Bagwis AY 2021-2022 2nd Sem

6

BAGWIS

OPINION

Condemning GOLD-igging of Graves AUBREY MAYE A. ARRIETA

Friday the 16th is the new harbinger of bad luck as the clamor of the citizenry fell into deaf ears. A stirring pandemonium and rage devoured the populace when the ban for open-pit mining in Tampakan was lifted—May 16, just a single week after the historical national and local elections transpired.

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lear as the scorching sun, this is nothing but a treason to the public as the politicians only feigned their stands against mining just to entice votes during the campaign sorties. To say this is appalling would be an understatement and truth be told, the return of its operation is not a genesis nor a renaissance to dig for the copper and gold but instead a revival of digging graves.

The said lifting of the ban amended the landmark Environmental Code and was approved on second and third reading on the same day of May 16. With these skewed decisions of the provincial legislators, the $5.9 billion Tampakan project, which is Southeast Asia’s largest copper-gold minefield, is no longer plagued by a 12-year-old ban on openpit mining. It only took eleven members of the plenary session to decide for the fate of thousands of people in South Cotabato, not counting the future generation. It is also very disappointing that the decision was made inside the terse 15 minutes neglecting the perennial environmental cost this move brings. We remember the names who unanimously voted to remove the provincial ban without even explaining their stances including Glycel Trabado, the presiding officer, Hilario De Pedro VI, the chief proponent of the proposal to remove the open-pit mining ban,, Dardanilo Dar, Noel Escobillo, Antonio Fungan, Eamon Mati, Rolando Malabuyoc, Henry Ladot, Edgar Sambog,, Alyssa Fale and Rose Achurra.

De Pedro VI, who once stood against mining in Tampakan before the election took place, strongly claimed that the environment code is violative of the 1987 Constitution.

However, Judge Vicente Peña in 2020, the acting presiding judge of Regional Trial Court 11th Judicial Region Branch 24 in South Cotabato, highlighted in a 31-page promulgation that Section 22 (b) of Article II of the Environment Code stating that open-pit mining method shall not be allowed in the province of South Cotabato is not invalid, but rather legal and consistently adheres with DAO (Department Administrative Order) 2017-10, the Local Government Code of the Philippines and above all the Constitution. It

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was Gina Lopez, the late former Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), who issued DAO 2017-10 with the title “Banning the Open-pit Method of Mining for Copper, Gold, Silver and Complex Ores in the Country.” But with her removal in the DENR office, much has really changed and the lifting of the ban for open-pit mining in our province is not an exception. Those with a vested interest in seeing the exploitative industry revived in South Cotabato, have certainly not been silent.

The economists consistently said that the continuation of open-pit mining in the region will attract more investment and generate more jobs and other business opportunities for the area. The DENR projected that the reoperation of this type of mining in the whole Philippines would generate ₱11 billion combined in yearly government revenue and would give jobs to more 20,000 people living in remote municipal areas.

By the numbers, these are enticingly good but its cost will inevitably bring grave plight to the environment and its inhabitants. The economic boost and employment are just mere ornaments to blind us from the perpetual environmental destruction it brings to people.

The tons of money will never outweigh its environmental consequences for decades to come knowing the nature of open-pit mining.

Mineral resources, including metallic ores, coal, petroleum or others, are limited; once removed, they can no longer be replaced. Harvesting these resources means doing substantial damage to the environment. Even if the damage is prudently managed and remediated when mining activities conclude, the local environment is eternally and irreversibly altered. To this, its very nature exempts no one. To think that the open-pit mining in Tampakan has an estimate area of about 10,000 hectares covering the boundaries of four provinces (South Cotabato, Sarangani, Davao del Sur and Sultan Kudarat), mostly forests and a substantial portion under the ancestral domains of indigenous peoples, is already appalling how much more if the effects come into reality. Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM), a

nongovernmental organization, said that if the project pushes through, thousands of residents will be required to resettle, five major watersheds face contamination, and at least 33,000 hectares planted to rice in the Koronadal Valley will be affected. Reports in 2007 and 2008 have cited that the planned mining operation would lead to the pollution of the nearby downstream Lake Buluan and upstream Liguasan Marsh, causing detrimental effects to farmlands and fisheries and extremely affecting the food source for the Muslim and indigenous populations all the while destroying their livelihoods. According to both reports, the Blaan people’s failure to provide their free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), which is required by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, was cited as a major reason for opposition.

While it was music to the ears when SC Governor Reynaldo Tamayo vetoed the Sangguniang Bayan’s decision and now the veto was sustained, one cannot call this for a full celebration for this is only in the local arena—five months ago, the DENR canceled the nationwide prohibition on open-pit mining put in place in 2017. Should the present regime realize that the economic boost of this mining operation will never outweigh its aftermath to environmental preservation. Should we listen to the environmental scientists in saving this environment for there is no other Earth.

Otherwise, we will be deemed obsolete. This publication will continue to sail their boats against the rapids of politicians’ skewed decisions involving climate and environmental injustices.

Again, the return of its operation is not a genesis nor a renaissance to dig for the copper and gold but instead a revival of digging graves. So long as the narrative of open-pit mining in the country has not fully ended, the revival of digging graves will still have a story to tell.

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BAGWIS

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OPINION

7

Only time will tell Clear sthrcseer hee

or some of the Filipino citizenry who once sacrificed their lives that they opted to start a revolution to oust a dictatorial and constitutional authoritarian regime, and for those who were firsthand victims of an unruly and gruesome administration of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. some five decades ago, the turnout of the 2022 presidential elections on the 9th of May 2022 was a nightmare.

However, for some majority– 31 million to be exact– of the Filipino electoral populace, it was a genesis of another ‘golden era,’ one coined from a sheer myth in the past, as the namesake of Ferdinand Marcos comes back to Malacañang Palace. Up until now, it still remains a question: are the Filipino people finally experiencing a renaissance of the golden era or are they digging their own graves? And the answer, only time and future can tell.

Even though it was clear that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was the chosen president of the majority, and the voice of the majority is what characterized democracy in the country, his political victory was still a question to many.

Bongbong’s utilization of media as his political machinery to portray a good and a character that of a sheep, and to disseminate disinformation especially pertaining to his education, political accomplishments, to the human rights violations committed by his family especially during his father’s administration, and his supporters attack by spreading black propaganda against his opponents, it all created a chamber of uninformed and misinformed Filipino voters who voted for him. Not to mention, even with his succeeding absence in various presidential debates where he could clear the controversies attached to his surname, and his personal issues as well, and where he could also present his platforms and programs before the very Filipino constituents of the country, the electorates shied all of these away instead, and in lieu, elected him to power.

It would forever be written in the history of the Philippines that in September 21, 1972, when President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. at the time’s second presidential term ending proclaimed martial law in the country by the virtue of Proclamation No. 1081. If it was because of the highly emerging insurgence of communist movement in the country or his personalistic interest to stay in power, only Marcos Sr. could tell, but historical accounts such as his conduct of referendums and the ratification of a new constitution, all endeavoring to legitimize and make his unconstitutional regime constitutional are living proofs of why martial law was declared.

It would as well never falter that in 1986, a mere housewife, Corazon Aquino, who later ascended to the presidency, led a revolutionary

LEONARD TUCJAYAO

ILLUSTRATION BY SHARIF RYAN BELDIA

government that cemented the sufferings of the Filipino people over the repercussions of the dictatorial regime of Marcos, and thereby paving the way for the Filipino people reclamation of democracy.

But things all went down the drain when in 2016, a populist Mindanaoan pride, Rodrigo Duterte, rose to power, which later in 2022, as a family friend of the Marcoses, and as his daughter, the former mayor of the city of Davao, gave influence to the comeback of another Marcos in Malacañang. Today’s end, it was not only that Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos’ surname is Marcos and that his father had stayed in presidential power for 21 years that brought back another Marcos to power, but it was because the political paradigm of the country was extremely characterized by a culture of patron-client, factional relationship, and padrino system, and such current political phenomenon in the country was manifested by the ever strengthened Marcos-Duterte relationship.

With the aegis of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the threat for a repeat of martial law during the regime of Marcos Sr. would not be feasible. Hence, it would never be an option for the brand new administration. In turn, Bongbong’s regime would only be characterized into two: a victory, and its opposite, failure.

The country is in dire need for a realization of what he’s promised in his conduct of campaign sorties, that he would stand in the frontline sa pagbangong muli, as their political slogan asserted. However, with the opposite of success, all might have been a political ploy for their selfserving interest: bringing back their name in the palace, and distorting history by the trade of cleansing their names. With such hypotheses, it would then be clear as placid river waters that they took advantage of the people, and utilized them as a machinery for the achievement of power. For the time being, the year 2028 will only tell.

While it may have been the voice of the majority and the primary characteristic of democracy, the call for a collective action to respect the decision of the country’s electoral populace should still be upheld, however, with certain conditions. Bongbong’s camouflage of a sheep amid election campaign period should not only remain as is as he tries to advance forward the best interests, not of his political patrons and clients and not of his own, but of the Filipino people. Should Bongbong be the messiah that saves the Filipino people from the enslavement of poverty, and social inequalities, or should he be the incarcerator that pushes them on their own digged graves, only time will tell.