Tag Archives: Nueva Vizcaya mining

komentaryo

Mines are ours

It is difficult to stay calm when you’re watching the Commission on Appointments proceedings for the confirmation of Gina Lopez as Environment Secretary. It doesn’t help that at the center of it all, the Chairman of the Committee for the Environment is Manny Pacquiao who, without a script, reveals himself as utterly incompetent and totally lost — he can’t even keep up with the concept itself of what the DENR does, the laws that it protects and moves within, the fact that these mines were are talking about actually have a history of violence against the community and of environmental degradation.

Ah, but Pacquiao has the Bible, from which he quotes: “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land <…> a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.”

So therefore daw, mining is okay.  (more…)

komentaryo

Oceana Gold: history, abuse, mining

If I owned a mining company in the Philippines, and my mine was declared closed or suspended by the new leadership of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), I would fight back.

I would fight back with transparency. After all, I demand it of the DENR audit; I should be able to expect it of my own mine. I would release all information on the operations of the mine, and I would allow the community, scientists and academics, media, government officials, to enter my mines, study my operations, and look at the environment that surrounds it. I would answer questions that have been asked all these years. I would be thankful for those years when the DENR didn’t care enough, and accept that regulation is now the name of the game. I would up and leave.

I wouldn’t operate like it’s business as usual, while the suspension is in place. That would be foolish, when the nation’s eyes are on the mining sector.

But then again, I’m not Oceana Gold which, despite years of protests, countless studies and reports, and now a suspension order, continues to operate (Bulatlat.com, 3 March) like it hasn’t done anything wrong at all. (more…)