Yet Another Mining Issue

By: Julius Caesar G. Domingo/LLB-3

What is the noise in Nueva Vizcaya as regards mining? Is there one or there is none? It depends on who
you are, I suppose. People are said to be classified into three categories those who make things happen,
those who wait for things to happen, and those who ask the question what happened?
Mining
Wikipedia.com defined Mining as the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the
earth from an orebody, lode, vein, seam, or reef, which forms the mineralized package of economic interest
to the miner
The nature of mining processes creates a potential negative impact on the environment both during the
mining operations and for years after the mine is closed
The oldest known mine on archaeological record is the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland, which radiocarbon
dating shows to be about 43,000 years old
Mining in the Philippines began around 1000 BCThe early Filipinos worked various mines of gold, silver,
copper and iron. Jewels, gold ingots, chains, calombigas and earrings were handed down from antiquity
and inherited from their ancestors. Gold dagger handles, gold dishes, tooth plating, and huge gold
ornaments were also used.
The data above about mining are good to know, and I bet, very few of us are aware of these information yet
we have our own advocacy about mining. To a layman plying his trade or simply watching the hours pass
by in Nueva Vizcaya, mining is simply the extraction of gold from the earth -nothing more nothing less. To
a lettered individual, however, the definition of mining becomes a concept of benefit and destruction and is
not limited by gold alone.
Fact or Fiction
The reality is that the mining companies operating in Nueva Vizcaya are legitimate entities with sufficient
expertise and financial capital to operate underground or open-pit mines for maximum efficiency. These are
multinational companies whose shares of stocks are traded in various stock exchanges worldwide. They
likewise are holders of legitimate Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAAs) or exploration
permits.
On the one hand, it is a fact that the mineral-rich mountainous regions of Nueva Vizcaya where mining is
undertaken is home to a number of indigenous people for hundreds of years. They may have been in those
areas even before our country became known as the Philippines and may have their means of obtaining
the rewards of the earth through indigenous methods of small-scale mining. Most of these people preferred
to live by their traditional ways and preserve their culture while others explored beyond the green linings of
the mountains to find solace in the towns and cities of the plains. Most are educated by nature and
experience in the mountains while others took the road less travelled and are educated in the classrooms.
The inevitable clash is therefore foreseeable, the pro-mining and the anti-mining groups. The collision
between the liberal-minded and the conservative is an overdue phenomenon in Nueva Vizcaya. It is a
virtual war of Profit and Utilization of Nature versus Preservation and Non-Destruction of Nature.
We hardly hear about the beneficial effects of mining on the local communities in particular and the
Province of Nueva Vizcaya in general. But the adverse effects of mining is virtually everywhere television,
radio, newspapers, and the almighty facebook and twitter. Could it be that information is not balanced as to
the adversarial issues on hand, thereby depriving the layman and the majority of persons who ask the
question what happened? the much needed feedback to form ones opinion and take the morally
acceptable sides? Shall we be swayed by the noise of the anti-mining or the silence of the pro-mining?
Someone said that a lie when constantly repeated, becomes the truth. What is the truth and what is fiction
therefore?
What are the Issues?
Is there a legitimate noise for or against mining in Nueva Vizcaya? Again, it depends on who you are and
where you are.
There are a-thousand-and-one issues about mining and there are seventy-seven-times-seven ways to
examine and interpret them. Is it worthwhile to talk about them? It always pays to know the truth, but the
truth may prove to be the same as the unending search for the Holy Grail. Whom are we to believe as
telling the truth about mining in Nueva Vizcaya - the media, the politicians, the church, the various groups
and organizations purporting to represent the oppressed, the government, the barber, the drinking buddy,
or the internet? Perhaps none of them is telling the absolute truth for each has its own interest to protect.
Not that they are untruthful in their advocacies, but by not telling everything, they are technically truthful in
what they said. Withholding information is not synonymous to telling a lie but surely is morally questionable.
Therefore, knowledge of the very basic of things in mining is the key to understanding mining itself. If we
immediately jump into the chapters of the real issues such as ecological destruction, financial benefits,
long-term effects to the environment, rather than learn the basics, then we are as good as the uneducated
fool. We have seen nature and its abundance but few of us have seen the site of a mining operation. Is it
really a disgusting place and are trees cut with reckless impunity? Are toxic chemicals really let loose in the
waterways without control? Are the mining companies really the culprit for the disappearance of wild
animals? Is there really such a thing as safe and sustainable mining operations? If we are not certain of
how informed we are, then, simply, we are as good as the uneducated fool.
The truth is undisputable, mining destroys the ecology and the natural order of things in the place of
operations, for that is the nature of such operations, the need to destroy some to gain some. There is a
need to clear the surroundings and open up the earth to extract some mineral contents. It is akin to a
typical medical operation where the skin is opened to access the ailing body part.
Whether we are pro-mining or anti-mining, there is no question that the location of a mining operation will
never be the same again. It unfortunately gets degraded and will never be upgraded no matter what the
projects or activities undertaken to soften the effect of such exploitation. But it is a necessary effect of
development - a bitter pill that needs swallowing according to the pro and a pill that needs discarding
according to the antis. Who is right and who is wrong? Only time can tell.
The genuine contentions of the pros and antis have since mutated into an anything-possible legal and
lethal drama. Courts were flooded with cases, deaths were reported, and violations of human rights were
typical local news. From politics, corruption, human rights, peace and order, insurgency, luyot, private
army, tax evasion, territory, and a whole lot more. The tentacles of the controversies have indeed muddled
the main issues.
There seems to be no perfect local solution available soon to the myriads of problems of mining in Nueva
Vizcaya. Because even the 1987 Philippine Constitution allows large-scale mining activities to happen, it is
not an issue in Nueva Vizcaya alone but rather is national in character. A local solution to a national issue
seems to be the unpopular and the least adhered to approach. It is just not effective, so the national
leaders seem to believe, in view of their attitude towards mining.
In Article XII Section 2 of the Constitution, it is emphasized that the exploration, development, and
utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State. The President
may enter into agreements with foreign-owned corporations involving either technical or financial
assistance for large-scale explorationbased on real contributions to the economic growth and general
welfare of the country. The framers of the Constitution elevated the economic contributions of mining
activities to a higher level national, rather than local. Hence, generally, the locals are disregarded for the
greater benefit of the more than 90 million Filipinos nationwide. Will there ever be even a temporary
stoppage to the already commenced mining activities in Nueva Vizcaya? Only time can tell for surely, the
mining companies in Nueva Vizcaya, owing regularity of their operations to their shareholders, have
complied with all environmental and legal hurdles. Any arbitrary intervention by the government detrimental
to these operations may definitely cost the Philippines dearly in the international arena.
What is Miningreally?
It seems that mining is not simply just the extraction of gold from the earth -nothing more nothing less.
Mining continues to prove that it is a complex problem and gamble, and whether the government, in
granting the FTAAs, will be judged right or wrong is dependent upon the outcome of the mining activities -
the benefits are greater than the costs or vice versa. We may not even be around by then for the final
modification of the sides we have since taken, if indeed we are proven wrong. But as of now, we can only
argue and take sides anti or pro, and hope that we have made the right and morally acceptable decision
of our time.
So, shall we make things happen, or wait for things to happen, or remain to be asking the question what
happened? Your guess is as good as mine. Mining is indeed a concept as deep in the minds to conquer as
the minerals are inside the earth.
A medieval general was claimed to have said:
Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a
patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the
blood, just as it narrows the mind.
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and
the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry.
Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their
rights unto the leader and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done.
Are we hearing the drums of war? Is there noise in Nueva Vizcaya?
- o 0 o -

Submitted by: Julius Caesar G. Domingo
LLB-3

Submitted to: Judge Charlotte Fraulein F. Garcia-Lambino
SMU College of Law

February 15, 2014