By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
(This is my response to the reaction of Chamber of Mines of the Philippines EVP Nelia Halcon below to my letter to the editor published here last week.)
It’s quite amazing that Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) EVP Nelia Halcon does not realize that the alleged relative prosperity of mining communities (“No word war, COMP only correcting misconceptions,” Opinion, 8/8/16) does not help her case simply because it is a given that mining operations should uplift the condition of people in its immediate environs. If mines make the lives of host communities even more miserable, that would be the death of mining the world over as no community in its right senses would allow mining in their midst.
But wait a minute, on the other hand, if mining really brings prosperity, how come according to Philippine Statistics Authority, Itogon, Benguet where the Benguet Corp. and the Philex Mining Corp. have been operating for 113 years and 58 years, respectively, still sports a 4.8 percent poverty incidence and Mankayan, Benguet which has been hosting the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. for 80 years still has 6.8 percent poverty incidence? Shouldn’t the two towns be flowing with milk and honey by this time?
As a counter to Secretary Regina Lopez’s contention that mines cause poverty, Halcon again trotted out the fact that there are no mines in the 10 poorest provinces in the country. It does not occur to her this is also a non-argument simply because, in fairness, mining is not the only possible cause of misery in this country.
Since Halcon and the COMP refuse to acknowledge the contradiction of mining in this country which is that it brings prosperity to some people but wreaks havoc on others, let me illustrate. While the Western Minolco and the Sto. Nino Mines in Kibungan and Tublay, Benguet, respectively, were operating, there was good life in the host communities but downstream in the towns of Sudipen, Bangar, Luna and Balaoan in La Union, the farmers were groaning as the mine wastes carried by the irrigation water from the Amburayan River caked the surfaces of their ricelands choking the plants and reducing their harvest.
If Halcon maintains that the siltation was caused by kaingins, sand and gravel quarrying or soil erosion and the like as she explained in her letter, I dare her visit those towns and talk to the farmers. She could also go to Mankayan to prove if her contention that people in mining communities are well off is true then from there, go down to Abra and Ilocos Sur through the polluted and dead Abra River to see the other side of the coin. But actually, if only Halcon wants to educate herself on the effects of Benguet mines outside the host communities, all she needs to do is to search online the names of rivers emanating from the province flowing to the west in tandem with the term “mine tailings” or “siltation.” I suggest she starts with “Bued River” so she will know why I mentioned Pangasinan in my previous letter. Halcon is one spokesperson who does not read on the topic of her press releases.
Halcon dismissed my accusation against Benguet mines by saying they have tailings dams. But I noticed she did not comment on my suggestion that she and Secretary Lopez follow the path of the flood of mine tailings that got away when the tailings dam of the Philex Mining Corp. developed a leak in 2012 in what is now known as the worst mining disaster in the country.
As people who defend the untenable are prone to, Halcon blundered in the end of her letter when she wrote “Our goal as an association of large metallic mining operations is to practice responsible mining,…” In using the word “goal,” she had admitted that the COMP is not yet a practitioner of responsible mining but is only poised to practice that type of mining at an undetermined future time if ever. This only means that COMP is trying to make fools of Filipinos when, as I said in my earlier letter (“Joint visit would end ‘mining word war,’” Opinion, 8/4/16), it “tries to project itself as innocent of any wrongdoing or shortcoming, and (which) claims it has brought nothing but good to the country.”
COMP letter:
No word war, COMP only correcting misconceptions
This is to clarify the letter from Estanislao Albano Jr. of the Kalinga Anti-Pollution Action Group (“Joint visit would end ‘mining word war,’” Opinion, 8/4/16).
The poverty statistics which Gina Lopez says come from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) are also our source, and we would like to disclose that mining and quarrying sector statistics derived by the PSA from its Family Income and Expenditure Survey were from entrepreneurial activities of households involved in small-scale sand and gravel quarrying, small-scale gold mining, salt-making and the like.
The survey excluded households in large mining establishments, such that even provincial poverty rates can only be indicative of provincial poverty levels, and the PSA says poverty is prevalent in agricultural areas.
Albano therefore cannot make any conclusions with respect to the poverty levels in municipalities where our large mining company members operate.
For his information, the 10 poorest provinces recorded by the PSA in its 2015 First Semester Family Income and Expenditure Survey were mostly in the rural areas, which are predominantly agricultural: Lanao del Sur (74.3%), Sulu (65.7%), Sarangani (61.7%), Northern Samar (51.5%), Maguindanao (59.4%), Bukidnon (58.7%), Sultan Kudarat (56.2%), Zamboanga del Norte (56.1%), Siquijor (55.2%), and Agusan del Sur (54.8%).
With respect to Albano’s allegations that farmlands have been cemented by wastes from mines, we would like to say that there are no copper or gold mines in Pangasinan and La Union. If he is talking about the mines in Benguet, these mines have tailings dams where the wastes from operations are contained.
Albano may be talking about sand and gravel quarrying, where the river system can carry sand and gravel from eroded mountains that naturally happens, or from kaingin. Likewise, siltation is often caused by soil erosion or sediment spill.
Our goal as an association of large metallic mining operations is to practice responsible mining, and I believe that is also the goal of the government. Attributions of this kind which only mislead the public should be undertaken with great concern.
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