Wednesday, November 05, 2008 Editorial: Specifics please
WE CAN'T wait for 2010. Not because we love politics, but because there is something happening in our islands that has to be stopped, as soon as possible.
But since we're law-abiding citizens, then we are just rooting for 2010 to arrive fast because of this major industry that the present administration has deemed to help the country leapfrog from being a fast-deteriorating economy and to beating the Asian tigers that have already transformed into dragons and other fire-breathing creatures that can easily raze the still ubiquitous "bahay kubo" the Philippines has been stuck with. In short, mining.
When the village leaders in Davao Oriental are pitted against each other by two contending mining firms, and public relation companies are making a killing by bringing in journalists to cover lumads siding with one or the other, it's about time the whole region reacts as well, to call for a halt to all these, and to assess what are being promised.
One lumad group prefers the local company because its programs are geared toward the development of the community, or so a photo release from one of these public relations companies claims. But what kind of development is this?
We've seen how grateful small villages and even smaller people are just by the visit of a politician-wannabe. We have seen how they have rejoiced and praised a politico to high heavens because of a multi-purpose dryer that can be used as a basketball court, as well. We have witnessed how our politicians huff and puff over their infrastructure projects as if their money was used to build this and they were just giving this as a gift of their benevolence to the people.
We have seen so much of this such that promises of development are regarded with cynicism. Because for as long as we cannot popularize critical thinking on the promises of politicians who only want the small people's votes or big investors who only want the small people's chunk of land, we cannot expect them to be able to protect themselves, their land, and their future.
However, when there are no strict and straight policies on what kind of development should mining companies give in return for the mountains they will flatten and forests they will give the death sentence to, then this can easily become just one multi-purpose pavement for one whole mountain, or one water pump for one whole forest. For as long as there are no strict and straight policies that quantify how much each tree and each undisturbed soil really costs in the long run, then mining companies and their beneficiary communities will see these trees and soil as dispensable items in their communities. For as long as local governments do not stand pat on what their people should receive in giving up their mountains to become vast tracts of dusty terraces, then once operations stop, there will be nothing but ghost towns and poorer communities.
But no. We have kept our mountain communities unable to stand up for their land, their people, and their trees, such that they will appreciate whatever crumbs get thrown their way. And the national government does not really care.
A perusal of the Mining Act will show community development as the development of a mining community where the locals will be part of the mining operations, while those who are not fit, old, or knowledgeable enough will provide the allied services that the law encourages mining companies to patronize.
It is all about building a mining community. Those who hug trees, sing to their anitos, and whose lives are intertwined with what the soil can grow for them and what the forest can give them, will just have to bid goodbye to those ways, hunker down with their picks and hard hats, and line up every week for their wages to compensate for sore muscles and a hundred more dead trees.
