Science of the mine

Only our leader, Benigno Simeon (aka BS), can decide on the fate of the biggest mining project that this country will likely ever have: that rich copper and gold prospect known as “Tampakan” in South Cotabato.

Just to start the operation of the mine, Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), the local company of giant Swiss firm Xtrata, plans to invest roughly $6 billion. That big!

That the Philippine economy will benefit tremendously from the project has never been the issue. Yet, the Tampakan prospect has been hanging for two years now.

So do we really want the project or not?

Surely, the entire business community is closely watching the Tampakan project. Its fate can set the benchmarks for future huge projects.

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There is now a stalemate because, just recently, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje in effect surrendered the national government’s authority over such a huge mineral prospect to the local government unit, when he rejected the application of SMI for an ECC, or the environmental clearance certificate.

And what was his reason? Well, it seemed that the good secretary, even with the help of his highly competent technical staff at the DENR, could not decide on the technical merits of the ECC application.

He needed to consider a local law in South Cotabato, a last-minute ordinance passed by the provincial board on its way out in 2010, imposing a “ban” on open pit mining in the province.

Paje in effect wanted SMI to have the ban lifted, before the DENR could even look into the merits of the ECC application.

Do LGUs indeed have authority over the DENR when it comes to mining projects like Tampakan that are loaded with national interest?

Basta, Paje decided to abdicate the DENR authority to the LGU. Nobody of course could say whether Paje should expect more LGUs to exert authority over the DENR in almost all issues going forward.

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The whole thing actually started when, just one day before their term expired back in 2010, members of the provincial board (together with the governor at that time, who is now a member of Congress) decided to ban open-pit mining in the province.

SMI, however, has been saying all along that the open-pit method would be the only viable method, mainly because of the depth of the deposits.

In other words, tunneling as an alternative method would be crazy, if not outright dangerous.

When the new provincial board adopted the ban, it became clear that, in this country, local laws could overturn a law, none other than the Mining Act of 1995, which expressed openly government support for mining investments.

Anyway, the proponent SMI should be able to show how effective (or disastrous) the open-pit method would be, precisely, through the ECC. It is then the job of the DENR to set the rules, even to specify the measures that SMI should take to manage the environment risks from the open-pit method. It is presumed that the DENR—more than any government agency or instrumentality—has the technical expertise to impose the rules.

Now, environment risks cannot be avoided in any human activity, including our necessary trips to the toilet. We go to work, we take a ride, and we contribute to carbon emission. We go to the grocery, we demand the “green” paper bags (versus plastic bags), and we encourage illegal loggers to cut down hectares of our forest. Every human activity has the inescapable environment risk.

It is up to the DENR to dictate the measures that investors like SMI must take to manage the risks. For what kind of technical expertise do LGUs have to set the condition on mining ventures?

But Paje just had to throw the ball to the provincial board, seemingly telling everybody in business that, from now on, it would be the LGUs (perhaps including the barangay council) that will determine the technical soundness of the project.

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Thus the situation now clearly needs the attention of the President of the Republic, no less than our leader BS, who has been telling foreign investors that they would be welcomed to this country.

Guess how much in taxes and royalty payments the national government can expect out of the Tampakan project? If more than 70 percent of the taxes and the royalty will go to the national government, and only 30 percent to the LGUs, the national government stands to realize revenues of almost P100 billion.

That means a lot of classrooms. And highways. And farm facilities.