MERGED: Mining Issues

[Saga]

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The attacks on three mining firms in Surigao del Norte, the largest staged by the New People’s Army (NPA) so far under the Aquino administration, will hamper peace negotiations with the communist rebels, officials said Tuesday.
Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, said the attacks underscored the difficulty of negotiating with the rebels without a ceasefire.
The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) that has been waging a Maoist insurgency since the late 1960s.
“Hostile attacks such as the one conducted by the NPA (Monday) in three mining areas in Surigao del Norte undermine the people’s confidence in the peace process, creating a ‘disconnect’ between agreements made on the peace table and what is happening on the ground,” Deles said in a statement.
Some 300 NPA guerrillas attacked the compound of the Taganito Mining Corp. in Claver town, briefly taking several employees hostage and burning trucks, excavators and a guest house, police said.
The mine is owned by Nickel Asia Corp., the Philippines’ largest nickel ore producer. An affiliate, Taganito HPAL Nickel Corp., and the nearby Platinum Metals Group were also attacked, in what the NPA claimed was payback for years of alleged environmental damage and abuse by the firms.
More elusive
Deles said that without the support of the people “peace negotiations become more difficult and a peace settlement more elusive.”
The government has said it hopes to sign a peace deal with the communists by the middle of next year, but few observers believe an agreement is possible.
Peace talks broke down this year amid familiar demands by the government for the NPA to stop its extortion activities and calls by the communists to free jailed comrades.
However, talks are expected to resume in Norway late this month and Deles said the government remained committed to the peace process despite Monday’s assaults.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the attacks would “undermine the peace process” and make “it difficult to pursue negotiations.”
He said the government peace panel would “strongly raise” the attacks to the other panel.
Pursuing peace
But Lacierda made it clear that the government remained committed to pursuing peace with the NPA.
“Peace is a better alternative to war. That’s why we are committed to the peace process. We will continue our efforts to pursue the peace negotiations because that is what we believe is the better option,” he said.
Lacierda said the government expected the communist rebels to come to the table in good faith and to show that they are sincere toward pursuing peace and to stop all the needless violence.
“They might have damaged the mining firms but they have damaged the population more, the local communities where the people derive incomes from these mining firms, In the long run, it’s the people, the local communities who are affected more than business,” he said.
Exercise restraint
Lacierda also called on rebel leaders to “call on their troops to exercise restraint as part of their confidence building measures toward the peace process.”
In a prepared statement, Lacierda expressed hope the NPA was as determined as the government to fulfill the people’s aspirations for peace.
He also said the government could pursue the rebels “whenever they commit an offense” because of the absence of a ceasefire agreement.
“No one should doubt our commitment to the safety of investors and our fellow citizens, who deserve to be able to pursue their livelihood without threat of extortion and violence to disturb them,” Lacierda said.
Aquino’s instructions
President Benigno Aquino III had learned of the attack at around noon on Monday and immediately convened a meeting of his security officials.
For the rest of the day, the President monitored the situation and issued instructions in between meetings, according to Lacierda, reading from a prepared statement.
Present at the meeting were Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Gen. Eduardo Oban of the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Director General Nicanor Bartolome of the Philippine National Police and National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia.
Isolated
At a Palace briefing, Lacierda said that he did not think the incident which he insisted was an “isolated” one, would affect investments in the mining industry.
He said President Aquino ordered a review of operational procedures because “he wanted to know how it happened, why it happened.”
As for the nationwide threat assessment report that Mr. Aquino had asked the police and military to conduct, Lacierda said the President wanted this to identify vulnerable targets of the NPA.
Lacierda assured the government would provide security in vulnerable areas.
Pursuit
Following the President’s instructions, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said additional troops and armed civilian militiamen would be sent to improve security for mining operators in remote areas.
With orders that he wanted “results,” Oban sent additional troops to Surigao del Norte to pursue the large group of NPA rebels.
Oban deployed a battalion and the Army’s elite Light Reaction Company backed by additional military aircraft.
He also activated the Joint Task Force Taganito between the military and the police to coordinate their efforts.
Superintendent Martin Gamba, spokesperson of the Caraga police, said pursuing troops were being backed by two Philippine Air Force helicopters from Davao City.
No engagement
Gamba said as of late afternoon yesterday, no engagement with the rebels had been reported.
Asked to explain how the government forces had failed to ward off the rebels, the PNP spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr., said there was a “force vacuum” in the area following the relief of the 68th Infantry Battalion, whose troops had gone on a unit retraining.
“The area was left vacant… If the 68th IB had been there, the NPA would not have been able to move as they did,” Cruz said.
NDF warning
The National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the CPP, said the attack would not be the last.
Jorge Madlos, NDF spokesperson in Mindanao, said other mining firms in Mindanao faced similar “punishment” if they continued to destroy the environment.
It was not about revolutionary tax “as it can be negotiated, but it was more on the environment and the companies’ treatment of its employees and the indigenous peoples who were reduced to being beggars,” Madlos said.
Letters ignored
Madlos said the three mining companies that the NPA attacked had failed to answer charges of environmental destruction and a host of other issues.
“Sometime in April and May we sent letters to them but they ignored it. When they answered, they asked us to visit their main offices in Manila,” he told the Inquirer by phone on Tuesday.
Madlos said the NPA had investigated and found out that the three companies had indeed damaged the environment and violated workers’ rights and committed other violations.
Madlos said the mining companies used harmful chemicals and acids to efficiently extract minerals, and also displaced the tribal people.
He said the NPA had given the mining companies ample time to explain. “The revolutionary movement handed them the penalties,” Madlos said.
Madlos said the NPA was not prohibiting mining “as this is an economic enterprise” but he insisted that it must be done in consonance with NDF policies. Reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan and DJ Yap in Manila; Franklin Caliguid, Frinston Lim, Jeoffrey Maitem and Dennis Jay Santos, Inquirer Mindanao; and AFP

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/70537/n...ls-peace-talks

[robstaman]

karon pa ko ENVIRONMENTALIST sad d i ang mga rebelde...

[7DMM]

karon pa ko ENVIRONMENTALIST sad d i ang mga rebelde...

environment sa ilang mata!

[gareb]

NPA attack highlights three issues
Solita "Mareng Winnie" Collas-Monsod

The New People’s Army attack on the Surigao del Norte mining operations of Nickel Asia’s Taganito Mining Corp. and the Platinum Group Metals Corp. earlier this week has brought into focus three major issues that are sticking points in our country’s quest for development.

One is that the communist National Democratic Front and its military arm, the NPA, for the first time in years (about 25), have engaged in an activity which, albeit deplorable, will gain them not a little popular sympathy. One recalls that the post-Edsa period saw them more and more marginalized as there was no way their activities could be construed as pro-people, or even pro-poor. These included blowing up roads and bridges (even with Marcos gone), or operating with landowners to undermine the agrarian reform efforts of government (by intimidating the peasants/tenants/workers who aspired to owning their own land—this in the Bondoc Peninsula, according to reports), or blowing up communication towers and airport construction sites.

While the first-mentioned activity really has no explanation, except perhaps inertia, the reasons for the others were clear: the communists, like some landowners, did not want the agrarian reform program to succeed; and they were punishing businesses which were slow in paying “revolutionary taxes.” And they were quite up-front about it.

But the Surigao del Norte attack, at least according to them, had nothing to do with extortion/tax collection. Rather, they claim that it was to protect the people and the environment from the havoc wreaked by mining operations, especially the indigenous people in the area whose lands were being used without their consent and laborers who were underpaid.

The military/government’s view is that this is all propaganda, and the real reason is that the rebels are punishing the mining companies for not paying revolutionary taxes.

That may be the case, but doubts arise: if all the rebels wanted was money, they could have certainly held the 20 or so Japanese investors/visitors for ransom, not to mention the mine manager and the security head (a retired military man). Neither did they have to try so hard to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, so to speak, by destroying machinery and equipment so wantonly.

Champions of the poor and the downtrodden—that’s the image the NDF/NPA want to promote, and they, alas, might succeed, giving them more leverage in any peace negotiations.

The second issue highlighted by the Surigao del Norte attack is the mining industry itself, and its role in the country’s development. The mining and the environment lobbies are equally emphatic—in diametrically opposite directions. While one side has much deeper pockets, the other side has commitment and dogged persistence in spades.

But we can at least refer to the 2011-2016 Philippine Development Plan (PDP) to see what the government thinks (or says it thinks). And it seems the jury is still out, for there is a lot of hemming and hawing. Significantly, mining is dealt with in both the Industry chapter (Ch. 3) and in the Environment chapter (Ch. 10).

In Ch. 3, mining is cited as one of the key areas for development, along with tourism, electronics and business process outsourcing (BPO). In Ch. 10, though, the reservations start creeping in, with the section on mining titled “…mineral resource development is delivering mixed results.” And it cites a European Union-commissioned study reporting that “legal and illegal mining operations posed serious threat to the forest and to local rivers because of forest clearing and the release of toxins.” The volume of metallic wastes and mine tailings generated from 1990 to 1999 are placed at 131 million metric tons and 136 metric tons, respectively. One wonders where those went.

The PDP also points out in Ch. 10 that “an assessment report of a mining project has indicated that the fair share of the government from mining has not been achieved due to the existing incentive mechanism. Issues have been also raised on sharing of the mining industry with regard to foreign companies as well as the undesirable environmental conditions which the Filipino communities will have to deal with.”

Which brings us to the third issue that the Surigao del Norte attack forces us to take a closer look at: Whether under the Philippine Mining Law of 1995, the government is getting its fair share of mining revenue (remember, that the state owns all those minerals), and if not, what it should do about it. But that will have to wait until my next column. Suffice it to say at this point that Justice Antonio Carpio, in his dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court decision that declared the law constitutional, not only answered with a resounding NO, but went through the arithmetic to prove it (the way he did in the Pimentel-Zubiri case—and of course he was correct).

In the meantime, though, other data are available that will help show the role of mining in the economy, compared with the other “drivers” mentioned in the PDP. Mining employment stood at 169,000 in 2009, accounting for less than one-half of one percent of total employment in the Philippines (employment in BPO was 445,000). The mining industry accounted for 1.1 percent of total GDP in the same year.

But in case the observant reader gets excited about the productivity implications, here’s another piece of information: the incidence of poverty in the mining sector is higher even than in agriculture. So much for the benefits of mining.

[Faeries]

There is a way na mapakita na environmentalist ka without raising any arms but rather through community awareness unsa ka bati ang result sa mining sa environment.

Please support No to mining in Palawan | Save Palawan | Stop Mining | Sign the Petition

[ceden_yu143]

whew, im form claver...waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh..kakuyaw naba diay ani oi..im jaz hoping way nahitabo nga kadaot sa akong mga kaliwat...tsktsktsk..bad cheetah...

[s3xyp1nk]

naay part sa Surigao Del Sur nga protected gyud to pero gihilabtan gyud nila and ilang lang pang bayran ang mga residents didto para dili mo angal.....kanang sa surigao del norte sa claver and other places grabe na gyud na diha kaguba..pahak na ang bukid...dako gyud kaayo ug kita pero mao lage naka guba sad nature..

yup im from surigao del sur and mismo sa amo town naay at least 5 mining companies nag operate...guba na dyud among dagat, among bukid,,pati ang hangin pirti na dyud ka orange sa kaitan.

Kana pud sa Claver, kadugay nas mining companies diha, bag- o pa dyud na simento ang mga dalan diha.

[inxss4]

it can only destroy nature..........

[gareb]

if the NPA did not burn the mining equipments of the Taganito Mine in Surigao del Norte, will be able to see this?

if you want to know what really is happening, watch:

rbgriin3 - YouTube

Section 80 of the Philippine Mining Law, titled “Government Share in Mineral Production Sharing Agreement,” provides the following: “The total government share in a mineral production sharing agreement shall be the excise tax on mineral products as provided in Republic Act No. 7729, amending Section 151 (a) of the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended.”

And how much is the excise tax on mineral products? Two percent on metallic and non-metallic minerals. - 'Mareng Winnie' Monsod: ‘Zero’ share from mining wealth?

only 2% goes back to the government for all mining operations.

[nihao]

there is no such thing as responsible mining!
whatever is taken out of the land cannot be replenished anymore!
mas maau pa ang kahoy kay makatanom pa ug usab nya in due time motubo balik!