igorots, the Cordillera region has been a hotspot to mining trans-national corporations (TNC). As of March 2005, 66% or 1.2 million hectares of Cordillera land have been applied for by 114 applications. These include 11 Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements, 65 Mineral Production Sharing Agreements, 37 Exploration Permits and one Industrial Sand and Gravel application), all of which were approved by the Department of Environment Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) also welcomed CBCP’s pastoral statement.

“The chips are now falling into place and the players in the political arena are now realigning. Iit will not take long for the final push for the ouster of Gloria. Definitely the days of the Arroyo regime are numbered, we just hope that at the final moment the CBCP would be with us in leading the way for a more just, progressive and peaceful Philippine society,” KMP Secretary General Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos said.

Meanwhile, Willy Marbella, internal deputy secretary general of KMP said, “The latest CBCP statement basically countered and opposed all the key plans of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in terms of the resolution of the “Hello Garci” scandal, charter change and the “no election” scenario. Gloria would definitely have to always lock horns now with the CBCP on these issues. There is even a bonus in the CBCP’s stance against the Mining Act of 1995, which we farmers, fisher folk and national minorities really appreciate because it adds a strong and influential voice for our cause against large scale and destructive mining.” # AT Bengwayan with reports from KMP for NORDIS

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