In defense of mining
overarching conclusion that all mining should be stopped. Unfortunately, this is the overriding philosophy at the DENR. This gross oversimplification cannot and should not be a basis for stopping the mining industry. Running a car, starting a fire, building a house all change the environment.
There is no such thing as a natural state of the environment. The only thing constant in nature is change. Change is a fact of existence. Mountains rise and fall according to geologic changes, rivers change course, forest fires change the landscape and winds change the shape of deserts every day. The argument that everything should go back to a status quo ante is simply illogical because it defies logic and reality. “They killed the mountain” was a persistent refrain of the DENR Secretary, acting out of poetic emotion. The landscape and the earth is changing everyday in spite of the changes initiated by man. Winds, waves, earthquakes, comets hitting the earth all change the landscape and disturb the earth.
Mountains do not live. They are inert. The minerals and metals within the bowels of the earth are needed by people so that humanity that may live and progress. Anyone who claims that we have no need for the fruits of the earth must of necessity be deemed as out- of- touch with reality and probably a crackpot. Farming changes the environment. Construction changes the environment. Establishing fruit orchards changes the environment. Therefore summary closure of mines due to the smallest and sometimes imagined infractions, WITHOUT CHANCE FOR REMEDIAL MEASURES stems not only from an illogical and unrealistic mindset but is also grossly unjust and violative of Constitutional rights and is a criminal abuse of power.
To be sure, there are those that change the environment and cause pollution and environmental degradation. The miners in Compostela Valley and Diwalwal violate every rule for safe and environmentally friendly mining. Mine shafts are created without adequate safety and engineering standards. Poisonous substances such as mercury, cyanide and arsenic are used to separate the precious metals. Collectively, this is a huge endeavour. Why has this not been regulated? Fear is one dominant reason. In those parts, order is enforced through the barrel of a gun. Better to go after legitimate enterprises and get bigger publicity than to risk life and limb in violence prone but grossly pollutive industries in violence-wracked areas.
To claim that the mining industry does not have violators of environmental laws and regulations is to be unrealistic. However, what is needed is a clear set of rules and SCIENTIFIC logic and knowledge, to enforce these rules. There is ample evidence to support claims that rules were set on the fly and revisionist definitions of geological and engineering standards have been employed to support closure. In fact, there appeared to be 2 sets of rules and criteria: one for all others and another for Lopez-owned enterprises.
The anti- mining coalition also seems to be an assortment of neoenvironmentalists, socialist romantics and ideological drifters simply waiting to latch on to any movement as long as it has the buzzwords environment and pollution.
The anti- profit segment of the antimining movement argue that profiteering is the overlying motivation behind mining and that the communities affected do not benefit significantly from the mining activity. This simply is not supported by facts. The law provides for setting aside of social amelioration funds to fund communities affected by mining operations. It is complete fiction to claim that communities directly affected by mining are poorer when mining operations start. The fact is that some socio-civic organizations initiate low-value, low-volume handicraft type activities to be sold on quasi-charity basis in prospective and active mining areas. Mining companies that do not provide the legally mandated amelioration funds DESERVE to be closed. Even in the most backward of mining projects, a guaranteed salary every 15th, 30th or weekly is better preferred than the uncertainties of traditional farming or fishing.
Then there is the anti- capitalist romantic, who believes that profit is evil. These folks are probably remnants of the historically rejected Marxist philosophy. Russia and China, the principal exporters of revolutionary Marxist ideology are now proudly capitalist roaders, complete with huge and often robust stock markets, private ownership and profit. The market driven economy, for all its shortcomings, has yet to see a better alternative. Until then, profit, a tool for capital formation, will be the underpinning motivation for enterprise.
Then there are the ideological drifters, who are really unimportant because they cling to any cause, without grasp of the underlying issues and facts, and who are really intellectual cannon fodder.
In the meantime, an industry directly supporting 236,000 jobs is struggling, with more than 20,000 people out of a job in an instant, not counting their dependents. Export proceeds of about $ 2.8 billion which could be used to pay for our imported fuel needs, is dismissed as unimportant. Capital flight from this madness has contributed in depreciating the peso and shaken investor confidence.
This, of course, is of little consequence to a well-fed, luxuriously housed person whose next most important task is to take a vacation for a retreat in some ashram and contemplate her navel.