Mining, anti-mining advocates square off in conference

MANILA, Philippines – Mining and anti-mining proponents debated Friday the environmental and economic effects of the industry.

Speaking at the Conference on Mining’s Impact on Philippine Economy and Ecology, Regina Lopez, managing director of ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. and convenor of the Save Palawan Movement, said that mining was “grossly irresponsible” whether large-scale or small-scale because the Philippines was an island ecosystem.

“No amount of reforestation would bring back an ecological system [that mining destroys],” Lopez said.

She also said that mining has little economic benefits, citing an example of Tupay municipality, Agusan Del Sur where the local government earned only P25 per ton of soil excavated in mining activities.

Tupay earned P44 million from 1.8 million tons of soil excavated in the first year, Lopez said. But when the mining activity became large-scale, earnings derived from the industry went to the national government.

Gerard Henry Brimo, a director of the Chambers of Mines of the Philippines, told Lopez that “the sad reality is that you don’t really know what you’re talking about.”

Brimo said that mining did not destroy biodiversity because the government prohibited this in protected areas. He also said that only 0.2 percent of the total land mass of the Philippines was used for mining. He said that out of the 25,000 mining prospects globally, only 500 would be seriously explored and only one would eventually become a mine.

He cited the example of mining in Rio Tuba municipality in Palawan where the soil was full of iron and some nickel and thus, was not usable for agriculture. He said that a forest could not grow in the soil preventing the development of a biodiverse area.

Brimo said half a million trees have been planted through rehabilitation and reforestation efforts in Rio Tuba.

Brimo also gave other examples of areas where biodiversity could not flourish because the soil was not suitable for plants such as an entire mountain in Surigao where the soil was rich with iron oxide and in the Tampakan mine site.

Brimo said that mining companies have planted 15 million trees over the last 10 years “long before the national greening program [of the government].”

“Every year [mining companies] compete among ourselves to see who plants the most,” Brimo said.

Manuel Pangilinan, Chairman of Philex Mining Corporation, said in his speech that “most mining sites were not ideal for tourism,” responding to Lopez’s statement that ecotourism was a better alternative to mining.

Surigao, for example, doesn’t have the features that are attractive to draw tourists and was not also viable for agriculture, Pangilinan said. He added that tourism could not compare with the benefits mining could provide.

“Please don’t get me wrong, I value the beauty of nature as much as all of you do,” Pangilinan said.

Lopez countered during the open forum and said that she did not believe those areas were “ugly anyway” that’s why they were being mined.

“It’s not true that the areas that are going to be mined are ugly, you can’t do anything there anyway,” Lopez said. She cited as an example Sibuyan which she says “has the world’s densest forest [and] the country’s cleanest inland body of water.”

She said that the government has approved $1B worth of mining there.

In response, Pangilinan said that in some mining areas in Surigao del Norte, it was completely deforested. But since that time they have planted seven million trees, Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan said that they have a separate committee that “provide free housing, free hospitals, free education up to highschool,” to the locals in the area using money the mining company sets aside every year because they know the mining site will eventually close someday.

Lopez admitted that “there might be good mining there” but she said that she was against the statement of Pangilinan generalizing all mining areas as “ugly anyway.”

But Pangilinan countered: “You didn’t say that. Now you’re lying!” to loud applause and cheers from the crowd.