A Social Justice Issue

INTRODUCTION

“Mining cannot be at the service of capital but of poverty eradication. It is a social justice issue and it has to be addressed taking into account the country’s mass poverty and gross inequalities."

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The Philippines is “one of the world’s most highly mineralized countries,” says a US Department of State report. Its estimated untapped mineral wealth is worth more than $840 billion – in copper, gold and chromate deposits; other available minerals include nickel, silver, coal, gypsum, sulfur, clay, limestone, marble, silica, and phosphate, according to the same report. This is one of the reasons mining has become a very hot issue.

The debate rages between proponents and critics of the mining industry. The former claim the industry’s contribution to development and defend that mining is the country’s big ticket out of poverty. The latter, which include a great part of the civil society, are concerned with the environmental footprint of the extractive industry and its pernicious effects on the host communities and their habitats, especially the indigenous who are evicted from their ancestral domains to make room for large-scale mining sites.

The Catholic Church has been vocal against current mining practices. The industry has been despoiling the environment. Its contribution to the national economy is almost insignificant and poverty has remained prevalent and, in many cases, has even worsened around mining areas. Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Chairman of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Social Action, comments: “Mining makes more people poor. I’m sure that those who engage in mining have not come to help the poor. They have come to get the resources of the country and if there is any help for the poor, it’s very minimal.”

Both sides sustain that mining should be done in a responsible way but they diverge in its meaning. “Responsible” in the mouth of the powerful mining lobby is a way to sweeten the pill. Because the ecological havoc wrought in biodiversity, farmlands, rivers and shorelines has been too visible to be ignored. Mining effluents threaten farming, water supplies and the very life of the communities. And it is difficult to see how agriculture and ecotourism can thrive in such areas.

The problem is global. A report published recently by the Gaia Foundation and groups including Friends of the Earth International, Grain, Oilwatch and Navdanya in India states: “The catalogue of devastation is growing. We are no longer talking about isolated pockets of destruction and pollution. … Across Africa, Latin America and Asia, more and more lands, rivers and aquifers are being devoured by mining activities. Industrial wastelands are being formed by vast open-pit mines and mountain top removal, and the poisoning of water systems, deforestation, and the contamination of topsoil.”

In a densely-populated archipelago with a precarious ecosystem such as the Philippines, the threats posed by the mining industry have to be carefully evaluated. Where it would be allowed, mining firms must be able to install and operate adequate mitigating measures that will contain the contamination of air and water by toxic wastes and injury to plant and animal life. The government should regulate and monitor the industry.

Last but not least, the government has to get a “fair share” of the revenues generated from the highly-lucrative industry – not just the meager 2% excise tax – so that it can improve the lives of people and boost national economic growth. Mining cannot be at the service of capital but of poverty eradication. It is a social justice issue and it has to be addressed taking into account the country’s mass poverty and gross inequalities. Resources belong to the people now and of future generations.

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