Meeting of the mines
THE AQUINO (Part II) administration put on display last week what it called a “report” on illegal mining, apparently the work of another “fact-finding” group that our leader Benigno Simeon, aka “BS,” formed some three years ago.
It was actually a top-level group made up of the Departments of Justice, Local Government and Environment. In fact, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima herself, who is running for the Senate in 2016 under the administration’s Liberal Party (LP), led the “launch” of the report, covered satisfactorily by media. All the while, I thought that the highly rewarding “illegal mining,” alongside the lucrative illegal logging, would be the main responsibility of the DENR, not the DOJ.
Anyway, it was a relatively cute report with only some 137 pages, even smugly titled “Philippine Mining Unearthed,” covering coastal areas of eight provinces, focusing on “small scale” illegal quarrying of black sand.
An investigative report in this newspaper, quoting the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences (BMG), noted that the Philippines had some 3,000 small-scale mining operations, but only a couple of them were under full and complete government monitoring.
Moreover, why would the report forget to say even just a single word on the illegal practices of the large-scale foreign-owned companies?
To come out with the mini-cute report on what was said to be rampant illegal mining activities, the high power interagency fact-finding group had all of three years.
Perhaps the report was another hallmark of the culture of torpor in the Aquino (Part II) administration. Well, in the first semester of 2015, despite the clamor in business for it to pursue infrastructure projects, it still managed to post an “underspending” of P150 billion.
Where does the administration want to take our mining sector again?
Remember that, since 2011, the sector has been in limbo as a result of the de facto ban imposed by the DENR but only on new large-scale mining.
Remember, too, that the fact-finding team was part of the supposed overhaul of the sector as envisioned by Executive Order No. 79, signed by our leader BS in 2012, supposedly offering the definitive direction for the industry.
The latest report by the Oxford Business Group (OBG), which analyzed economic trends in emerging markets like the Philippines, noted that one problem of the mining industry here was the lack of “political will” to resolve issues in the industry.
Thus the OBG report noted a sharp decline in investments in the sector in the past few years, because production was limited to existing mining operations, because new prospects could not get off the ground.
In effect, the administration just favored existing mines, including this “small-scale” mining firm, called SR Metals, that shipped to China some P28 billion worth of ore, which in turn the courts already ruled as illegal.
The company was under the control of supporters of the administration party LP.
Did the interagency fact-finding group on illegal mining simply miss, rather inadvertently, this “small-scale” mining company?
In 2012, the Aquino (Part II) administration also wanted to do a mapping of the “no-go” zones for mining in the entire archipelago—you know, an outright ban on any form of mining.
It did come up with the map in 2013, but it put more than 50 percent of the known mineral rich areas in the “no-go” zones. The mining sector of course objected and the administration decided to “revisit” the map.
Nothing has happened since then.
According to the World Bank, the Philippines has been sitting on some $850 billion (almost P40 trillion) worth of proven reserves of precious metals.
Question: What can we expect the Aquino (Part II) administration to do with the mining sector, what with only nine months remaining in the term of our leader BS?
By the way, the OBG report said the fate of the mining industry could be an issue in the 2016 presidential elections.
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Also, remember that, not too long ago, our beloved Ramon Paje of the DENR ordered the closure of all—without a single exception—mining operations in the mineral rich province of Zambales.
Our beloved Paje subsequently hand picked what companies could resume operations.
What criteria the DENR used for the selective reopening, well, remained anybody’s guess with only a few months before the elections.
It seemed that the wholesale closure order of Paje against the Zambales mines stemmed from complaints that “sediments” allegedly coming from the mines ended up in the rivers.
Among the companies were LnL Archipelago Minerals, Benguet Corp. Nickel Mines and Eramen Minerals.
Environmentalist groups claimed that the “leaks” from the mines turned the rivers reddish brown in the towns of Sta. Cruz and Candelaria.
Scientists nevertheless noted that the soil in large parts of the province was not suitable for tree planting, and so the soil could hardly retain the rain, thus would cause soil erosion cascading down to the waterways.
Unfortunately, the main cause of soil erosion due to lack of vegetation was also one natural blessing to the province: its rich deposit of the mineral called nickel laterite, known to be unfriendly to trees.
When the mining companies helped address the natural phenomenon, Paje thus selected the mining companies that would be allowed to reopen.
Lo and behold, a number of those re-opened mines were again closed down, not directly by the DENR this time, but through the urging of the provincial government.
The chief executive of Zambales is Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane, a former chief of the Philippine National Police who then became the DPWH secretary during the cute administration of Gloriaetta.
From what I gathered, media caught up with Ebdane during the three-day mining conference last week at the Solaire Hotel, and reports said that he, in effect, merely required mining companies in Zambales to build their own roads.
The road projects would then be the prerequisite to the provincial government’s lifting of the suspension orders against their operations.
Ebdane was quoted as saying that he wanted the mining companies to build their own roads because he did not want them to use the highways in the province.
Even those roads that used the huge taxes paid by those mining companies!
Anyway, he also said that the provincial government had the right to require the mining companies to build their own roads, which in turn would help improve the road system in his province.
From what I gathered, however, a certain Marfori who claimed to represent the governor, plus some top honchos in DENR and BMG, went to the mining companies as soon as the second closure order came out from the DENR and the BMG, claiming that he could have the suspension orders lifted.
Surprise—certain mining companies recently resumed operations; certain others could not.
By the way, Marfori and Ebdane were seen together at one table during the recent mining meeting at Solaire.
