BACKGROUND SITUATIONER
I. Mining Mt. Negron
Decades have passed since the discovery of the Pisumpan Copper deposit in 1972 . According to locals, drilling operations for exploration of the minerals began in the early 1990’s, while Mines and Geosciences Bureau Region III places Pisumpan Copper Mines Inc’s (PCMI) application for a mining permit (MPSA-P-III-8) on April 12, 1991.
PCMI’s registered owner is Juvencio Dizon, one of the major stockholders of Dizon Copper Silver Mines Inc (DCSMI), DCSMI was responsible for the mining of the Dizon Mines in San Marcelino, Zambales. Dizon Mines carved out chunks of the Zambales Mt Range causing the loss of almost 500 hectares of mountain topsoil and the flooding of Ayta villages after mine tailings overflowed into the Mapanuepe lake (Aug 30) and the eventual collapse of the spillway of the tailings dam (Sept 11) during heavy rains that started in July 2002.
The Pisumpan Copper Deposit being applied for has an area of 1,164 hectares and is within the ancestral domains of the Aytas of Porac. As locals would have it, the area that would be mined is located at the very heart of Mt. Negron (Mt. Abo to the Aytas). It is where the Porac-Gumain River springs from, providing water to the Aytas of nearby sitios, traversing down to the irrigated farmlands of Floridablanca and Lubao.
Since 1991, PCMI has been engaging in aggressive outmaneuvering in order to secure different certificates they need for the approval of the mining permit to which the Aytas have also been responding aggressively in registering their disapproval of the project.
Just last March 12, 2011, representatives of PCMI, DENR, NCIP, and other local government units trekked to Brgy. Camias to conduct a consultation with the Aytas for the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment ) of PCMI’s application. PCMI also introduced representatives of Shuley Mine Inc, as one of their mining operators. Streamers made of hand-painted sacks hung all over the community echoing the Ayta’s position on their disapproval of the mining project.
Shuley Mine Inc is owned by Antonio Co who is also, a major stockholder of another mining giant, the Carascal Nickel Corporation (CNC). SMI mined in 2010 the Nonoc Nickel Project in Surigao del Norte and became the 6th largest producer of nickel in the Phil.; CNC, on the other hand, has been mining in Carrascal, Surigao del Sur, making CNC as the 2nd highest nickel producer last year.
II. At What Cost?
A. Aytas
A number of Ayta settlements have put down their roots in the mountains of Pampanga. After surviving the Pinatubo eruption and its aftermath, Aytas journeyed back to their promised land; they rebuilt their lives and are patiently restoring the abundance of their ancestral lands. Presently, Mt. Abo has become a rich part of the Zambales Mountain Range.
Mt. Abo is their food basket from where they gather their consumption needs (puso ng saging, talbos, patikwang, paniki, bayawak, lamiran, musang, litlit, hipon, suso, biya, etc.). Mt. Abo is their farmland where they harvest crops (gabi, ube, saging, papaya, langka, kalabasa, patani) and sell to the sakadora so that they may buy their other needs. Mt. Abo is their pharmacy from where they acquire their medicinal plants. The rivers flowing from Mt. Abo is the main source of water for the Sitios of Liplip, Cuyucot, Patal Apalit, Pasbul, and Brgy. Camias. Water from the river is used for bathing, laundering, and irrigation. On the other hand, the community drinks from the springs surrounding the river. The rich mountains give them life. If the mining prospers, their plight would be no different from fishes dying from dried up rivers.
B. Agriculture and Livelihood
The river springing from the heart of Mt. Abo traverses from the west side of Camias down to Pasbul then continues to the east side of Nabuklod. Its meandering route continues down to the west side of the Basa Air Base and then flows to the irrigated farmlands of Floridablanca and Lubao.
The source of the Porac-Gumain River falls under the area applied for mining; this may cause the drying up of the rivers and springs thereby affecting the peasant communities of Florida and Lubao. Mining causes a phenomenon called AMD, acid mine drainage, as a result of extraction of minerals detrimental acidic elements or particles spread through the air, land, and water. High levels of acidity cause the death of organisms present in the land and rivers.
C. Environment
Porac has a total land area of 34,310 hectares, making it the biggest municipality in Pampanga. The Aytas are currently seeking for the approval of the 17, 659 hectare CADT application, 6.59% of this is under PCMI’s mining application. There are still 3 mining applications awaiting approval in DENR-MGB’s list. If the mining shall push through a larger part of the mountains will be lost and carved out, the empty chunk of Zambales’ Dizon mines will be a very familiar and haunting site for the Aytas and Kapampangans.
The Porac-Gumain River Watershed is the source of water of nineteen barangays with a total alienable and disposable area of 10,634 has. and forestlands of 7,392.97 has. Forestlands surrounding this watershed are covered with natural forests, permanent crops, such as bananas and fruit trees, and thick brush lands. The Pinatubo eruption has taught us how lahar naturally flows from the mountains to the plains by taking the route of the river. Similarly, when over spilling of mine tailings dam happens, or worse, collapsing of spillways and dams, its natural route would be the rivers flowing down the plains, damaging anything and everything that come its way.
We have had unfortunate lessons on the root causes of landslides, soil erosion, and flash floods caused by massive and indiscriminate logging. More than cutting down trees, mining carves out mountains, lessening the soil that would absorb large amounts of water from strong typhoons that come upon us. Mining is a man-made calamity that aggravates effects of other environmental calamities.
III. Defending Mt. Abo
DCSMI signed a MOA with mining giant Benguet Corp. in 1975 before the open-pit mining started operating in 1977. After 17 years of operation, 110, 032, 257 million tons of ore were milled. Benguet Corporation describes the Dizon Mines as one of the successfully mined ore bodies in the Philippines.
Who benefits from “successfully” mined ore bodies?
The people of San Marcelino, Zambales inherited from this “successful” mined ore body a 500-hectare carved out mountain and a 1000-hectare poisoned lake. The Aytas living in the area had to endure the most devastating effects of open-pit destructive mining, the destruction of their homes and source of livelihood.
The Pisumpan Copper Deposit is believed to be 20 M metric tons with a copper grade of 0.41% and a gold grade of 0.6 g/t . SMI boasts that products from their 4,000 hectare Php 82.44 M Nonoc Nickel Project will be 100% exported to their main clients in China . For how long will they continue lure Chinese investors with our minerals? What will become of the Porac-Gumain River? How long shall it take before another breakage of mine tailings dam happen, or a landslide, or a flashflood? What will become of the Aytas’ Mt. Abo?
Mining in the Philippines is a very destructive undertaking. It destroys mountains, wipes out forests, poisons lakes, dries up river systems, acidifies farmlands, damages irrigation canals, erodes lands, demolishes homes, kills people and threatens existing indigenous peoples communities. Wanton destruction is possible because regime after regime, the government sells our mountains for low-cost mineral extraction to ensure the highest superprofits for the foreign mining giants.
Ensuring low-cost mineral extraction means that social, environmental, and ecological costs are kept only to the paper in minute amounts. Superprofits come first before environmental and socio-cultural damage. The foreign mining giants are voracious monsters feeding on our minerals, timber and the sweat and blood of our workers. Their cohorts, the most perseverant implementers of Mining Act of 1995 and the Investors Lease Act race to offer the biggest chunks of the mountain and serve the minerals on silver platter complete with ensured profit schemes and incentives for dessert.
Section 18 of Mining Act of 1995 (RA 7942) states that “all mineral resources in public or private lands, including timber or forestlands…” shall be opened to mining operations. Section 4 of Investors Lease Act of 1993 (RA 7652) states that “any foreign investor shall be allowed to lease lands for a period of 50 years, and renewable once for 25 years.”
The people are left to feed with nothing but spoiled leftovers – damaged river systems, carved out mountains, high levels of acidity in land, water, and air. No land to till or hunt for the IP communities. No rivers to irrigate farmlands. No clean air to breathe. More importantly, lesser minerals for the wise utilization of the generations ahead of us.
Our country is in a total mayhem. Our own rich natural mineral resources are used to worsen our impoverished conditions, cause the death of our people, and are used to rob the future generations. On the other hand, the people who defend our land against exploitation, plunder, and destruction are persecuted.
Brgy. Capt. Bienvenido Capuno was among the staunchest leader of the Aytas of Porac. After two community consultations that registered a disapproval of the project, he was shot dead on September 2005. Since then, military detachments have been a stubborn stain enveloping Ayta settlements in fear, fright, and unrest. At the height of military deployment in mining areas, there were several occasions when time allotted for food gathering was reduced for they were forbidden to sleep in their gasak. Peace was disrupted when members of the community were made to point fingers at each other in fear of ruthless harassments, enforced disappearances, or so as not to compromise their families’ safety.
Through the years, the roads to Mt. Abo have been changing, old logging roads have become constructed roads all in the name of ecotourism, if we let this “development” pass by us, these roads might turn into mining roads or combat trails needed to protect mining interests. The question at hand is, who would really benefit from these roads? Logging companies? Tourists? Land speculators? Developers? Landgrabbers? Mining corporations? The government?
What service would a constructed road bring to the landless Aytas?
Development measured by the amount of minerals extracted or superprofits earned is development in the eyes of voracious foreign mining giants and their profit-greedy cohorts. As long as our mining policy and its implementers have foreign capital as their motive drive, mining aggravates more problems rather than solves them. Corporate social responsibility pushes for more exploitation, plunder, and destruction by prettifying the reality of irreparable environmental, ecological, and socio-cultural damage. If this prevails, we, as a nation shall inherit not only carved out mountains or poisoned rivers, but worse, a murky future darker than the mine tailings they leave behind.
In the eyes of people defending our land, life, resources, and rights, development should be measured on how we as a nation utilize and cultivate our resources to achieve a self-reliant economy with the upliftment of its people from their poverty stricken lives as its motive drive. Development is measured by how much we have given back to the people, our primary riches, not how much we have taken from them.
It is not in taking the last frontiers of our indigenous brothers and sisters but rather in how much have we helped in restoring the abundance of our life-giving mountains. It is not in the confiscation of lands of the farmers but more so in awarding them land to till, that they may harvest and sell their produce at prices that would sustain their needs, not at prices imposed on them by cartels to generate profits. It is in providing for wages that uplift the conditions of workers and security in their jobs, not institutionalizing contractualization or dehumanizing wages dictated by profit-greedy owners.
What good would settle foreign corrupt-ridden debts do to a generation robbed of their future?
Our minerals are ours to cultivate and develop for the benefit of the majority of the people in this generation and that which will succeed us. It should not be used to pay off corrupt-ridden foreign debts in order to amass new and larger debts or finance the greed of the privileged few. This will only materialize when we achieve a time where we mine our minerals based on a systematic, responsive, and planned industrialization policy with the utmost consideration for environmental, ecological, and social costs.
We are challenged to Defend Mt. Abo, Defend our Land and Resources against plunder, exploitation, and destruction.
We are called to make a stand to support the Aytas and other indigenous peoples in defending the mountains and its minerals for wise utilization and cultivation of resources under a self-reliant economy against wanton destruction of profit-greedy, foreign-serving government.
Thanks to Sr. Vangieh for this forwarded email. I just thought of having this posted here in my blog for information purposes.
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