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Repeal the Mining Act

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) added its voice to the broadening call: the repeal of the 1995 Mining Act otherwise known as Republic Act 7942. The CBCP reiterated that the adverse social impacts of the act far outweigh the gains promised by the transnational mining corporations (TNCs).

Various groups lauded the latest CBCP action for it revealed the valid, just and moral issues these groups raised when they earlier took the cudgel in exposing the palliative law - clearly anti-environment, anti-Filipino and anti-sovereignty.

In the forefront of the struggle against the Mining Act of 1995 are indigenous peoples. They sustain their ancestors’ vow for the defense of their ancestral domain from any form of destruction, including corporate intrusions. For them, land is life and the destruction of the land is the destruction of their lives, including those yet to be born.

The state systematically denies indigenous peoples their right to their ancestral domain since time immemorial. The state has continuously imposed the colonially-inspired Regalian Doctrine policy and instituted it in the Mining Act. Then this controversial act was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court – even after it had earlier declared it as unconstitutional. This policy paved the way for 100 percent foreign-owned corporations to freely and unabatedly exploit our resources via the Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) provision of the Mining Act.

Even the claim of corporate executives about the economic contribution of the mining industry is mere lip service. Data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NCSB) in 2002 show that mining companies employed only 115,000; while small-scale mining had 300,000. Agriculture and fishery employed more than 11 million; gold earnings yearly average to P 27.77 billion while agriculture and fisheries registered a yearly contribution of P 123.2 billion; and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reveals that 59 percent of gold it received annually comes from the small-scale mining.

However, the immeasurable damage caused by corporate mining is proven by the destruction of the environs from which our indigenous peoples and farmers rely for existence. More lands will be destroyed due to the race of mine applications. Data from the Cordillera Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) show that mine applications in the region cover 1.2 million hectares, or 67 percent of the region’s total land area of 1.8 million hectares. Most of the applicants are transnational corporations with horrible records of environmental pollution abroad. Yet, policies to regulate the destructions brought by mine operations and sanctions to violators remain government lip service.

The CBCP position is not only timely as the Supreme Court (now composed of almost all GMA appointees) reversed its earlier decision declaring the unconstitutionality of the Mining Act to its final constitutionality February last year. More importantly, it added to the voice of the indigenous peoples, farmers, environmentalists, among others, who are in the forefront of the anti-large scale mining movement. The country’s legislators from both houses must heed the call: Repeal the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. #

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