The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth – Phils. (LRC-KsK/FOE-Phils.) is a policy, legal research and advocacy organization that have been working for over twenty years now with indigenous and upland rural communities in asserting their rightful claim over their land and natural resources.

 

LRC-KsK/FOE-Phils. strongly supports the enactment of House Bill No. 6342, now pending before Congress.  House Bill No. 6342 addresses the current policy gaps and statutory inadequacies pertaining to three major aspects of the mining industry: the economics or the benefits from mining, the environmental protection, and the socio-cultural concerns including human rights, free prior informed consent and food security.
House Bill No. 6342 embodies principles that would make mining a viable industry in the Philippines. It maximizes the benefits of the mining industry by first identifying strategic mineral resources which can impel the country’s industrialization without sacrificing the economic benefits from other natural resources, thus, the mining sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product is no longer limited to the export of raw materials.

HB No. 6342 also ensures that economic returns from mining operations clearly outweigh negative impacts while guaranteeing participation of all rights-holders in decision-making processes, and the respect and recognition of community rights and human rights.

HB No. 6342 is therefore responsive to the present and future needs of the country, while addressing the negative impacts of mining to communities and to the environment.

Maximizing Economic Benefits from Mining

Currently, all of the so-called fiscal benefits that government expect from mining investments come from taxes, thus, the government relinquishes the State’s right to the economic value of land, forest, water and mineral resources in favour of the mining industry virtually for free. HB No. 6342 differentiates between taxes and income by clearly providing for sharing among rights-holders based on profit from engaging in the mining business.

Similarly, HB No. 6342 does away with the incentives that grossly favour foreign investments, and instead, maximizes economic benefits from mining by establishing processes and mechanisms that assure Philippine industrialization. This addresses the fact that, between the period of 1997 to 2005, the share of the mining industry in the GDP averaged between 1.1% and 1.2% of total GDP, which mostly comes from exports of mineral resources.

HB No. 6342 more importantly recognizes that other resources also have economic value. Mining as it is practiced now forecloses economic returns from the use of forest, land and water for agriculture, ecotourism, and services. For example, the citrus farms yielding export-quality fruits in Brgy. Papaya, Municipality of Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya – a more sustainable and viable option for the local communities – are under threat from mining operations.  In the municipalities of Midsalip, Labangan and Sindangan, and the Sibugay Province, all in the Zamboanga Peninsula, it is estimated that there will be loss amounting to a total of 2 Billion Pesos worth of annual crop value if the land is dedicated for mining operations.  While the farmers of Calatagan, Batangas are facing legal eviction from the preferential treatment of mineralized lands over agricultural lands.

The Bill also recognizes the costs of externalities in a mining investment, or, in simple economic terms, how the country, in the past and present, has spent more and lost more when we mine than not at all. In the case of the Bagacay mines in Samar, the World Bank will be funding the rehabilitation of the abandoned mine in the amount of 710 Thousand US Dollars. Meanwhile, the short-term rehabilitation of the Marinduque mines is estimated to cost 179 Million Pesos, while the long-term rehabilitation is estimated to cost 162 Million Pesos; while the local government units of Marinduque claim an estimated 51.7 Billion Pesos from Marcopper Mining Corporation in unpaid taxes and damages.

Ensuring Environmental Protection

With HB No. 6342, in realizing that the country is faced with dwindling and finite resources, mineral resource utilization takes on a more holistic view, recognizing that there are other resources that are significantly affected, and sees mining only as part of the entire scheme of natural resources management.  It seeks to correct the major flaw in the Mining Act of 1995 with regard to environmental management in that the latter pegs the value of mineral resources over and above other resources, such as land, water, flora and fauna – which are more necessary, sustainable and economically viable. With this narrow-minded perspective on the exploration, development and utilization of mineral resources, the Mining Act of 1995 sacrifices environmental safeguards in the exploitation of land, water and forests.
 
HB No. 6342 also contends with modern day realities of climate change, resource competition and depletion, pollution, and food crisis, plus factoring the physical characteristics of the country, that is, it is archipelagic and susceptible to typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Up to the present, the people of Marinduque have yet to be compensated from the mining disasters that hit the province at least three times. The waters and lands in Marinduque have yet to be rehabilitated. Meanwhile, Palawan, known as the ‘Last Ecological Frontier’ of the Philippines, is faced with 315 mining applications and 17 approved permits, despite the fact that Republic Act No. 7611 prohibits mining in the province.   The Bill seeks to address these issues and to prevent similar circumstances by establishing concrete and detailed environmental protection, disaster mitigation and risk prevention. It provides for environmental safeguards that could predict risks, while instituting bonds, rehabilitation guidelines, environmental insurance, appropriate fees and penalties. It exacts accountability where accountability should be demanded from.

Not only is the Bill providing for environmental protection, disaster mitigation and risk prevention, but it also seeks to address the legacies of abandoned mines, acid-mine drainage, landslides, and poisoned waters, to name a few. 


Protects and Promotes Human Rights and Community Rights

In accordance to international and constitutional law obligations, HB No. 6342 has also established provisions that mirror the State’s obligations to its constituents. The rights of the people to life, liberty and property; a balanced and healthful ecology; and, a life with dignity, with adequate water and food are paramount under the Bill. Given that militarization and mining operations have been shown to have a direct correlation, the human rights of communities are protected. The Bill thus gives adequate penalties on violations of these human rights, while providing adequate protection for concerned individuals or organizations.

It is also the objective of the Bill to minimize delays and oppositions by establishing good governance mechanisms and processes that respect community rights and ensure equitable benefit sharing among communities, local government units and the State. The Bill thus introduces a new system of natural resource governance that would address the distrust and discontentment of communities affected by mining operations. By recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral domains, the rights of local communities and local government units to direct participation in decision making process, the right to transparency and access to information, benefits and responsibilities are rightfully shared among communities, local government units and the State.

The Bill furthermore provides for the decentralization of functions in natural resource governance, while maintaining that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, now made a specialized, strictly scientific and research government institution, would still have the regulatory functions overseeing the mining industry.  The Bureau has also been separated from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to address the contradicting mandate of the DENR which has clearly contributed to distrust felt by the populace.

 

 

A Time for Change

The policies embodied in House Bill No. 6342 presents to us an opportunity to address the problems of the past and to initiate substantial changes in the mining industry that would truly benefit the country. We thus strongly urge the swift passage of the bill.

 

 

JUDITH PAMELA A. PASIMIO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center,
Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth-Philippines,
41B Mapagsannguni St. Sikatuna Vill.
Quezon City
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel.: (+632) 9281372/ Fax: (+632) 9207172