The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez is on a roll.
After ordering the closure of 23 and the suspension of five other mining firms recently, the Department of Energy and Natural Resource on Valentine’s day last week ordered the cancellation of 75 mining contracts operating in watershed areas.
These mining contracts are known as Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA).
“In this country, all open-pit mining operations are being done in a watershed. You cannot mine in a watershed. This should never be allowed,” she said.
Watersheds are land areas that channel water to a particular location, such as rivers, lakes, ocean or other bodies of water.
These water bodies supply our drinking water, water for agriculture, manufacturing and provide habitat to numerous plants and animals. Mining and erosion can interfere with the health of the watershed. Therefore, it is important to protect the quality of our watershed.
That is why we are puzzled why these mining companies were allowed to operate in protected areas, in the first place.
We believe the secretary is right when she ordered the closure of these mining firms because these companies were wreaking havoc on the environment. The government should have done that a long time ago. However, there is a saying in the vernacular: ‘Huli man daw at magaling, naihahabol din.’
By ordering the closure of irresponsible mining companies, we are avoiding another major mining disaster from happening. We should learn from the past.
As mentioned in a previous column, the government should look at what happened in the aftermath of the Marcopper Mining tragedy in Marinduque province and the Philex Padcal mine leak in Benguet. These disasters have various far-reaching environmental and economic consequences.
The Boac River is dead. The marine life there has all but completely disappeared. Fishermen lost their livelihood.
In the case of Philex Padcal mines, we recall that at the height of the southwest monsoon season a few years ago, the tailings pond of its mine in Itogon, Benguet, gave way.
Dubbed the “biggest mining disaster in the country,” the leakage dumped 20 million metric tons of mine wastes into nearby water channels. One of the hardest hit was the San Roque Dam on Agno River.
The dam is a 1.2-kilometer reservoir connected to the province of Benguet and is operated by the corruption-plagued National Power Corporation.
The dam provides significant benefits in the North Luzon economic growth quadrangle.
For one, it provides year-round irrigation to more than 700 square kilometers of farmland in the provinces of Pangasinan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija.
The dam also helps reduce floods brought about by the overflow of the Agno River. It likewise improves the quality of water in the lower Agno River by trapping sediments caused by erosion from sources like mining.
An independent multi-sectoral fact-finding body led by the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines and the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (CBCP-Nassa) came up with the following conclusions:
(1) The integrity of the Philex Padcal Tailings Pond 3 is suspect. It has a life span of 18-20 years and should have been de-commissioned in 2010. It is also crisscrossed by fault lines.
(2) The Philex mine tailings spill of 20.6 million metric tons is of unprecedented proportions. It is 1,300 percent higher than the Marcopper accident in Marinduque.
(3) Philex’s claim that its mine tailings are biodegradable is likewise questionable.
It may be good for Secretary Lopez to check what the DENR did before her time to address all of these issues.
We understand that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the DENR ordered Philex mining to pay a fine of P1.034 billion, is that it? Experts say that amount was peanuts compared to the damage done to our environment.
Who will be held accountable for the possible power shortage due to the dam’s reduced hydroelectric power generation capacity?
Who will be answerable for the loss of year-round irrigation benefits emanating from the dam to farmlands in Luzon? Worse, the water itself could already be contaminated by mine tailings causing health hazards to consumers.
Who can we blame if the San Roque Dam fails to mitigate floods with the overflow of the Agno River?
We should carefully monitor the actions of these mining companies and back the initiatives of Secretary Lopez against these irresponsible miners because we are precisely the ones who would be greatly affected.
We believe President Duterte should continue to support Lopez. Seldom do we see an Environment secretary who is willing take up the cudgels for the sake of our hapless countrymen and who is not intimidated by big-money interests.