By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
The Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in South Cotabato is every miner’s dream. Many say it is the largest undeveloped copper-gold minefield in Southeast Asia and certainly one of the biggest of its kind in the world, touted to be worth $5.9-billion (about P300 billion).
Since the turn of the millennium, Sagittarius Mines, Inc., or SMI, has been chasing that dream, promising to carry out “responsible mining” once it secures all necessary permits. But in 2010, these ambitions were put on hold by the ban on open-pit mining – the method that SMI claims is the most viable way to extract the minerals from the giant Tampakan project.
Then on May 16, 2022, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board) of South Cotabato railroaded the plenary approval of an amendment to the Environment Code that would effectively lift the ban on open-pit mining.
Clearly, this sly move was orchestrated to happen right after the elections so as to elude condemnation and protest from the voting public, who most certainly would have boycotted the candidacies of SP members behind it.
“There was betrayal here. The future of the province was decided this morning in 15 minutes,” said Marbel Bishop Cerilo Casicas, who was quick to protest the shameless action of the provincial board members.
In a statement sent to Firing Line, pro-environment advocacy group AGHAM said: “It bears emphasizing that thousands of residents would be displaced, five major rivers or tributaries would be contaminated, the only remaining canopy forest in the region would be destroyed, and at least 33,000 hectares of ricefields in Koronadal Valley would be affected.”
“It is also worth stressing that critical individuals have been killed, harassed, threatened, incarcerated, or massacred, including environmentalists and activists, in the course of the struggle to pass the Code and to oppose the destructive project. The victims include the staunch advocate of Envi Code, Eliezer “Boy” Billanes, who lobbied it to the previous local provincial officials,” it added.
Moreover, it is estimated that at least 2,900 natives are bound to lose their ancestral domain, about 800,000 trees cut down, and endemic flora and fauna in the area will be wiped out because 985,730 hectares of watersheds are likely to be contaminated.
Not just environmentalists and church leaders but the true natives of Davao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, and Sarangani are up in arms over this development.
Firing Line calls out you in the SP of South Cotabato who are responsible for this outrage – Board Member Glycel Mariano-Trabado who presided over the SP in the absence of Vice Gov. Vicente de Jesus; Board Member Hilario de Pedro VI, who authored the proposal to remove the ban on open-pit mining, and your colleagues Edgar Sambog, Dardanilo Dar, Noel Escobillo, Antonio Fungan, Eamon Gabriel Mati, Henry Ladot, Rolando Malabuyoc, Alyssa Marie Fale, and Rose Grace Achurra, whose very silence betrayed the trust of their constituents.
* * *SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View. Read current and past issues of this column at http://www.thephilbiznews.com
