On the Pantukan landslide tragedy

We condemn the Aquino government for blaming small-scale mining operations for the Jan. 5 landslide in Pantukan, Compostela Valley, which has resulted in the death of almost 40 people while more than a hundred people are still missing.

The Aquino government refuses to recognize the decades-old large-scale mining and commercial timber operations as the main causes for the destruction of the environment and the resulting landslide in the area. It wants to continue luring big foreign mining and logging corporations into plundering the country’s natural resources.

Aquino’s disastrous policies

Successive tragedies that hit the country since last year – the April 2011 Pantukan landslide, the devastation left by typhoon Sendong in December 2011, and the January 2012 Pantukan landslide – have put to the fore the negative effects of the destruction and plunder of our country’s natural resources.

The Aquino government continues to implement the Mining Act of 1995 which has the general thrust of attracting big foreign mining companies to operate in the country. The law has allowed foreign corporations to have 100% ownership of mining projects, to lay claim to 81,000 hectares onshore or 324,000 hectares offshore of land, and to repatriate their profits, equipment and investments in full.

In Compostela Valley, where there is a huge repository of mineral resources, large-scale logging and mining operations have been taking place since the 1950s and 1980s respectively. Several large-scale mining firms – such as the Nationwide Development Corporation (NADECOR), Napnapan Mineral Resources Incorporated and the US-owned Russel Mining and Minerals Incorporated – are operating in vast areas in Pantukan.

Aquino gov’t promoting dangerous jobs

Small-scale miners, the victims of the tragedy, are poor workers who ignore the dangers of digging small tunnels in order to find mineral deposits just to make a living. One survivor indicated that he will return to mining as soon as he gets well, despite the danger, because there are no other employment opportunities for him. He is echoing the sentiments of other small-scale miners.

Difficult, dangerous and dirty jobs in the mining, construction, and shipbuilding industries are among the jobs that the Aquino government is promoting. There are more than 300,000 people who are employed by the small-scale mining industry. The significant number is a clear indicator of the inability of the economy to provide decent jobs. Also, mining is one of the core industries included in the Philippine Labor and Employment Plan 2011-2016, Aquino’s main economic program.

Junk Mining Act of 1995

We also warn the Aquino government against forcibly dislocating small-scale miners and residents so that large mining firms can fully operate in Pantukan.

We call on the Filipino workers and people to heighten opposition against the entry of large foreign and local mining and logging operations in their communities.

Let us oppose the Aquino government’s policy of liberalization in the mining industry. Let us call for the junking of Mining Act of 1995, which has further led to the sell-out of our national patrimony and the plunder of our national resources.

We reiterate our call to the Aquino government to provide decent employment to the Filipino people – which can only be done by nationalizing industries, such as mining, and implementing genuine agrarian reform.