Rody orders big mines: Stop destruction

President elect Rodrigo Duterte clenches his fist during the thanksgiving party held at Crocodile Park, Ma-a, Davao City, June 4, 2016.PHOTO BY EDWIN BACASMAS

DAVAO CITY—President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has accused mining companies of destroying the environment, warning they should “shape up” or local investors would take over their concessions.

“They have to stop,” Duterte said on Saturday during a thanksgiving party at Crocodile Park attended by some 200,000 people.

“Mining people must shape up. Most of what you do today, especially in Surigao, is dig holes. And they are destroying Mindanao,” he said.

As an alternative, Duterte said he would have all Filipino mining workers organized into a cooperative and “give them instructions on how not to end up spoiling the land.”

“All the big mining companies who are destroying the environment, they have to stop,” he said.

Duterte said this was the reason he did not give the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) portfolio to Leoncio Evasco, his national campaign manager.

Evasco, a former political detainee, was a city administrator when Duterte was mayor of Davao City.

Military enforcer

Duterte said Evasco wanted to be DENR secretary, but he did not give it to the mayor of Maribojoc town in Bohol province, because he needed someone from the military.

He said he expected resistance from mining firms, and that someone from the military as DENR secretary could rally government soldiers in implementing his order.

“The problem with the DENR is that I have a big problem with mining companies. They are destroying the environment,” he said, adding that he had “to use the military” to stop  it.

Dulmar Raagas, president of Chamber of Mines-Caraga Region Inc. (CMRI) and Bishop Modesto Villasanta of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, an organization that is a coconvener of the environment advocacy group Caraga Watch, said the mining sector was confident Duterte would be “fair to mining companies.”

“Our members have always been for responsible mining, and we find no disagreement with President Duterte on his declared policy for an Australian-standard mining operation. It’s actually good for our members because once the government raises the bar, it means we have to double our efforts,” Raagas said.

Villasanta said it was time that the incoming President himself oversaw the mining industry, which he described as “being pampered and treated with kid gloves by the Aquino administration.”

“We need an iron hand to keep this ‘pasaway’ mining companies in check,” he said of Duterte’s plan to have himself installed as the country’s temporary environment department chief.

Politically connected

Villasanta also called on Duterte to revisit the case of SR Metals Inc. (SRMI) in Agusan del Norte province, which has been accused of overextracting nickel ore worth billions of pesos, while  damaging the environment.

Caraga Watch earlier accused the Aquino administration of protecting the mining firm because its owners are politically connected with the Liberal Party.

With more than 20 operating large-scale mining companies, the Caraga region is known as the country’s de facto mining capital.

Duterte’s vow to rid the country of irresponsible miners, Villasanta said, “bodes well for Caraga and its people.”

The country has among the largest untapped mineral resources in the region, but years of opposition from the Catholic Church and a strong antimining lobby, as well as insurgency and widespread corruption, have stalled many projects, including the $5.9-billion, gold-copper Tampakan project in Mindanao discovered in 1991.

Swiss giant Glencore quit the Tampakan project in 2015, with the venture halted by a ban on open-pit mining in South Cotabato province imposed since 2010. A local company has taken over the project.