* This is my article in BusinessWorld on May 02, 2017.
What Ms. Lopez will likely do among others, if she is confirmed by the Congressional Commission on Appointment (CA) as DENR Secretary:
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
Secretary, Ms. Gina Lopez, created a stir with the issuance of DENR AO
(Administrative Order) No. 2017-10, banning all prospective “open-pit method of
mining for copper, gold, silver, and complex ores.”
To be excluded in her AO are existing open-pit mining
(OPM) of metals, existing quarries, and prospective quarries for non-metallic
products like granite, marbles, and limestone.
The reason for the new order is that OPM by large
metallic firms is destructive to the environment and that the method is already
being avoided by many countries around the world.
This is not true, for three reasons.
One, almost all forms of deforestation or land conversion
from forest to non-forest uses (agriculture, housing, commercial and industrial
development, road construction, quarrying of non-metallic products, etc.)
create damage to the natural environment and yet only large metallic mining is
singled out.
Two, OPM concentrates metallic extraction in a few
thousand hectares of land and spare millions of hectares of reservation from
further disturbance and extraction.
Three, OPM continues to be practiced in many countries including developed ones like the US, Australia, Sweden, and Canada. Because mining firms and their stockholders earn substantial incomes, their governments get huge tax revenues, and many workers get long-term high-paying jobs.
What Ms. Lopez will likely do among others, if she is confirmed by the Congressional Commission on Appointment (CA) as DENR Secretary:
1. Enforce and implement the closure of 22 large metallic
mines and continue hiding the results of their so-called “audit” as basis for
such closure order. This is because the Mining and Geosciences Bureau (MGB)
conducts a quarterly review of all mining firms based on technical criteria and
its 4x a year assessment produce no recommendations of large-scale mine closure
while the Secretary’s “audit” seems to be based on emotional criteria, hence it
remains hidden.
2. Continue turning a blind eye on plenty of small-scale
miners which operate more destructive open-pit mines to extract gold. About 80%
of all gold purchases by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) are sourced from
these small scale mines as gold output by large metallic mines is limited owing
to regulations and prohibitions, if not outright closure orders.
3. Enforce and implement DENR AO 2017-10.
4. Create new AOs in the future that will ban and close
existing OPM, producing another round of “audits” justifying such closure
orders.
To avoid these and other uncertainties in the industry,
the CA should consider rejecting her appointment. Let the President appoint a
new DENR secretary.
The main purpose of government is to lay down rules and
implement laws that apply to all, to institutionalize the rule of law that
apply equally to unequal people and players,that exempt no one and rulers are
prevented from making exemptions. Giving rulers and in this case a Cabinet
secretary, the power to make exemptions is tantamount to the rule of men that
despise the rule of law.
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See also:
BWorld 122, Six more myths in the mining debate, April 13, 2017
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