Not Only Illegal Drugs But also Destructive Mining have been Tolerated in PNoys Term?

Not Only Illegal Drugs But also Destructive Mining have been Tolerated in PNoys Term?

Former President Benigno Aquino III

The controversy in the mining sector is claimed to have started when former President Aquino III issued his Executive Order No. 79 or popularly the Mining EO. The controversial EO was met by protests by different advocate groups and claiming the EO is deceptive in favor of Big Mining Firms. They also Claim that Aquino administration wants bigger cut from foreign stake holders.

Bayan says the new EO is “a victory for the big mining firms and a dud as far as the people are concerned.”

They said the EO is a “reaffirmation of existing anti-people and pro-imperialist policies embodied in the Mining Act of 1995,” the law which groups have blamed for “plunderous” mining operations in the country. Bayan points out that the EO essentially validates existing contracts, 24% of which has been entered into by the Aquino government.

In a special Documentary by Reporters Notebook of GMA entitled "Bayan ng Mina"

The status of the mining industry has reach 1.3 Trillion Pesos worth of minerals have been mined in the country.

There are 45 Large Scale Operating Metallic Mines and 7 of which is in Surigao del sur dubbed as the mining capital of the Philippines.

The environmental destruction where showed in footage mountains rivers and forests destroyed as a result of irresponsible mining for the past years.

Aquino’s signed executive order on mining uses “elegant language” and terms that sound like it is attending to the wounds inflicted by the old Mining Act of 1995. But various sectors and environmentalist groups are not fooled.

Allies of the Kalikasan Partylist trooped to Mendiola Bridge near Malacañang to hurl rotten eggs at a smiling picture of President Aquino. He had not only signed what the protesters describe as a “masterfully deceptive” executive order, he has also been openly promoting large-scale mining despite the growing peoples’ protests.

(from an article by Maria Salamat)

According to Ibon Foundation, the EO shows that the national government merely wants a bigger cut from foreign exploitation of Filipino mineral resources.

“The mining Executive Order (EO) which outlines a new set of mining policies, seeks to undermine the authority of local governments and of communities to regulate mining operations in their jurisdictions in the shallow monetary interest of national government for a greater share in mining revenues,” says Ibon.

Katribu Partylist, a group of indigenous people, said the directive have offered “no considerations for indigenous peoples’ rights,” many of which are being displaced by large scale mining activities.

“The new E.O fails to recognize the clamor of different sectors to nationalize the country’s mineral industry. Liberalized mining will continue to devastate our sacred lands, sow division and disunity among our tribes and worsen our poverty situation,” says Kakay Tolentino, spokesperson of Katribu. 

(Philippine Online Chronicles)

To simplify it in a nut shell the Mining EO which supposed to regulate the mining sector has been tainted with controversy that it actually allowed the Big Multimillion Companies to take advantage of the Mining EO of PNoy while it increased profits for the administrators it alienated other stake holders resulting to the massive environmental damage and social injustice to indigenous people, environmentalists, and the Filipino people.