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Marinduque Province, Philippines (view source)
Revision as of 03:23, 13 March 2012
, 03:23, 13 March 2012→Marinduque News
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==[[Marinduque News]]== | ==[[Marinduque News]]== | ||
''' | '''Mining, "Tickets Out Of Poverty"''' | ||
*Source: http:// | *Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/353956/mining-tickets-out-of-poverty | ||
* | *March 12, 2012, 2:00am | ||
:by | :by DR. JAIME C. LAYA | ||
MANILA, Philippines — The recent confrontation between pro- and anti-mining groups led to the promise of a mining policy that is “fair to all.” | |||
The arguments are simple. Mining, says the pros, will create jobs and raise income, generate foreign exchange, reward investors, increase tax revenue. The antis maintain that people will be displaced, environment will suffer and considering human suffering and long-run risks, cost far outweighs benefit. | |||
Our experience is not encouraging. | |||
Decades ago when we had jungles to spare, concessions were issued with the idea that trees will be replanted to replace whatever was cut. The reality was super-wealthy loggers; barren mountains, dry springs and rivers; landslides, flash floods and deaths; cries of “tuuuubig!” | |||
Kennon Road to Baguio used to be a delight. Bued River was rushing blue water, hillsides were forested. After Black Mountain began mining, the river silted up, greenery disappeared and public works crews stood by to clear landslides, free trapped vehicles, fix roads and bridges. | |||
It was worse in Marinduque where my children used to spend summers at my mother-in-law’s beach house. Distributing “tickets out of poverty,” Marcopper Mining dumped poisonous mine waste first into the sea and then into an open pit. | |||
A dam and tunnel cracked, releasing some 1.6 million cu.m. of mine waste into the Boac River via a six-foot high flood, covering settlements, farms, fishponds, and effectively sterilizing an estimated 27 kilometers of river and coastline. Zinc, copper, hydrogen sulfide, nitrous oxide and I-don’t-know-what-else poisoned humans and animals. Highways and bridges were regularly washed away. | |||
And guess who paid for all these. Sure, government got tax and rehabilitation money, but check the result if you add up: (a) cost to taxpayers of relief, rehabilitation, repair, hospitalization and (b) cost to the affected small farmers and fishermen and their families, of property damage, lost income and suffering. All the while, Marcopper officers presumably enjoyed their salaries, fringes, bonuses and profit shares; and stockholders their dividends and capital gains. | |||
The law of supply and demand rules. Third World countries fall all over themselves selling their natural resources to the First World. With high supply, world price sometimes falls so low that in effect countries sell their non-renewable resources practically at extraction cost. On the other hand, they import mining equipment and manufactures using their resource exports. OPEC was wise in managing the price of crude oil—they will have something left after the oil is exhausted. | |||
Mining policy can be fair to today’s taxpayers and future Filipinos with: (a) a well-paid, honest bureaucracy to ensure that mining companies prevent landslides; promptly reforest; keep roads and bridges repaired; ensure purity of streams and aquifers; (b) fees and taxes enough to pay for potential loss or damage to infrastructure and private property and to lives and health; and to provide alternative ways of life to the unskilled aeta/agta, lumad and other cultural communities who populate the places to be dug up; and (c) income-producing assets to replace what the mining companies of this generation plan to sell. | |||
==[[:Category:Marinduque, Philippines Photo Gallery|Marinduque, Philippines Photo Gallery]]== | ==[[:Category:Marinduque, Philippines Photo Gallery|Marinduque, Philippines Photo Gallery]]== | ||