ANGELES CITY- Malacañang’s new mining policy under Executive Order No. 79 merely grants monopoly to existing miners already operating in wide areas within the 78 sites identified as protected for eco-tourism.
No less than 12,000 hectares of such areas are already being mined by big companies, mostly for black sand or magnetite, said Salvador France, vice chairman of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya).
“The protection being hyped by Malacañang on 78 identified sites in the new mining policy is just a dime-a-dozen propaganda,” he said.
France said EO 78 merely eliminates small scale miners, thus allowing monopoly for big mining companies.
He noted that earlier, Environment and Natural Resources Sec. Ramon Paje said that under EO 79, existing mining contracts would be honored, although his department would review them.
France said in Cagayan province alone, which is one of the 78 sites listed for protection, “some 12,000 hectares of coastal areas are currently being mined for black sand, while the entire stretch of Lingayen Gulf covering Northern Zambales, Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte are deluged with black sand mining applications.”
He noted that magnetite operations are also pervasive in Zambales and Pangasinan, where about 159 magnetite mining applications are also pending.
“Many of the so-called eco-tourism and biodiversity sites were given nominal protected status just to discourage small-scale fishing to pave way for the monopoly of offshore and onshore mining giants either for oil and gas or magnetite mining,” said France.
He lamented that “while EO 79 declared the coasts of Cagayan and Lingayen Gulf, the whole of Visayan Sea, the regions of Western, Central and Eastern Visayas, Negros Islands, the Palawan Sea and Tawi-Tawi as protected areas, black sand mining and offshore mining for oil and gas explorations are already prevalent in wide portions of the areas.”
The new order from Malacañang, he noted, would not affect their operations as it provides honoring the contracts they had signed with the government. “The exemption made by Malacañang is deceptive and bereft of truth,” said France.
The new EO 79 has also suspended the issuance of permit for any new mining applications until Congress passes a new revenue sharing scheme that is more advantageous to the government.
France expressed fears that the issuance of such a scheme by Congress could lead to the approval of 107 offshore mining applications in Eastern Visayas, including those for magnetite mining.
He noted that the Nicua Mining Corp. in Lake Bito in Leyte “is now object of strong community protest due to fish kill and poisoning of agricultural lands.”
France said “over 10 million hectares of ocean waters in Palawan and other areas near the disputed West Philippine Sea are open to oil and gas exploration companies.”
“In Sulu, the ExxonMobil group had started oil and gas search courtesy of the $ 110-million offshore mining project,” he added.
“Another casualty of the new mining policy are the small-scale miners, whom the government wants to eliminate, and the local government units who are now deprived of their power to act on their interests in the mining industry,” he said.
France said the new mining policy “merely raises the commissions usually received by political groups in power through increase in royalties, but does not stop large-scale mining and exportation of the country’s mineral wealth.”
