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Sunday, April 24, 2005
Mining and minerals open for business
COUNCILOR Pilar Braga, chair of the city council's committee on trade, commerce and industry, said with the Supreme Court's reversal of the ruling on the constitutionality of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, there is no longer obstacle for foreign investors to invest in large-scale mining in the Philippines.
The Philippines' mineral-rich lands are now "open for business" specifically in Mindanao where 80 percent of the country's mineral deposits such as of copper, nickel and gold are found.
"Open for business is granting foreign-owned corporations 100 percent ownership of at lest 81,000 hectares for mining rights including rights for water, timber and easement; and losing our sovereignty over our national territory and resources; and adds more to some 40 percent of the total Philippine territory already covered by FTAA applications of which 11 are foreign-owned corporations," Braga said in her privilege speech in Tuesday's regular session of the City Council.
This, she said, will downgrade the lives of the lumads in the jungles of Mindanao.
"This will spell the President's vision on adding "more jobs, more roads, more bridges, more classrooms and books and computers, and more potable water and electricity for every barangays in the country," she said.
"We can also add to the list: more exploited ancestral lands, more uprooted communities, more opportunities for corrupt Filipino officials, and more massive buy-out of ancestral lands by private corporations with links to foreign mining firms," Braga added.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 24, 2005 issue)
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