Mine over matter
While the great in-your-face mining debate heats up in the Philippines, the rest of Asia seems to be the focus of huge financial firms abroad for investments in mining, particularly countries around or near China such as Indonesia, Malaysia and even Australia.
Translation: We are probably going to miss the train again.
Such was evident during the recent Asian Mining Congress held in Singapore, the yearly affair that brings together fund managers looking for new mining prospects, and executives of mining companies hoping to get in the eyesight of those managers.
One foremost concern aired during the forum, coming from top executives of both mining and financial companies, was the frequent change in government rules, particularly those on taxation.
It was agreed that, indeed, governments in all countries do change their mining policies. Thus political risks should be one of the lookouts of investors.
In the same forum, unfortunately, the Philippines was considered a politically sensitive area, owing to the change in mining policy that the Aquino (Part II) administration has been brandishing in the past few months, creating fear among investors in a capital devouring venture that is mining.
The supposedly “new” policy already went through several revisions. Up to now the public has been getting only snippets of the “new” policy. And what could be more “politically sensitive” than that?
Whether the administration cares to admit it or not, the fact that it must issue the “new” policy at all, despite the existence of mining laws, was an offshoot of the great mining debate that had so heated up in this country, you would expect the anti and pro sides to come to blows anytime.
Religious groups, mainly Catholic priests, have even joined the fray. They were mostly on the “anti” side. Media outfits have also given them a lot of attention, to the point of being glorified.
Yet it still not really clear up to now why they are vehemently, or even passionately, against a particular type of mining—the large-scale ventures.
In the business sector, they assume that the loud protest against large-scale mining is inspired by the worldwide concern on the environment, which is understandable. Large-scale mining had a bad record in this country. Today it is labeled as a destructive activity, said to be endangering agricultural communities and scenic locations.
And so the protest was waged initially in the name of the environment.
But why is it aimed solely against mining – and only large-scale mining, at that? This is still a big mystery to many in business.
Well, the last time I checked, illegal logging remained rampant, and the same anti-mining groups never attacked illegal logging. Small-scale mining, controlled mostly be local politicians, was also spared from the attacks.
In certain provinces, some religious groups and NGOs have even succeeded in forcing the local governments to impose a de facto ban—but only on large-scale mining.
In Mindoro, for instance, illegal loggers have been having a fiesta in the forest, despite an existing prohibition against any form of travel to the heavily forested Mt. Halcon, the fourth-highest mountain in the country.
Those anti-mining groups nevertheless could never argued against the fact that this country, in which more than 40 million of its population are poor, would need the economic stimulus from the mining industry.
Today, despite the troubles in the industry, mining posted one of the highest growth rates, still accounting for 2.3 percent (from 1.2 percent five years ago) of our GDP, or the gross domestic product, which in a way is a measure of the entire economy. Based on available data, our mineral exports amounted to $2.5 billion in 2008, and still growing fast.
In Australia, by the way, mining accounts for more than 10 percent of GDP, and more than 50 percent of total export receipts. Australia ships its mineral exports mainly to China, Japan, South Korea, India and the United States, which are countries that sell to us here in the Philippines a lot of products using those same minerals.
You may even have minerals on your face—because of those creams and ointments that contain mica, talc, iron oxide, zinc and titanium dioxide, which of course are all mining products. The innocent sunscreen that we use this summer in the beach contains zinc oxide—another mining product.
The irony of it all is that mined matters are present in everything “green” that we do: riding a bike (iron and aluminum), brushing teeth (limestone and fluorite), using computer (gold plus some 34 or so metals), building an eco-friendly house (cement, gypsum, and iron), cooking healthy meals (iron, aluminum, nickel and steel) or charging the cellular phone (nickel, cobalt and lithium).
In getting a medical checkup, we have to use matters from under the ground as well, such as the uranium in x-ray machines. Or in our religious activities, for instance, the celebrants drink wine from a bronze, copper, silver or gold chalice.
By the way, a critical environmental issue that needs our attention is the collection of garbage and trash—or rather their “un-collection.” Nobody can yet say what kind of destruction that they are doing to our waterways, plus to the world’s oceans.
Still, we cannot just ban garbage.
* * *
Airlines are making the headlines. Earlier, there was the deplaning incident involving the Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and an honorary diplomat, Francis Chua, who is the former president of influential business organizations Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This week we have the incident involving Cebu Pacific, plus a television soap personality and our colleague Ramon Tulfo.
I have known both Tulfo and Chua personally for a long time, and they have never impressed me as the arrogant types. They are the kind of guys who talk—person-to-person, plus on a first-name basis—to the presidents of the Republic. Let us just say that they are both secure in their standing in their own communities.
I am not ready to believe that they could easily have started all that trouble out of plain hubris.
