The Diwata Mountains span a good portion of Eastern Mindanao's interior.From Surigao del Sur Province in the north all the way through Agusan del Sur and ComVal (Compostela Valley) Provinces heading south until finally they slope down onto the fertile plains of Davao del Norte Province.Mount Diwata itself sits on the southern portion of the range,in the municipality of Monkayo in ComVal Province.Home to four Lumad Tribes ("Lumad"is a generic term for all Malayan Animist Hilltribes on Mindanao):
1) Manobo
2) Mandaya
3) Mangguangan
4) Dibabawon
These tribes have inhabited that part of the mountain range since time immemorial.Though gold has been produced and traded there almost as long it didn't adversely effect members of these four tribes until the early 1980s.In August of 1980 Mandaya Tribesmen Datu Camilo"Kamini"Banad began gold panning at a newly discovered site called Bayugan III in the town sharing that name in Agusan del Sur Province.By New Year of 1983 the drought effecting most of the island caused the water levels in the Bayugan River to drop so low that even a manual endeavour like panning for gold became nearly impossible.Holding on as long as he could,by March of that year Banad was forced to return to his home village along the Naboc River in the municipality of Monkayo in the neighbouring province of Davao del Norte,in what is today ComVal,or Compostela Valley Province.
After a non-productive spring and summer Datu Banad decided once again to try his luck panning for gold,beginning in August,this time on the Naboc River itself.Not finding very much of anything he recalled that as a youth,in 1973,he had served as a guide for two Japanese treasure hunters and a Filipino engineer,as they scoured the mountains searching for promising finds.He recalled that on the day their expedition ended they had all been well up river,atop a plateau near the PICOP depot in Sitio Balite.PICOP,or Paper Industries Corporation,held logging concessions over much of Northern Mindanao,feeding their huge paper plants in the neighbouring Region of Caraga.On the day in question the Japanese and their engineer had agreed that 2 kilometers upriver from the depot there was a rich vein of gold.Remembering the conversation Banad resolved to begin searching up river.
On September 21st,1983 Banad and 2 of his fellow villagers,Benjamin Wenceslao and Eugenio"Boy"Avila set off downstream,to throw off the persistent village stragglers who always followed him as he panned the Naboc River.After trekking a considerable distance the three men cut into the jungle and reversed course,upriver,but walking far inland from their village.Reaching the targetted area Datu Bamad instructed his 2 companions to spread out and the three began prospecting.Panning for gold is an incredibly simple process though the actual mechanics,like most any physical act,take a bit of practice.Working on the premise of gravity,using a flat tin pan,a miner scoops up river sand or gravel with just a modicum of water and swirls the contents at a 45 degree angle.By holding it at an angle the heavier sediment in the pan will sink to the bottom.Tipping out the water and excess sediment one keeps swirling the pan's contents until,if one is fortunate,they are left with an iota of gold,usually as dust.Though gold is sometimes found in rivers and creeks,this can only happen when a vein of gold,a large underground deposit of mixed ore,is shattered,exposed to rain or underground streams and then,just as in panning,gravity does the rest.
At the first target site all three men quickly came up with gold dust but because it was late in the day they decided to pack it in and return to their village,after first swearing each other to secrecy.Early the next day,September 22nd,the three men once again feigned as if heading down stream and then retracing their steps made their way to the productive site of the previous day.Again coming up with gold dust rather quickly,Banad decided to try and find the source,the shattered vein of gold.Continuing upstream they eventually passed the now abandoned PICOP depot where Datu Banad had first heard those words 10 years before.Panning again this time their gold dust had large flecks interspersed throughout it,a sure sign that the men were moving in the right direction.In fact,panning was so good that the three decided to bed down for the night so as not to lose the great progress they had made thus far.The next morning,September 23rd the thee men set off before daybreak and began steadily climbing in elevation as they followed the river which had narrowed considerably in the long trek.Before long the river,now little more than a creek,split into 4 feeders,showing the group that they were making progress in their search for the river's headwaters.Now the men panned every other hour and always they achieved more positive results than they had in their previous try.
Walking two hours from where the Naboc River had split into four feeders they reached a high plateau ringed with steep cliff faces.Just past noon they reached the edge of Sitio Balite,an unihabited stretch of jungle that PICOP had just vacated after four years of heavy logging.Just above the plateau was a PICOP bridge,spanning what was now a slow moving,single creek.Not too far away was the PICOP bunkhouse which had quickly fallen into disuse.Here the three men panned again.Starting in sand they were excited to find small nuggets in eack try.Next they tried the creek's gravel bed and there too they found decently sized gold nuggets.It was clear to Banad that the PICOP logging road had been constructed through a gold field,shattering part of the vein.He knew it was the logging road because had it been an old shattering by earthquake there would be very little gold in the gravel bed,it would be instead in residual deposits in sand along the stream bed's edges.Knowing they were very close to a rich find Banad had Avila prepare lunch.Afterwards he had Wenceslao head upstream,and asked him to look and see if the logging road traversed the mountain at any higher elevations.If so Banad said,begin panning just below the road.As Weceslao departed upstream Avila and Banad busied themselves at their present site.
Later that afternoon Wenceslao returned and confirmed that indeed PICOP did have a segment of that newly constructed logging road located near the top of the mountain.With that the 3 rushed upstream reaching it as the sun sat low in the sky.Still,before nightfall the 3 had recovered enough gold dust,flecks and nuggets to fill a small bottle.Wenceslao had,under Banad's direction,discovered the motherlode.
The source stood almost atop Bundok Diwata,or Mount Diwata.The mountain,which gave the entire mountain range its name was known locally as"Bundok Diwalwal,"a play on its actual name.While"Diwata"means"Idol,"as in"religious idol,""Diwalwal"means"Absolutely Exhausted,"named as such for the feelings it generated whenever someone hiked the trail in its entierty.
The next day,a bottle of gold in hand,the three men happily returned home after once again swearing each other to secrecy.Though the three men continued prospecting at the source for another satisfying three weeks,word of the fortuitous discovery spread quickly.Fearing being shut out of their own discovery,Banad,Avila,and Wenceslao jointly filed six separate DOLs,or Declarations of Location,with the BFD (Bureau of Forest Development).DOLs are effectively Prospecting Claims.Following suit other villagers began to file DOLs of their own.In fact,it got to the point where Datu Banad began growing paranoid that one of them,and not him,had staked a claim on the motherlode.With this in mind Banad gathered his fellow villagers and convinced them that they could all increase their chances of striking it rich by forming a partnership.Taking the villagers that agreed with him Banad formed the Balite Communal Portal Mining Corporation,or BCPMC.
By December,less than 60 days later,local clans from all 4 of the tribes living on and around the mountain had begun following suit,filing DOLs of their own up and down the Naboc River.With the flurry in claims came a barrage of disadvantageous offers that tried to manipulate the cooperative into a weak position.Still,Banad lacked the neccessary business savvy and technical know-how needed for a successful endeavour.Realising that not only was he himself in way over his head but that he had led his people into a very vulnerable position as well,Datu Banad began looking for ways in which to navigate what was for him uncharted waters.With more than a little trepidation then he took the plunge and on December 12th,1983 he entered into a Joint Operating Agreement with Apex Mining.Just after New Year,January of 1984,PICOP attempted to re-assert what it felt were its rights inherent within their timberconcession and closed the single logging road leading upcountry into Sitio Balite.Even without a road more and more people crowded the small mountain each day.Then,on February 2nd,1984 local agents filed sixteen separate DOLs for the Marcopper Mining Corporation,all of which were contigious to those filed by Datu Banad's Balite Communal Portal Mining Company,or BCPMC.Marcopper,a subsidiary of the Canadian-based multi-national giant Placer Dome,was the company who would single handedly create the worst mining disaster in world history when 12 million metric tonnes of tailings flowed into a 26 kilometer long river on the Philippine island of Marinduque when an improperly constructed dam gave way,though that was still more than a decade into the future.
By the Summer of 1985 the once isolated village of less than 600 Tribesmen was bursting at the seems with an estimated 20,000 people from every corner of the Philippines.Anytime gold is discovered in a new place people will embellish their stories of newly found riches so that by the end of their tall tale people are already considering making a go of it themselves.Still,even without the gross exaggeration that always accompanies a recent discovery Mount Diwalwal truly is a motherlode.In a country where the average wage is less than 300 Pesos a day in 2011,nearly 30 years after its discovery,the mountain still produces well over 6,000 Pesos a day for each independent prospector.By law all small scale miners at Diwalwal must sell their yield through the Davao City Station of the Banko ng Sentral (Central Bank of the Philippines) which reports well over P2 Billion in purchases a year just out of a 729 hectare site atop the mountain.It is no wonder then that people continuously flocked to thesite in those heady early years,causing the community to increase exponentially with total disregard for planning and infrastructure.As with all small scale mining communities of any size brothels,bars and drug dealing became very well entrenched incredibly early on.
By 1985 Marcopper's attorneys had performed their due dilligence and had learned that in 1931 then Governor-General of the Philippines,Dwight F.Davis,had issued Proclamation #369 creating the"Agusan-Davao-Surigao Forest Reserve."The 1,927,400 hectare reservation covered the length of the island,from north to south.Within this vast tract lay Mount Diwalwal.According to Philippine Law,mining rights within Forest Reserves fall under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Mining and Geosciences,or BMG (today known as the MGB),with whom one must file for a Prospecting Permit (as opposed to the aforementioned DOL which offers the same legal protections).Ergo,a DOL through the BFD was useless.Realising this all-important information Marcopper abandoned its sixteen DOLs and immediately filed for Prospecting Permits instead.On July 1st,1985 Marcopper received its nervously awaited Permits covering a grand total of 4,941.67 hectares that extended across the provincial line into Davao del Norte's municipality of Cateel.Interestingly,showing a huge disconnect between BMG's parent entity the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Bureau of Forest Development the Prospecting Permits fully encompassed every single one of the DOLs issued thus far.This would be the start of a geopolitical clusterfuc* that continues up until the present.Handing out the same parcel of land to different groups is never smart but doing so when that parcel happens to contain some of the world's most valuable gold fields is insane.
Just 4 months later,on November 11th,1985,moving at the speed of light Marcopper applied for an Exploratory Permit.Lo and behold,on March 10th,1986 the Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences (BMG) issued Marcopper a two year Exploration Permit,#133,and the company began sinking test holes.Drilling into the mountain they took core samples which aside from confirming the obvious presence of gold also revealed the quality of the metal.The company was astounded,it had almost blindly stumbled into one of the planet's most profitable gold fields.When BGM issued this permit there were already nearly 80,000 people living in a squatter settlement stretching 6 kilometers out from the mountain on all sides.Mining had proliferated to such a degree that it now encompassed more than 10,000 hectares and houses sat atop tunnels creating a potential deadly disaster.
Competition was so keen that adits,or side tunnels off of the portal,or main tunnel,often collapsed because of parallel adits from competitors being excavated mere centimeters away.Despite the huge buildup the mining was relegated to rudimentary methodology.24 hours a day tunnels barely wide enough for a skinny adult held 5 to 6 labourers,sometimes as young as 8 or 9 years of age.Placed head to toe the labourers worked with shovels,picks, mallets,and even chisels to separate ore from the tunnel walls.Filling half-sacks,nylon rice bags holding up to 45 kilograms of materiel they would signal when their bag was full and each labourer would crawl out backwards,centimeter by centimeter as the miner in question dragged their bag of rocks.Placing the sack at the collection point the labourer would re-enter his tunnel,this time near the entrance with the other labourers having quickly crawled back in since they were paid by the bag.
At the collection point young boys and elderly men,sometimes women,swung sledge hammers,mallets and carpenter's hammers as they pulverised the contents of each sack,having first dumped the contents onto the ground.Re-bagging the pulverised contents they hauled the 45 kilogram sacks on their back to rod mills,whose own labourers fed the contents into the mill.For 4 hours the mills ground the ore after which the mill labourers directed the milled ore into a sluice which like panning,indeed the gold vein itself,also operated upon the simple premise of gravity.Gold,being a heavier element,sinks to the bottom with other heavy materiel.If the mine operator owned his own rod mill,which was rarely the case,he would have the top materiel,or slag,re-fed into the mill to be re-processed and might repeat the entire process three times before finally discarding it as waste.The heavier bottom materiel is then processed in a hand mill for 2 hours and then deposited in a tank or small pond,mixed with mercury,and allowed to stand for 30 minutes.
Mercury attracts the gold and together the two substances ammalgamate into a unitary substance.The mercury/gold is then filtered repeatedly through cheese cloth which catches the gold.Still highly impure it is combined with additional chemicals,sometimes even common soap,to try and remove as much of the mercury as possible.In the end the still impure substance is bled by oxy/acetylene torch which evaporates the mercury.The result is commercial grade gold.
By 1986 Diwalwal,as it was then universally known by that nickname,began stratifying between smaller and bigger operations.The bigger operations stopped hiring labourers and instead sub-contracted the labour,hiring foremen who were given a fair share of the production and in turn hired their own labourers,provided their own equipment and so on.The usual split between owner and foreman was 50% of the gross after an initial 20% had been skimmed for"Revolutionary Taxes"to the NPA and costs associated with common industrial sized generators and water pumps that were"rented"on a share basis.Out of what amounted to 40% of the gross production the foreman was responsible for 100% of operating costs inside the mine.Post-production costs like milling came out of the owner's 40% gross share.
As this rampant small scale mining continued increasing to the point where Marcopper felt compelled to neutralise these threats to its bottom line and so on April 11th,1986 the company filed a petition with BMG asking the agency to cancel whatever rights and privileges were exercised by DOL holders within Marcopper's 4,941 hectare tenement.The company's attorneys argued that because the gold field lay within a Forest Reserve DOLs were useless.Moreover they claimed that while extraction of mineral resources was permitted in Forest Reserves it was under the auspices of the BGM and NOT the BFD.
Aware that their DOLs lay within the recently granted Marcopper tenement Apex Mining,its partner,Datu Banad's Balite Communal Portal Mining Co-operative and virtually everybody else involved in gold mining on and around Mount Diwalwal was already deeply opposed to the Canandian-based multi-national.By July Apex had been served with a copy of Marcopper's petition.On September 23rd of that year,1986,,Apex responded and in its petition asking that Marcor's request be denied by claiming that the tract was NOT within a Forest Reserve.Finally,on December 9th the BMG ruled on the case,albeit without explaining how a declared Forest Reserve had lapsed,and suprisingly favoured Apex.It dismissed Marcopper's request and declared Exploration Permit #133 to be null and void.
Marcopper,though shocked at the turn of events didn't miss a step as it filed an appeal with the BMG's parent entity,the Department of Environment and Natural Resources,or DENR.On April 15th,1987 the DENR completely overturned its dubsidiary agency's decision.Exploration Permit #133 was restored in full though it ignored the issue at the crux of the dynamic,the multitude of DOLs (Declarations of Location) placed with the BFD (Bureau of Forest Development),all of which lay within the now re-affirmed Marcopper tenement and how the two conflicting permit systems were parceling out the same valuable rights to different people.
Apex then filed the de riguer Petition for Reconsideration with the DENR but was denied.Not willing to roll over it then filed an Appeal with the Office of the President,of then President Corazon"Cory"Aquino.Channeled via the Office's Assistant Executive for Legal Affairs,Cancio C.Garcia it was ultimately dismissed and in his Decision Mr.Garcia made a point to markedly re-affirm the DENR's Decision to restore Exploration Permit #133.
In the larger world around them the NPA on Mindanao had reached its own apex in terms of manpower and organisational accumen.Dilwalwal's Revolutionary Taxes played a crucial role in this parallel exponential increase across the board.Strategically the mountain is a key position,a Regional lynchpin in its role as the bridge between its own Davao Region and the neighbouring Caraga Region.Both Caraga and Davao,then like now,were heavily infiltrated by the Maoist guerilla movement.However,there were four times as many guerillas at the end of the 1980s than there are today.In terms of mass base of support the NPA received an almost universal acclaim...but that was about to change with a two year long reign of terror as the group purged what it believed to be DPAs,or Deep Penetration Agents.
I will continue with this examination of Diwalwal in my next Development Aggression entry,"Development Aggression,Second Quarter of 2011,Part V:Mount Diwalwal,Part 2".
Showing posts with label Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Development. Show all posts
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Development Aggression,Second Quarter of 2011,Part III:Landslide in Pantukan Kills 23
This past summer,2010,the nation suffered severe drought which has been attributed to the weather phenomenon"El Nino."As in all"Nino"years,his sister La Nina follows quickly and comes barreling in with an early and exaggerated Northeast Monsoon.Coming before its time,this extra-heavy Monsoon replaces the normally dry,crisp air of winter ("crisp"being a relative term in the tropics) and instead we are subjected to an extra hot,humid and rainy spring.With the heavy logging that takes place on Mindanao landslides are an annual occurrence that are only aggravated by the extra-heavy rains.Since the logging gets worse each year so do the landslides become more frequent.
Quite often these disasters take place in so called"Small Scale Mining"sites.Though most Small Scale Mining is legal,there is absolutely no oversight what so ever.The prospective miner pays a fee to his LGU (Local Govt.Unit,i.e.municipality and province).From that point there is no mandatory oversight though very,very rarely one finds a municipality that gets such miners to voluntarily enter into oversight agreements that guarantee periodic inspections and other supervisory oversight modalities.Still,even in those rare areas the miners denude the hills.If they aren't using the illegaly harvested timber for squatter homes or shoring up their haphazard tunnels and giant sluice rigs then they are selling the wood as quick as they can cut it down.
This Good Friday,April 22,2011 in the municipality of Pantukan in ComVal (Compostela Valley Province) miners were in their tunnels earlier than usual.Despite nominal adherance to Catholicism most miners retain indigenous beliefs.So it was that at 3AM that morning the illegaly dug tunnels were filled with small scale miners making offerings to the deity of the underworld,the patron of local miners.The ceremony,"Padugo"involves animal sacrifice,usually a chicken but sometimes a piglet whose blood is drained into the soil of the main shaft in front of an altar containing ceremonial plants and a saint statue.Without a doubt these miners were praying for protection from mishap in addition to pleading for good fortune.How ironic then that as they kneeled in their tunnels doing that at 230AM,1,200 cubic meters of mud cleaved off the hilltop above them and buried them.
The mining site lies in Sitio Panganason B,in the remote barangay of Kingking.Laying upcountry,13km as the crow flies from the centre of Pantukan proper,Barangay Poblacion,there are only rudimentary foot trails spanning several steep hills and crossing rapidly flowing creeks and rivlets.Even in dry season travel is relegated to off road motorcycles or more often,trekking in and out on foot.More over,the ubiqitous cell phones that seem to be attached at the hip of so many Filipinos are of no use that far out in the bush.If the mountains do no effect the signal inclement weather always will.It wasn't until 830AM that a breathless messenger ran into the municipal hall out of breath that the wider world had finally learned of the tragedy.
Mayor Celso V.Sarenas sprang into action being a veteran by now,of similar natural disasters since Small Scale Mining has been rampant in his municipality for more than 2 decades now.Indeed,in 2009 a landslide had befallen the immediately adjoining barangay of Napnapan killing at least 26 people.Mayor Sarenas immediately called the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) 1001st Brigade Headquarters in the nearby town of Maco as he began the official notifications and seeking military assistance.Afterwards the mayor followed Standard Operating Procedure,that favourite phrase uttered by technocrats and called the base camps of 3 mining tenement base camps.Only 1,the American-based multi national Russell Mining was able to offer heavy equipment.Located about 4km to the south of the effected area,Mayor Sarenas finally got the camp super on the line and asked him to donate any manpower and equipment he might be able to offer.More over he asked the super to call the base camp of Nationwide Development Corporation (NADECOR)/Saint Agustine,the other American-based outfit in the sector and ask for the same from them.The Russell camp superintendent offered his Catepillar D9,a bulldozer with a 4.2 meter wide blade but couldn't provide much in the way of manpower since the Easter Weekend was upon them.He did promise to call NADECOR/St.Agustine and then send the bulldozer over straight away.Back in the municipal hall the mayor was able to locate a phone number for the 3rd multi-national mining company,APEX and called and made the same request.APEX sent its Chief Engineer and a full crew of labourers.
Meanwhile,the 1001st Bde (Brigade) had called its Regional Command,EASMINCOM (Eastern Mindanao Command) headquartered in Davao City and made them aware of the situation.Immediately EASMINCOM scrambled a rescue helicopter from the PAF (Philippine Air Force) 505th Air Rescue Wing and so the rescue effort began.
By noon Russell Mining and the AFP's 71IB (Infantry Battalion),72IB and CAFGU (Citizens Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit,a Force Multiplication entity composed of local residents who are armed,trained and directly supervised by AFP cadres) were digging by hand.Unlike more industrialised nations there aren't any sound detection or heat seeking equipment to help locate victims,alive OR dead.There aren't even any blueprints or even the most rudimentary of maps.In fact,for the first 3 days Mayor Sarenas had everyone operating on the assumption that there were 30 homes in the sitio.Indeed there were 112.Though,in the mayor's defence,a squatter community by its very nature exists off the grid.Its residents do not file deeds,let alone information about their home or family.The barangay's remote location relegated it to an unknown quantity.In fact,the mayor had warned the community to vacate the sitio in 2010 but had been ignored.In fact,when that 2009 landslide took place in Barangay Napnapan's Sitio Boringot,a non-fatal one had happened just hours later in Sitio Panganason-B,the very same site I am discussing.
As surviving miners offered later that day,with gold paying 2,000 Pesos per gram ($38) people will keep digging,safety be damned.One miner had been trying sleep off a late evening drinking bout when the bunkhouse he was sleeping in jumped off the ground and began quickly moving towards a nearby ravine.Having made his way out its doorway (luckily the crude strycture had no door or the man might now be with his friends buried under at least 6 meters of mud) and began swiming on the top of the quickly moving mass.By the time it stopped at the far end of the valley floor he was chest deep and certainly would have suffocated if others hadn't lassoed him and pulled him out by motorcycle.Still,he said that while he's still not sure about his own future in mining he is fatalistic.Now having survived 3 fatal mudslides and only 26 years old,he feels that when one's rime is up,its up.Destiny is what it is,especially in a country where children must grow up eating roadkill,when lucky.
Shortly after the messenger had made his way into the municipal hall,the first corpse was discovered and pulled free.15 year old John Ric"JunJun"Torrejos lived in Barangay Buan in Tagum City in the next province,Davao del Norte but was already a veteran miner working with his father and 12 year old brother in the family's tunnel mine and dmall ball mill operation.Both his younger brother and father would soon be found dead as well.Just after JunJun's battered corpse was identified by a distraught aunt who lived in the squatter camp below the hill the bulldozer arrived.After its arrival people began arriving in small groups,having hiked in from town.
The PAF Search and Rescue helicopter from the 505th swooped low not long after but the site's sharp ridgelines and unstable footing prevented an immediate landing.It would be much later in the day before the pilots were told the co+ordinates for Panganason Elementary School whose adjoining field had served as a helipad in the 2009 landslide.
With the latest 2 bodies hoped dimmed of finding anyone alive in the 5 separate tunnel systems dotting the fractured hillside.Still,Mayor Sarenas kept up appearances and didn't offically declare an end to Rescue Operations until Sunday night,April 24.After an intial 13 people were rescued,all within 10 minutes of the actual event,no other"happy endings"would be pulled out of the debris.Without helicopters the officials present decided to have local"habal-habal"(motorcycle taxis,in this case off road) strap the cadavers to boards fitted onto the back of the motorcycle and bring them to a funeral home in the town proper
.When the DENR Region XI's (Department of the Environment and Natural Resources) MGB (Mining and Geosciences Bureau,sublimated to the DENR) representative,Noel Angeles arrived on site he immediately issued a Stop Order barring all mining in both that sitio,Panganason-B as well as the adjoining Sitio Panganason-A.Mayor Sarenas then issueThe 30 became 68 spanning both sitions,A and B,and finally the order encompassed all outlying homes to the tune of 112.The Order was officially handed out on Monday,April 25,2PM,All residents were given 48 hours to vacate and the option of demolishing their own homes (something most naturally choose so as to save the materiel for its nect location).One imagines that if in fact the situation was as dangerous as the local government claimed-and I have every reason to imagine it was-that the mayor would have made his order effective immediately.Just after that meaningless directive 4 more dead victims were pulled from a single buried tunne:
1) Cristituto Torrejos Sr.,father of the first victim recovered,JunJun.Cristituto Sr.was 44 years old and like his son resided in Barangay Cuamboagan,Tagum City,Davao del Norte Province
2) Brindo Dani,age 26,Barangay Buan,Asuncion,Davao del Norte Province
3) Marvin A.Anglay,19 years old,same barangay,etc.as Victim #2
4) Pio Dennis Calapis,17 tears old,same barangay,etc.as Victim #1
By the time that the 48 hour deadline to vacate transpired on Wednesday,April 27th at 2PM three families refused to comply and the Philippines being the weak state that it is tried reasoning with these 3 families.In the end the 3 held their ground (no pun intended,OK.maybe just a tad bit) and continue to live in that otherwise barren sitio.The rest of the community was housed in the nearby Panganason Elementary School.Back at the site the heavy rains continued and so it was incredibly slow going.All the more si since the single piece of heavy equipment,lent by Russell Mining,was released back to its base camp since the ground was too innundated with moisture to allow effective use of heavy equipment.The Provincial Government had also brought a smaller bulldozer,a backhoe and a single axle dumptruck in over the weekend and they stayed on site continously though almost always off to the side due to unstable terrain.
On Tuesday,April 26th,as rains began coming heavier rescuers sighted 5 bodies.In quick succession the 5 were unearthed ahead of a heavy downpour with workers removing the 5th cadaver just as the skies opened up over head.The following 5 were identified immediately:
1) Jericho Escoto,38 years old,Baguio City,Mountain Province,Luzon Island
2) Felixberto Ynay,54 years old,resided in the same sitio where he died
3) Vincent Balog,21 years old,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
4) Junel Lapates,no age available,the same address as Victim #3
5) Noel Caincoy,aged 21,same address as Victims # 3 and 4
With the rains worked stop and did not resume until Thursday morning,April 28.On Wednesday a 22 man team of volunteers was deployed by the Pantukan Municipal Engineer's office to demolish the homes not already dismantled by their owners.Because of the rain they too didn't begin until Thursday,the 28th.Before finishing they demolished 52 homes.The work contimued on through Friday but otherwise nothing fruitful occurred.Both the Search and Rescue helicopter from the PAF 505th as well as 2 other Hueys (UH-1H) from the 11th TOG (Tactical Operations Group) at EASMINCOM were released and returned to their base in Davao City.Likwise the provincial government's heavy equipment was also released as the operation began winding down.
On Saturday,April 30th the last 2 bodies were sighted soon after operations began that morning.2 pairs of hands were seen,as if reaching for succor above the mud encasing both bodies at the bottom of a vertical shaft,10 meters deep.In checking the situation it was discovered that the 4 meter deep mud that had buried both those bodies had solidified and set.Using piped in water to soften the soil as personnel from the Davao City Fire and Rescue Department rapelled down,at significant danger to themselves and spent more than 3 hours carefully removing the 2 bodies.The first removed was a young man whose identity remained a mystery until Tuesday,May 3rd when his grieving mother was finally able to identify 16 year old Alejandro Justol.The last body removed,at 130PM that afternoon was 12 year old Cristituto Torrejos Jr.,brother of JunJun and son of Cristituti Sr.
On Sunday,May 1 the retrieval phase officially ended with 9 people still unaccounted for and presuned dead in addition to the 14 identified victims that had been recovered over the previous 9 days.
The 14 victims:
1) Cristituto Torrejos. Sr.,age 44 of Barangay Cuamboagan,Tagum City,Davao del Norte Province
2) Cristituto Torrejos Jr.,12,son of Victim #1,same address
3) Pio Dennis Calapis,17 years old,same address as Victims #1,2 and 3
4) John Ric Torrejos,15,son of Victim #1,elder brother of Victim #2,same address as them
5) Brindo Dani,26 years old,Barangay Buan,Asuncion,Davao del Norte Province
6) Marjon A.Guilbatan,19 years old,same address as Victim #4
7) Marvin A.Anglay,19 years old,same address as Victims #5 and 4
8) Relito T.Tebag,21 years old,same address as Victims #4,5 and 6
9) Felixberto Ynay,54 years old,lived in the squatter community,Sitio Panganason-B,Barangay Kingking,Pantukan,ComVal Province
10) Vincent Balog,21 years old,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
11) Noel Caincoy,21 years old,same address as Victim #10
12) Junel Lapates,age unknown,possibly juvenile,same address as Victims #10 and 11
13) Alejandro Justol,age 16,resident of that squatter community.He had initially been un-identified because his mother,also residing there,had gone into a catatonic-like stupor and so noone was willing to identify him until his mother re-gained a modicum of composure
14) Jericho Escoto,38 years old,Baguio City,Mountain Province,Luzon Island
Though not yet officially dead,the 8 miners who remain missing are of course dead as well.There names:
1) Bernard Celestial,of Tagum City
2) Bobit Celestial,same municipality
3) Jay Omega,Maco,ComVal Province
4) Alvin Caincoy,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
5) Andy Lapates,same address as Victim #4
6) Bitoy (no surname),Lasang,Davao del Sur Province
7) Erning (no surname),a Sama Tribesman,Samal Island,Davao del Sur Province
8) Jongjong,same information as Victim #7
Though not listed in any of the lists,there was a full wallet found,and locals insist that the following man is dead as well
9) Boloy Ensisel,Barangay San Roque,Panabo City,Davao del Norte Province
The fallout politically has been a tad bit more than we usually see.These kind of senseless deaths take place all too often and so the government rarely even bats an eye about it.This time however things have turned out differently.Perhaps it is a domino like effect from the AFP Corruption Scandal (General Garcia Case) that I began outlining in the"Last Quarter of 2010 AFP"entries.New attitudes just might be contagious.In any event,Bayan Muna Party List Congressman Teddy A.Casino has authored a Bill now siitting in the Natural Resources Committee,HB#4315,"People's Mining Act of 2011."It hopes to supercede the very faulty"People's Mining Act of 1991."Specifically it takes aim at Presidential Decree#1899 and to a lesser degree,#s 463 and 512.
Likewise,Senator Loren Legarda has authored a Senate Resolution seeking an investigation as well as a hearing with the DENR to find out just how it handles Small Scale Mining.
Quite often these disasters take place in so called"Small Scale Mining"sites.Though most Small Scale Mining is legal,there is absolutely no oversight what so ever.The prospective miner pays a fee to his LGU (Local Govt.Unit,i.e.municipality and province).From that point there is no mandatory oversight though very,very rarely one finds a municipality that gets such miners to voluntarily enter into oversight agreements that guarantee periodic inspections and other supervisory oversight modalities.Still,even in those rare areas the miners denude the hills.If they aren't using the illegaly harvested timber for squatter homes or shoring up their haphazard tunnels and giant sluice rigs then they are selling the wood as quick as they can cut it down.
This Good Friday,April 22,2011 in the municipality of Pantukan in ComVal (Compostela Valley Province) miners were in their tunnels earlier than usual.Despite nominal adherance to Catholicism most miners retain indigenous beliefs.So it was that at 3AM that morning the illegaly dug tunnels were filled with small scale miners making offerings to the deity of the underworld,the patron of local miners.The ceremony,"Padugo"involves animal sacrifice,usually a chicken but sometimes a piglet whose blood is drained into the soil of the main shaft in front of an altar containing ceremonial plants and a saint statue.Without a doubt these miners were praying for protection from mishap in addition to pleading for good fortune.How ironic then that as they kneeled in their tunnels doing that at 230AM,1,200 cubic meters of mud cleaved off the hilltop above them and buried them.
The mining site lies in Sitio Panganason B,in the remote barangay of Kingking.Laying upcountry,13km as the crow flies from the centre of Pantukan proper,Barangay Poblacion,there are only rudimentary foot trails spanning several steep hills and crossing rapidly flowing creeks and rivlets.Even in dry season travel is relegated to off road motorcycles or more often,trekking in and out on foot.More over,the ubiqitous cell phones that seem to be attached at the hip of so many Filipinos are of no use that far out in the bush.If the mountains do no effect the signal inclement weather always will.It wasn't until 830AM that a breathless messenger ran into the municipal hall out of breath that the wider world had finally learned of the tragedy.
Mayor Celso V.Sarenas sprang into action being a veteran by now,of similar natural disasters since Small Scale Mining has been rampant in his municipality for more than 2 decades now.Indeed,in 2009 a landslide had befallen the immediately adjoining barangay of Napnapan killing at least 26 people.Mayor Sarenas immediately called the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) 1001st Brigade Headquarters in the nearby town of Maco as he began the official notifications and seeking military assistance.Afterwards the mayor followed Standard Operating Procedure,that favourite phrase uttered by technocrats and called the base camps of 3 mining tenement base camps.Only 1,the American-based multi national Russell Mining was able to offer heavy equipment.Located about 4km to the south of the effected area,Mayor Sarenas finally got the camp super on the line and asked him to donate any manpower and equipment he might be able to offer.More over he asked the super to call the base camp of Nationwide Development Corporation (NADECOR)/Saint Agustine,the other American-based outfit in the sector and ask for the same from them.The Russell camp superintendent offered his Catepillar D9,a bulldozer with a 4.2 meter wide blade but couldn't provide much in the way of manpower since the Easter Weekend was upon them.He did promise to call NADECOR/St.Agustine and then send the bulldozer over straight away.Back in the municipal hall the mayor was able to locate a phone number for the 3rd multi-national mining company,APEX and called and made the same request.APEX sent its Chief Engineer and a full crew of labourers.
Meanwhile,the 1001st Bde (Brigade) had called its Regional Command,EASMINCOM (Eastern Mindanao Command) headquartered in Davao City and made them aware of the situation.Immediately EASMINCOM scrambled a rescue helicopter from the PAF (Philippine Air Force) 505th Air Rescue Wing and so the rescue effort began.
By noon Russell Mining and the AFP's 71IB (Infantry Battalion),72IB and CAFGU (Citizens Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit,a Force Multiplication entity composed of local residents who are armed,trained and directly supervised by AFP cadres) were digging by hand.Unlike more industrialised nations there aren't any sound detection or heat seeking equipment to help locate victims,alive OR dead.There aren't even any blueprints or even the most rudimentary of maps.In fact,for the first 3 days Mayor Sarenas had everyone operating on the assumption that there were 30 homes in the sitio.Indeed there were 112.Though,in the mayor's defence,a squatter community by its very nature exists off the grid.Its residents do not file deeds,let alone information about their home or family.The barangay's remote location relegated it to an unknown quantity.In fact,the mayor had warned the community to vacate the sitio in 2010 but had been ignored.In fact,when that 2009 landslide took place in Barangay Napnapan's Sitio Boringot,a non-fatal one had happened just hours later in Sitio Panganason-B,the very same site I am discussing.
As surviving miners offered later that day,with gold paying 2,000 Pesos per gram ($38) people will keep digging,safety be damned.One miner had been trying sleep off a late evening drinking bout when the bunkhouse he was sleeping in jumped off the ground and began quickly moving towards a nearby ravine.Having made his way out its doorway (luckily the crude strycture had no door or the man might now be with his friends buried under at least 6 meters of mud) and began swiming on the top of the quickly moving mass.By the time it stopped at the far end of the valley floor he was chest deep and certainly would have suffocated if others hadn't lassoed him and pulled him out by motorcycle.Still,he said that while he's still not sure about his own future in mining he is fatalistic.Now having survived 3 fatal mudslides and only 26 years old,he feels that when one's rime is up,its up.Destiny is what it is,especially in a country where children must grow up eating roadkill,when lucky.
Shortly after the messenger had made his way into the municipal hall,the first corpse was discovered and pulled free.15 year old John Ric"JunJun"Torrejos lived in Barangay Buan in Tagum City in the next province,Davao del Norte but was already a veteran miner working with his father and 12 year old brother in the family's tunnel mine and dmall ball mill operation.Both his younger brother and father would soon be found dead as well.Just after JunJun's battered corpse was identified by a distraught aunt who lived in the squatter camp below the hill the bulldozer arrived.After its arrival people began arriving in small groups,having hiked in from town.
The PAF Search and Rescue helicopter from the 505th swooped low not long after but the site's sharp ridgelines and unstable footing prevented an immediate landing.It would be much later in the day before the pilots were told the co+ordinates for Panganason Elementary School whose adjoining field had served as a helipad in the 2009 landslide.
With the latest 2 bodies hoped dimmed of finding anyone alive in the 5 separate tunnel systems dotting the fractured hillside.Still,Mayor Sarenas kept up appearances and didn't offically declare an end to Rescue Operations until Sunday night,April 24.After an intial 13 people were rescued,all within 10 minutes of the actual event,no other"happy endings"would be pulled out of the debris.Without helicopters the officials present decided to have local"habal-habal"(motorcycle taxis,in this case off road) strap the cadavers to boards fitted onto the back of the motorcycle and bring them to a funeral home in the town proper
.When the DENR Region XI's (Department of the Environment and Natural Resources) MGB (Mining and Geosciences Bureau,sublimated to the DENR) representative,Noel Angeles arrived on site he immediately issued a Stop Order barring all mining in both that sitio,Panganason-B as well as the adjoining Sitio Panganason-A.Mayor Sarenas then issueThe 30 became 68 spanning both sitions,A and B,and finally the order encompassed all outlying homes to the tune of 112.The Order was officially handed out on Monday,April 25,2PM,All residents were given 48 hours to vacate and the option of demolishing their own homes (something most naturally choose so as to save the materiel for its nect location).One imagines that if in fact the situation was as dangerous as the local government claimed-and I have every reason to imagine it was-that the mayor would have made his order effective immediately.Just after that meaningless directive 4 more dead victims were pulled from a single buried tunne:
1) Cristituto Torrejos Sr.,father of the first victim recovered,JunJun.Cristituto Sr.was 44 years old and like his son resided in Barangay Cuamboagan,Tagum City,Davao del Norte Province
2) Brindo Dani,age 26,Barangay Buan,Asuncion,Davao del Norte Province
3) Marvin A.Anglay,19 years old,same barangay,etc.as Victim #2
4) Pio Dennis Calapis,17 tears old,same barangay,etc.as Victim #1
By the time that the 48 hour deadline to vacate transpired on Wednesday,April 27th at 2PM three families refused to comply and the Philippines being the weak state that it is tried reasoning with these 3 families.In the end the 3 held their ground (no pun intended,OK.maybe just a tad bit) and continue to live in that otherwise barren sitio.The rest of the community was housed in the nearby Panganason Elementary School.Back at the site the heavy rains continued and so it was incredibly slow going.All the more si since the single piece of heavy equipment,lent by Russell Mining,was released back to its base camp since the ground was too innundated with moisture to allow effective use of heavy equipment.The Provincial Government had also brought a smaller bulldozer,a backhoe and a single axle dumptruck in over the weekend and they stayed on site continously though almost always off to the side due to unstable terrain.
On Tuesday,April 26th,as rains began coming heavier rescuers sighted 5 bodies.In quick succession the 5 were unearthed ahead of a heavy downpour with workers removing the 5th cadaver just as the skies opened up over head.The following 5 were identified immediately:
1) Jericho Escoto,38 years old,Baguio City,Mountain Province,Luzon Island
2) Felixberto Ynay,54 years old,resided in the same sitio where he died
3) Vincent Balog,21 years old,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
4) Junel Lapates,no age available,the same address as Victim #3
5) Noel Caincoy,aged 21,same address as Victims # 3 and 4
With the rains worked stop and did not resume until Thursday morning,April 28.On Wednesday a 22 man team of volunteers was deployed by the Pantukan Municipal Engineer's office to demolish the homes not already dismantled by their owners.Because of the rain they too didn't begin until Thursday,the 28th.Before finishing they demolished 52 homes.The work contimued on through Friday but otherwise nothing fruitful occurred.Both the Search and Rescue helicopter from the PAF 505th as well as 2 other Hueys (UH-1H) from the 11th TOG (Tactical Operations Group) at EASMINCOM were released and returned to their base in Davao City.Likwise the provincial government's heavy equipment was also released as the operation began winding down.
On Saturday,April 30th the last 2 bodies were sighted soon after operations began that morning.2 pairs of hands were seen,as if reaching for succor above the mud encasing both bodies at the bottom of a vertical shaft,10 meters deep.In checking the situation it was discovered that the 4 meter deep mud that had buried both those bodies had solidified and set.Using piped in water to soften the soil as personnel from the Davao City Fire and Rescue Department rapelled down,at significant danger to themselves and spent more than 3 hours carefully removing the 2 bodies.The first removed was a young man whose identity remained a mystery until Tuesday,May 3rd when his grieving mother was finally able to identify 16 year old Alejandro Justol.The last body removed,at 130PM that afternoon was 12 year old Cristituto Torrejos Jr.,brother of JunJun and son of Cristituti Sr.
On Sunday,May 1 the retrieval phase officially ended with 9 people still unaccounted for and presuned dead in addition to the 14 identified victims that had been recovered over the previous 9 days.
The 14 victims:
1) Cristituto Torrejos. Sr.,age 44 of Barangay Cuamboagan,Tagum City,Davao del Norte Province
2) Cristituto Torrejos Jr.,12,son of Victim #1,same address
3) Pio Dennis Calapis,17 years old,same address as Victims #1,2 and 3
4) John Ric Torrejos,15,son of Victim #1,elder brother of Victim #2,same address as them
5) Brindo Dani,26 years old,Barangay Buan,Asuncion,Davao del Norte Province
6) Marjon A.Guilbatan,19 years old,same address as Victim #4
7) Marvin A.Anglay,19 years old,same address as Victims #5 and 4
8) Relito T.Tebag,21 years old,same address as Victims #4,5 and 6
9) Felixberto Ynay,54 years old,lived in the squatter community,Sitio Panganason-B,Barangay Kingking,Pantukan,ComVal Province
10) Vincent Balog,21 years old,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
11) Noel Caincoy,21 years old,same address as Victim #10
12) Junel Lapates,age unknown,possibly juvenile,same address as Victims #10 and 11
13) Alejandro Justol,age 16,resident of that squatter community.He had initially been un-identified because his mother,also residing there,had gone into a catatonic-like stupor and so noone was willing to identify him until his mother re-gained a modicum of composure
14) Jericho Escoto,38 years old,Baguio City,Mountain Province,Luzon Island
Though not yet officially dead,the 8 miners who remain missing are of course dead as well.There names:
1) Bernard Celestial,of Tagum City
2) Bobit Celestial,same municipality
3) Jay Omega,Maco,ComVal Province
4) Alvin Caincoy,Barangay Mangalingay,Gitawtaw,Bukidnon Province
5) Andy Lapates,same address as Victim #4
6) Bitoy (no surname),Lasang,Davao del Sur Province
7) Erning (no surname),a Sama Tribesman,Samal Island,Davao del Sur Province
8) Jongjong,same information as Victim #7
Though not listed in any of the lists,there was a full wallet found,and locals insist that the following man is dead as well
9) Boloy Ensisel,Barangay San Roque,Panabo City,Davao del Norte Province
The fallout politically has been a tad bit more than we usually see.These kind of senseless deaths take place all too often and so the government rarely even bats an eye about it.This time however things have turned out differently.Perhaps it is a domino like effect from the AFP Corruption Scandal (General Garcia Case) that I began outlining in the"Last Quarter of 2010 AFP"entries.New attitudes just might be contagious.In any event,Bayan Muna Party List Congressman Teddy A.Casino has authored a Bill now siitting in the Natural Resources Committee,HB#4315,"People's Mining Act of 2011."It hopes to supercede the very faulty"People's Mining Act of 1991."Specifically it takes aim at Presidential Decree#1899 and to a lesser degree,#s 463 and 512.
Likewise,Senator Loren Legarda has authored a Senate Resolution seeking an investigation as well as a hearing with the DENR to find out just how it handles Small Scale Mining.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Development Aggression,First Quarter of 2011,Part I:Geothermal Energy on Mt.Apo
Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco of Kidapawan City in South Cotabato Province has reversed his earlier decision and has decided to grant EDC (Energy Development Corporation) permission to construct a new 50 megawatt powerplant on Mt.Apo. Not only has he changed his mind, be is expediting the process after he and EDC came to an "understanding." EDC already operates 2 geothermal plants on the slopes of Mt.Apo. Located in the municipality's Barangay Ilomavis within the PAMB (Protected Area Management Bureau) enclosure. Most of Mt. Apo, the nation's highest peak, is included in the PAMB.
EDC ran afoul of Mayor Ganutuamgco and virtually the entire LGU when it was granted a full exemption on real property taxes. Taxes generated by the 2 existing plants had been used to pay the salaries of 189 public school teachers via the city's SEF (Special Education Fund) and the sudden issuance of the exemption created bedlam. The Mayor and EDC came to a compromise where the corporation will pay 48 Million Pesos (close to 1 Million US), the amount that had been lost to the city since the exemption was granted. Of this amount roughly 1.9 Million Pesos (36,000 US Dollars) will be paid directly into the SEF, ergo pay the salaries of those 189 teachers. EDC has guaranteed the city those salaries for 36 months.
Throwing a potential wrench into the arrangement is the Mayor's arch nemesis, Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista says that the Mayor's "deal" is far from a sure thing and is examining the issue extremely closely. Furthermore he says, he's talking with COTELLO (Cotabato Electric Corporation) about feeding off the proposed plant IF it ends up being built. EDC is eyeing December, 2014 as the timeframe for going on line.
Speaking of new power plants, on March 01, 2011 the Davao City Council passed the Resolution endorsing Aboitz Power Corporation's proposed 300 megawatt coal fired power plant slated for Barangay Binugan in Toril District despite vehement opposition from the local population and much of that barangay's government. The Council's endorsement is crucial though its passing was a sure thing ever since Vice Mayor Rodrigo"Roddy"Duterte reversed his early opposition to the plant after taking part in an Aboitz junket to a coal fed plant in Misamis Oriental. The 232 megawatt coal fired plant owned by Steag State Power Inc.in Villanueva impressed Duterte, supposedly, with its low noise and emissions.
The plant has a projected cost of 25 Billion Pesos and will represent the biggest single investment ever made in the Davao Region. This factor certainly makes it an attractive proposition to many in the LGU (Local Govt. Unit aka barangay, town, city and provincial governments) but few seem capable, or perhaps willing to listen and understanding that this investment will not trickle down. It only benefits Aboitz share holders. Now that it rolled through the City Council it gets passed onto the Council's Committee on Energy, Transport and Communications chaired by Councillor Pilar C. Braga. Assuming the Committee passes it, and of course it will, it gets tossed back to the City Council for a 2nd Reading.
Aboitz President and CEO Erramon I. Aboitz says that if he gets his paperwork finished on time that he expects the plant to be online by the middle of 2014. Currently Aboitz subsidiary Therma South Inc, the entity actually handling this project os keeping itself busy trying to pull the wool over peoples' eyes, I mean "handling public relations." I mean, everyoneknows giant smokestacks emitting coal emissions don't harm the environment, and people? Naaaaaah.
In other news:
Sun Cellular has vowed to put up an additional 500 cellular sites on mainland Mindanao and Sulu. At a Zamboamga City press conference on March 11 it unveiled its "Sun Magic Zone Mindanao," a discount for customers only in Mindanao. The 500 new sites will double the islands sites to 1,000.
A local journalist has been slapped with a Libel charge over a piece in which he discussed problems in the issuance of 10 timber permits, within a particular official's AOR (Area of Responsibility). The reporter, Edgardo Maliza of the "Gold Star" based in Cagayan del Oro City in Misamis Oriental Province was arrested earler this month on charges fired by a former DENR (Department of Energy and Natural Resources) Regional Director Ernesto Adobo Jr. The article merely discussed 10 very problematic permits issued under Adobo's watch. Sadly integrity isn't a big thing in the Philippines. Passing the buck is a well enshrined way of life and with officials like Adobo such a horrid system is assured of a long life. Luckily for the people and resource of Northern Mindanao Adobo is now out to pasture. Maliza on the other hand had to be bailed out of jail on a 10,000 Peso Bond (230 US). Though foreigners may find that a trivial amount is the MONTHLY salary of a middle class white collar worker in the Philippines.
This arrest comes as Maliza's colleague, fellow Gold Star scribe Edwin Iyo began getting death threats. Iyo had been investigating extortion and bribery in the Gingoog City CENRO branch (Community Energy and Natural Resources Office). Logging is big business here, especially the illegal side and people are killed over it ever few weeks.
EDC ran afoul of Mayor Ganutuamgco and virtually the entire LGU when it was granted a full exemption on real property taxes. Taxes generated by the 2 existing plants had been used to pay the salaries of 189 public school teachers via the city's SEF (Special Education Fund) and the sudden issuance of the exemption created bedlam. The Mayor and EDC came to a compromise where the corporation will pay 48 Million Pesos (close to 1 Million US), the amount that had been lost to the city since the exemption was granted. Of this amount roughly 1.9 Million Pesos (36,000 US Dollars) will be paid directly into the SEF, ergo pay the salaries of those 189 teachers. EDC has guaranteed the city those salaries for 36 months.
Throwing a potential wrench into the arrangement is the Mayor's arch nemesis, Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista says that the Mayor's "deal" is far from a sure thing and is examining the issue extremely closely. Furthermore he says, he's talking with COTELLO (Cotabato Electric Corporation) about feeding off the proposed plant IF it ends up being built. EDC is eyeing December, 2014 as the timeframe for going on line.
Speaking of new power plants, on March 01, 2011 the Davao City Council passed the Resolution endorsing Aboitz Power Corporation's proposed 300 megawatt coal fired power plant slated for Barangay Binugan in Toril District despite vehement opposition from the local population and much of that barangay's government. The Council's endorsement is crucial though its passing was a sure thing ever since Vice Mayor Rodrigo"Roddy"Duterte reversed his early opposition to the plant after taking part in an Aboitz junket to a coal fed plant in Misamis Oriental. The 232 megawatt coal fired plant owned by Steag State Power Inc.in Villanueva impressed Duterte, supposedly, with its low noise and emissions.
The plant has a projected cost of 25 Billion Pesos and will represent the biggest single investment ever made in the Davao Region. This factor certainly makes it an attractive proposition to many in the LGU (Local Govt. Unit aka barangay, town, city and provincial governments) but few seem capable, or perhaps willing to listen and understanding that this investment will not trickle down. It only benefits Aboitz share holders. Now that it rolled through the City Council it gets passed onto the Council's Committee on Energy, Transport and Communications chaired by Councillor Pilar C. Braga. Assuming the Committee passes it, and of course it will, it gets tossed back to the City Council for a 2nd Reading.
Aboitz President and CEO Erramon I. Aboitz says that if he gets his paperwork finished on time that he expects the plant to be online by the middle of 2014. Currently Aboitz subsidiary Therma South Inc, the entity actually handling this project os keeping itself busy trying to pull the wool over peoples' eyes, I mean "handling public relations." I mean, everyoneknows giant smokestacks emitting coal emissions don't harm the environment, and people? Naaaaaah.
In other news:
Sun Cellular has vowed to put up an additional 500 cellular sites on mainland Mindanao and Sulu. At a Zamboamga City press conference on March 11 it unveiled its "Sun Magic Zone Mindanao," a discount for customers only in Mindanao. The 500 new sites will double the islands sites to 1,000.
A local journalist has been slapped with a Libel charge over a piece in which he discussed problems in the issuance of 10 timber permits, within a particular official's AOR (Area of Responsibility). The reporter, Edgardo Maliza of the "Gold Star" based in Cagayan del Oro City in Misamis Oriental Province was arrested earler this month on charges fired by a former DENR (Department of Energy and Natural Resources) Regional Director Ernesto Adobo Jr. The article merely discussed 10 very problematic permits issued under Adobo's watch. Sadly integrity isn't a big thing in the Philippines. Passing the buck is a well enshrined way of life and with officials like Adobo such a horrid system is assured of a long life. Luckily for the people and resource of Northern Mindanao Adobo is now out to pasture. Maliza on the other hand had to be bailed out of jail on a 10,000 Peso Bond (230 US). Though foreigners may find that a trivial amount is the MONTHLY salary of a middle class white collar worker in the Philippines.
This arrest comes as Maliza's colleague, fellow Gold Star scribe Edwin Iyo began getting death threats. Iyo had been investigating extortion and bribery in the Gingoog City CENRO branch (Community Energy and Natural Resources Office). Logging is big business here, especially the illegal side and people are killed over it ever few weeks.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Development,Last Quarter of 2010:Mindanao 2020 Developmental Framework,MSDF 2010-2020 and Push for Creation of 4th Congressional District in Bukidnon Province
As I had mentioned in my first Development entry, "Development: How Much is Too Much," the word "Development" is hummed like a mantra non-stop by a government drunk on corruption and inefficiency. Likewise I acknowledged that Development need not be a dirty word or something to fear as long as it is handled in a sustainable and socially/culturally sensitive manner. This has rarely, if ever the case. The new Administration (President Aquino) seems to have his heart in the right place though he has an awful lot on his plate, naturally.If President Aquino can walk the walk, not just talk the talk things will behin to look a lot better.
On November 29. 2010,President Aquino was presented with a briefing paper on the new Mindanowan framework for Development. Entitled,"Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan."This new framework is being touted as the direct successor to"Mindanao 2000"(launched during the Ramos Presidency),which is set to expire at midnite,New Years Eve and like its predecessor isn't a "plan" per se,but rather serves as a touchstone for subsequent planning."Mindanao 2020"will last for the duration of the Presidential term,and unless superceded by the plan of a successive administration,until the year 2020.
The jist of the "plan" revolves around 10 central points:
I) Dismantlement of PAGs (Private Armed Groups,aka"paramilitaries") which will help towards a"gunless"Mindanao.
II) A first tier infrastructural and transportational system that will efficiently move goods as well as people.
III) Reasonable and sustainable development of,and maintenance of Mindanowan natural and cultural resources.Such interaction with the island's resources will be approached with respect and ultimate concern for the environment as well as of respect for ways in which to maximise benefits for islanders themselves.
IV). Institutions will be rebuilt,or otherwise developed to be field natural illness,disease and other dangers.
V) Strengthening of intra-regional links culturally,socially and economically with special consideration towards ASEAN Nations so as to strengthen existing cooperative relationships.
VI) A strong, competitive economy with inter-cooperative elements that are up to date technologically and industrially. Mindanao will be positioned as both a national and regional leader economically.
VII) Respect for all Mindanowans' personal as well as cultural dignity.
VIII) More culturally sensitive education without necessarily relying upon the orthadox Philippine model used here to fore.
IX) Respect for cultural diversity
X) All Mindanowans will enjoy marked materiel and cultural improvements in their lives.
Number III makes me sincerely and incredibly happy simply because the President is paying it lipservice though it is a totally meaningless gesture.The paper is meant to covey a framework, a methodology for change.Instead it is simply a child's wish list for acid washed change.All the Politically Correct bile makes me want to hurl my kalamansi (for foreigners, it is tiny sour citrus fruit that together with soy sauce forms THE Philippine's most popular condiment. Please don't ask me about "banana ketchup").It is exceedingly easy to articulate a list for Santa Claus (getting off some holiday themed comments) but much more difficult to figure out a way in which to obtain these things for ourselves.This "framework"doesn't offer a single piece of substantiative information.I did a manage to squeeze a great laugh though out of MinDA's (Mindanao Development Authority) Luwalhati Antonino's comments post-ceremony.First I need to say that I acrually respect the woman a great deal.As I have mentioned in at least one other entry,Mrs.Antonino together with Congresswoman Daisy Fuentes of South Cotabato Province and the late Mayor of Zamboanga City (and mother to its current mayor) Clara Lobregat formed an informal political alliance against the MNLF,and later MILF political depradations.Many probally recall the Pinol brothers of Cotabato,(then) Mayor Lawrence Cruz of Iligan City,Lanao del Norte Provibce and Ms. Lobregat's son,Mayor Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City.These men,great heroes in my perspective,alone were responsible for saving the nation from a midnite dissection via MoA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain).That terribly flawed document which directly violated the Philippine's 1987 Constitution would have allowed the MILF to build a direct launching pad for their rape of the entire island.Without the Emergency Petition by those 4 Mindanowan politicians the Arroyo Government would have crossed the proverbial Rubicon and all hope for Mindanao would have been lost.Is is THAT serious.The Petition was accepted by the Supreme Court who then immediately granted the Petitioner's request for a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order),which was issued in August of 2008.Immediately afterwards the Court set about determining the legality of the Moa-AD and eventually issued its Ruling that October,negating the document as Unconstitutional.The 3 afore mentioned women,Clara Lobregat,Daisy Fuentes and Luwalhati Antonino similarly took action over very serious issues and did so almost 20 years before those men did.Like those men they deserve so much more than a little seen footnote in Philippine History.
OK, with that out of the way... After the unveiling of the briefing paper I just discussed Ms. Antonino was asked to offer. some more information on "Mindanao 2020." Offering her comments on the fly, via SMS (texting) she offered that the projected outlay (cost) is pegged at a whopping 60 Billion Pesos over the course of those 5 projected years. That really wouldn't be much of an issue, certainly not at this pre-implementation/pre-allocation stage BUT...as I have pointed out, that "plan" was nothing but fluff!What was it that the Bard said about Denmark (no offence to any Danish readers, Hey, what makes you think that 1 of the 3 people who will ever read this wouldn't be Danish?).
I should segue into a riff about the great accounting skills displayed by General Garcia (in a recent AFP entry) but intelligent people should have gotten my inference by now.
Speaking of"Mindanao 2020,"last week in Cagayan del Oro City in Misamis Oriental Province,a second Developmental framework was released.At a special gathering of 100 varied stakeholders organised by NEDA (National Economic Development Authority).NEDA has 5 Regional branch offices on Mindanao corresponding to the island's 5 Regions (the 6th, "ARMM," or, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao has its own version of NEDA due to that Region's highly autonomous nature).
Known as,"MSDF 2010-2020"(Mindanao Strategic Framework for Development),it wad spearheaded by NEDA-RDO (NEDA Regional Development Office) Assistant Director Marcelina Bacani.ARMM's"RED and PB"(Regional Economic Development and Planning Board) offered significant input as did all 5 NEDA branches on Mindanao.Basically,there are 5 main areas of focus:
I) Peace Building
II) Good Governance with strong partnerships in both the public and the private sector.
III) Industrialisation based upon sustainable resources
IV) Social Equity
V) Capable Logistical Support
As unveiled by Leon M. Dacanay Jr.,Director of NEDA Region 10 (the region covering Misamis Oriental Province,where this unveiling took place),with the keynote speech given by Secretary of SEP (Socio-Economic Planning) Cayetano W. Paderanga the "plan"has a 9 year shelf life,expiring in 2021.Like the preceeding"plan"this too is meant only as a touchstone for planning.Since I have a Shakespearean theme going (the "Bard" of course being William Shakespeare),I will simply say, "Much Ado about Nothing."
Also last week, MinDA announced that it was partnering with NAMRIA (National Mapping and Resource Information Agency) and JICA (Japan International Cooperative Agency), which is largely equivalent with the American USAID programme.The 3 entities will work on the production of a digital topographic map of the entire island in 1:50,000 scale.Not only will this be the first digital map of the entire island,it is Mindanao's first topographic map as well-as the first governmentsl mapping since the 1950s.Of course up until the present we have portions of the island that are completely untouched and unexplored.If you notice, NAMRIA's full title includes the phrase,"Resource Information."This of course infers that Japan is not engaging in this endeavor out of altruism but out of a concerted effort to be the first foreign power to exploit here to fore pristine portions of the island.This becomes a lot more apparent when you find that Japan is entirely footing the bill to the tune of 690 Million Pesos (almost $14 Million).
The Philippine Left (and often the Right as well) are perrenially obsessed with American exploitation of Mindanowan resources,and to a lesser degree,with Aussie (Australian),Canadian and Western European designs.One never hears about the Japanese and they have almost a large as hold in terms of volume,economic investment in exploitable segments and in positioning themselves as widely as possible,sans the American PR machine that spouts off everytime USAID or its subsidiary GEM (Growth in Equity Mindana) unveils another foot bridge.
In December, 2006 Japan began laying it on hot and heavy in Morolandia (MILF environs) with the implementation of "J-BIRD" (Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development),which by the way has a portion of the map project as well (MILF slush fund).
When discussing Development a common misconception is that it only applies to physical or economic issues. Development of course also covers the political spectrum.Case in point, Bukidnon Province's Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Council) will once again bandy about the controversial,yet increasingly unavoidable subject of expansion (and contraction) when it resumes post-Xmas.On the scheduale for that 1st post-holiday session,January 06,2111 will be the long discussed creation of the Province's 4th Congressional District. Bukidnon Province has 2 cities (Malaybalay and Valencia),20 towns and 464 barangays.By Mindanowan standards this qualifies it for "bursting at the seams,"though when compared with Central and Southern Luzon that becomes downright laughable.The proposed 4th District will take Pangan-tucan and Kalilangan from their current 1st District,Valencia City from its current 2nd District,and Kadingilan from its current 3rd District.
The current initiative was generated by a Resolution authored by the Majority Leader of the Floor,Nemesio Beltran Jr.in early 2010.The SP (Council) will hold a Public Consultation and has requested all LGU Executives (Local Government Unit Executives,equals municipal officials) down to the Barangay Captain level.Also on tap is another re-generated proposal that has the province being divided into 2 provinces along the lines of Agusan and Lanao Provinces.This idea was first introduced in the 1980s by current Vice Governor Jose Maria R.Zubiri Jr. The" LGU Code of 1991"allows for the creation of a new province when the proposed new province will encompass a contigious area of at least 2000 square kilometers,with a minimum population of 250,000 and with a generated income of at least 20 Million Pesos.
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri also developed a very similar plan while a Congressman representing Bukidnon's 3rd District (1998 to 2001).I suppose its a popular subject at the Zubiri diningroom table.At the time Zubiri had been blocked by fellow Bukidnon Congressman (at the time),Neric Acosta.Acosta represented the 1st District and feared weakening his own baliwick. In 2006, by then a Senator, he tried for a 2nd time and once again found Acosta blocking the way.
On November 29. 2010,President Aquino was presented with a briefing paper on the new Mindanowan framework for Development. Entitled,"Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan."This new framework is being touted as the direct successor to"Mindanao 2000"(launched during the Ramos Presidency),which is set to expire at midnite,New Years Eve and like its predecessor isn't a "plan" per se,but rather serves as a touchstone for subsequent planning."Mindanao 2020"will last for the duration of the Presidential term,and unless superceded by the plan of a successive administration,until the year 2020.
The jist of the "plan" revolves around 10 central points:
I) Dismantlement of PAGs (Private Armed Groups,aka"paramilitaries") which will help towards a"gunless"Mindanao.
II) A first tier infrastructural and transportational system that will efficiently move goods as well as people.
III) Reasonable and sustainable development of,and maintenance of Mindanowan natural and cultural resources.Such interaction with the island's resources will be approached with respect and ultimate concern for the environment as well as of respect for ways in which to maximise benefits for islanders themselves.
IV). Institutions will be rebuilt,or otherwise developed to be field natural illness,disease and other dangers.
V) Strengthening of intra-regional links culturally,socially and economically with special consideration towards ASEAN Nations so as to strengthen existing cooperative relationships.
VI) A strong, competitive economy with inter-cooperative elements that are up to date technologically and industrially. Mindanao will be positioned as both a national and regional leader economically.
VII) Respect for all Mindanowans' personal as well as cultural dignity.
VIII) More culturally sensitive education without necessarily relying upon the orthadox Philippine model used here to fore.
IX) Respect for cultural diversity
X) All Mindanowans will enjoy marked materiel and cultural improvements in their lives.
Number III makes me sincerely and incredibly happy simply because the President is paying it lipservice though it is a totally meaningless gesture.The paper is meant to covey a framework, a methodology for change.Instead it is simply a child's wish list for acid washed change.All the Politically Correct bile makes me want to hurl my kalamansi (for foreigners, it is tiny sour citrus fruit that together with soy sauce forms THE Philippine's most popular condiment. Please don't ask me about "banana ketchup").It is exceedingly easy to articulate a list for Santa Claus (getting off some holiday themed comments) but much more difficult to figure out a way in which to obtain these things for ourselves.This "framework"doesn't offer a single piece of substantiative information.I did a manage to squeeze a great laugh though out of MinDA's (Mindanao Development Authority) Luwalhati Antonino's comments post-ceremony.First I need to say that I acrually respect the woman a great deal.As I have mentioned in at least one other entry,Mrs.Antonino together with Congresswoman Daisy Fuentes of South Cotabato Province and the late Mayor of Zamboanga City (and mother to its current mayor) Clara Lobregat formed an informal political alliance against the MNLF,and later MILF political depradations.Many probally recall the Pinol brothers of Cotabato,(then) Mayor Lawrence Cruz of Iligan City,Lanao del Norte Provibce and Ms. Lobregat's son,Mayor Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City.These men,great heroes in my perspective,alone were responsible for saving the nation from a midnite dissection via MoA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain).That terribly flawed document which directly violated the Philippine's 1987 Constitution would have allowed the MILF to build a direct launching pad for their rape of the entire island.Without the Emergency Petition by those 4 Mindanowan politicians the Arroyo Government would have crossed the proverbial Rubicon and all hope for Mindanao would have been lost.Is is THAT serious.The Petition was accepted by the Supreme Court who then immediately granted the Petitioner's request for a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order),which was issued in August of 2008.Immediately afterwards the Court set about determining the legality of the Moa-AD and eventually issued its Ruling that October,negating the document as Unconstitutional.The 3 afore mentioned women,Clara Lobregat,Daisy Fuentes and Luwalhati Antonino similarly took action over very serious issues and did so almost 20 years before those men did.Like those men they deserve so much more than a little seen footnote in Philippine History.
OK, with that out of the way... After the unveiling of the briefing paper I just discussed Ms. Antonino was asked to offer. some more information on "Mindanao 2020." Offering her comments on the fly, via SMS (texting) she offered that the projected outlay (cost) is pegged at a whopping 60 Billion Pesos over the course of those 5 projected years. That really wouldn't be much of an issue, certainly not at this pre-implementation/pre-allocation stage BUT...as I have pointed out, that "plan" was nothing but fluff!What was it that the Bard said about Denmark (no offence to any Danish readers, Hey, what makes you think that 1 of the 3 people who will ever read this wouldn't be Danish?).
I should segue into a riff about the great accounting skills displayed by General Garcia (in a recent AFP entry) but intelligent people should have gotten my inference by now.
Speaking of"Mindanao 2020,"last week in Cagayan del Oro City in Misamis Oriental Province,a second Developmental framework was released.At a special gathering of 100 varied stakeholders organised by NEDA (National Economic Development Authority).NEDA has 5 Regional branch offices on Mindanao corresponding to the island's 5 Regions (the 6th, "ARMM," or, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao has its own version of NEDA due to that Region's highly autonomous nature).
Known as,"MSDF 2010-2020"(Mindanao Strategic Framework for Development),it wad spearheaded by NEDA-RDO (NEDA Regional Development Office) Assistant Director Marcelina Bacani.ARMM's"RED and PB"(Regional Economic Development and Planning Board) offered significant input as did all 5 NEDA branches on Mindanao.Basically,there are 5 main areas of focus:
I) Peace Building
II) Good Governance with strong partnerships in both the public and the private sector.
III) Industrialisation based upon sustainable resources
IV) Social Equity
V) Capable Logistical Support
As unveiled by Leon M. Dacanay Jr.,Director of NEDA Region 10 (the region covering Misamis Oriental Province,where this unveiling took place),with the keynote speech given by Secretary of SEP (Socio-Economic Planning) Cayetano W. Paderanga the "plan"has a 9 year shelf life,expiring in 2021.Like the preceeding"plan"this too is meant only as a touchstone for planning.Since I have a Shakespearean theme going (the "Bard" of course being William Shakespeare),I will simply say, "Much Ado about Nothing."
Also last week, MinDA announced that it was partnering with NAMRIA (National Mapping and Resource Information Agency) and JICA (Japan International Cooperative Agency), which is largely equivalent with the American USAID programme.The 3 entities will work on the production of a digital topographic map of the entire island in 1:50,000 scale.Not only will this be the first digital map of the entire island,it is Mindanao's first topographic map as well-as the first governmentsl mapping since the 1950s.Of course up until the present we have portions of the island that are completely untouched and unexplored.If you notice, NAMRIA's full title includes the phrase,"Resource Information."This of course infers that Japan is not engaging in this endeavor out of altruism but out of a concerted effort to be the first foreign power to exploit here to fore pristine portions of the island.This becomes a lot more apparent when you find that Japan is entirely footing the bill to the tune of 690 Million Pesos (almost $14 Million).
The Philippine Left (and often the Right as well) are perrenially obsessed with American exploitation of Mindanowan resources,and to a lesser degree,with Aussie (Australian),Canadian and Western European designs.One never hears about the Japanese and they have almost a large as hold in terms of volume,economic investment in exploitable segments and in positioning themselves as widely as possible,sans the American PR machine that spouts off everytime USAID or its subsidiary GEM (Growth in Equity Mindana) unveils another foot bridge.
In December, 2006 Japan began laying it on hot and heavy in Morolandia (MILF environs) with the implementation of "J-BIRD" (Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development),which by the way has a portion of the map project as well (MILF slush fund).
When discussing Development a common misconception is that it only applies to physical or economic issues. Development of course also covers the political spectrum.Case in point, Bukidnon Province's Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Council) will once again bandy about the controversial,yet increasingly unavoidable subject of expansion (and contraction) when it resumes post-Xmas.On the scheduale for that 1st post-holiday session,January 06,2111 will be the long discussed creation of the Province's 4th Congressional District. Bukidnon Province has 2 cities (Malaybalay and Valencia),20 towns and 464 barangays.By Mindanowan standards this qualifies it for "bursting at the seams,"though when compared with Central and Southern Luzon that becomes downright laughable.The proposed 4th District will take Pangan-tucan and Kalilangan from their current 1st District,Valencia City from its current 2nd District,and Kadingilan from its current 3rd District.
The current initiative was generated by a Resolution authored by the Majority Leader of the Floor,Nemesio Beltran Jr.in early 2010.The SP (Council) will hold a Public Consultation and has requested all LGU Executives (Local Government Unit Executives,equals municipal officials) down to the Barangay Captain level.Also on tap is another re-generated proposal that has the province being divided into 2 provinces along the lines of Agusan and Lanao Provinces.This idea was first introduced in the 1980s by current Vice Governor Jose Maria R.Zubiri Jr. The" LGU Code of 1991"allows for the creation of a new province when the proposed new province will encompass a contigious area of at least 2000 square kilometers,with a minimum population of 250,000 and with a generated income of at least 20 Million Pesos.
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri also developed a very similar plan while a Congressman representing Bukidnon's 3rd District (1998 to 2001).I suppose its a popular subject at the Zubiri diningroom table.At the time Zubiri had been blocked by fellow Bukidnon Congressman (at the time),Neric Acosta.Acosta represented the 1st District and feared weakening his own baliwick. In 2006, by then a Senator, he tried for a 2nd time and once again found Acosta blocking the way.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Development Agression,Last Quarter of 2010:Development, How Much is TOO Much?
When discussing Counterinsurgency anywhere in the world the one solution that will always enter the conversation is "Development." Simple enough for anyone to grasp, why is it then nearly impossible to implement effectively? A huge part of the problem is that sustainable development, development that will not dissipate over the short term, needs to be carefully tailored for each specific dynamic. For example, a Tilapia* Hatchery scheme that works very well in 1 place might be a disaster in a 2nd locale. Aside from very real environmental concerns, there are cultural, socio-economic and of course geo-political concerns to take into account. In Mindanao, neigh, the Philippines as a whole, there is a very real disconnect between the powers that be concerning viable, sustainable development and the means with which to wage an effective Counterinsurgency.
Without exception in both the poltical and military realms "Development" is absolutely equated with margins of profit. If a facet of development will not produce mid-term dividends it is consigned to the rubbish heap. GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) doesn't ponder the long term. It doesn't care what may or may not take place even one century ahead on the horizon. GRP is deeply concerned with posting short term solutions that cannot possibly sustain themselves over the long run. Instead if planting the seeds of a self-perpetuating economical facet such as Paper Production (excepting the clusterfuc* of a nightmare known as PICOP,the behemoth that went belly up in NE Mindanao some years ago), GRP instead implements a Governmental entity to more easily divvy up the island's mineral wealth. Make no mistake about it, there is nothing wrong with exploiting mineral deposits as long as it is done in a technologically, environmentally and culturally responsible manner. GRP has never done anything of the sort.
The type of "Development" GRP aims for will never serve to help neutralise the various insurgencies plaguing the island. It will merely serve to exacerbate and perpetuate the root causes and aggravate the acute facets there in. With this lovely and comforting realisation I thought it best to offer a running compendium on Developmental issues on Mindanao, most notably the aptly named variant, "Developmental Aggression," a neat little moniker that I aim to explore in another entry.
As I mentioned, Mining is being sold as "Development" and this is having some catastrophic environmental and cultural ramifications. Of course in a government revolving around sheer avarice one will always find appalling cases of sheer greed. A notable and relatively recent example is the debacle taking place on and around Mt.Pinukis on the Zamboangan Peninsula. Mt.Pinukis, like many notable mountains on Mindanao is a holy site for animist tribes, in this case. The Subanen Tribe, the tribe indigenous to Zamboanga. On October 05, 2010, in the town of Midsalip, in Zamboamga Sibugay Province, curious Subanen villagers discovered heavy equipment parked in the town's Barangay Sigapod. The equipment, used for testing claim sites, was registered to CDSI (Construction and Drilling Specialists Inc.), a mining equipment lessor based in El Salvador, Misamis Oriental Province. Upon investigation municipal officials discovered that the equipment had been leased. On October 03 to GAMI (Geotechniques and Minerals Inc.), Alpha Sibuco and Cebu Ore, 3 companies who planned to bring their leased testing equipment into the jungle on and around Mt.Pinukis.
Om October 09, in the town's Barangay Guinabor, Subanen villagers found a 2nd batch of testing equipment which sparked an impromptu demonstration, though Midsalip PNP (municipal detachment of Philippine National Police) prevented the angry villagers from destroying the equipment. By October 20 the demonstration had spread to the first site as well, in Barangay. Sigapod. On October 20 the 3 companies targetted by the demonstrators blinked and began to pull out all equipment (a process completed on October 26). When CDSI, the contractor, pulled out citing community opposition the equupment had made it to within 1 kilometer of the Test Site.
One would have thought that the equipment having been removed on October 20 would have caused the demonstrators to dissipate as well but instead, as municipal officials began uncovering more and more disturbing facts the protests continued. On October 28 almost 100 tribespeople laid prostrate on the ground in a symbolic, non-violent show of rancouer against the mining companies and the government that backs them.
The area to have been tested is a 529 hectare tract encompassed on an MPSA (Miner Production Share Agreement) issued to a consortium of the 3 afore mentioned mining companies:
GAMI (Geotechniques and Minerals Inc)
Alpha Sibuco
Cebu Ore
Issued by MGB (Mining and Geosciences Bureau) in 2009. Aside from the cultural and religious significance of Mt.Pinukis, the mountain is also the source of many wide and voluminous streams that feed the 3 main bays on the Zamboangan Peninsula and serves as a watershed fir most of Zamboanga Sibugay Province.
By November 20 the investigation into the attempted drilling on Mt.Pinukis had uncovered some startling facts. Prior to any issuance of Permits by MGB a prospective company must first obtain a FPIC (Free and Informed Prior Consent), a form signed by a tribe's "designated" leader(s) stating that the tribal leadership has been fully informed of the applicant's intentions and does not object in any notable way. It attests that this agreement was entirely free of coercion and entirely voluntarily in every way. Lumad Tribes ("Lumad" being a Cebuano/Bisaya word encompassing all non-Negrito animist tribes on Mindanao, analogous to the Tagalog term "Igorot" used correspondingly on Luzon) are by far the poorest and most under served demographic on the nation's poorest and most underserved island. Ergo, it is not difficult at all to stack the deck against Lumads when trying to wrangle their only concrete asset, land. I placed the word, "Leader" in apostrophes because in the vast bulk of FPICs Lumad leaders give away their inheritance for an absolute pittance. One cannot help hearkening back to the Dutch and their "purchase" of Manhattan Island for 24 US Dollars worth of glass beads and just as with Manhattan one finds it is inevitably a European based multi-national corporation doing the "wrangling."
IF Subanen leaders had merely traded away their birthright for glass beads that would be a great tragedy indeed. However, the Subanen of Midsalip claim that their leaders were not even consulted! The majority of protestors maintain that 1 4ubanen Timuay (where as most Lumad call chiefs by the Malay title, "Datu," Subanen use a wird in their own language, "Timuay," or, "Timway") wadnt even a Subanen, let alone a Timuay. The demonstrators claim that the man in question is a Cebuano TBisaya, a non-Lumad ethnicity).They also note with derision that 5 supposed Timuay were brothers and that Subanen Tribal Law mandates that a single generation in each family may not exceed a single Timuay. Clearly they say, the tribe has been duped. What's more they say, the entire FPIC process is supposed to be under the direct supervision of the NCIP (National Council on Indigenous Peoples). The NCIP is absolutely aware of Subanen Tribal Laws and so there has clearly been collusion during the FPIC process (or at the very least, extreme negligence).
To put the entire mining issue in the proper perspective, the entire Zamboanga Peninsula encompasses 1.7 million hectares of dry land. Using the most current MGB Tenement Map, dated December of 2008, 745,675 hectares, or 44% of the entire peninsula, is prospected. Of those 745,675 hectares, 433,801 hectares are bound in 90 Exploration Permits. Of the remaining area, 78,975 hectares are divided between 4 FTAAs (Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements) while all the rest (save roughly 500 hectares) is divvied up under MPSAs (Mineral Production Sharing Agreements). The 500 hectares excepted comprise a single working mine in Barangay Canatuan in the town of Siocon, also in the Province of Zamboanga Sibugay. Like Midsalip it is a Subanen community and just as what is now transpiring in terms0of opposition in Midsalip, Siocon faced extremely stiff opposition. Of course, in the end the Subanen there (and their supporters) lost their struggle to block the mine and did so after several of their number were tortured and murdered (the last case to my knowledge having taken place in 2004), but the demonstrators in Midsalip say they have studied Siocon intently and don't believe that their struggle will find the same pitfalls.
Of Midsalip's 28,000 hectares, 19,000 hectares are under 14 Applications for Exploration Permits. These 14 Applications cover 31 of the town's 33 barangays. 3 of those 14 Applications have already evolved into MPSAs, 1 of. Which is held by the consrtium led by GAMI, the company at the heart of the struggle in Midsalip. GAMI's MPSA was issued in 2009 amd covers 592 hectares in 3 barangays, Guinabot, Sigapod and Comarom. The struggle of course is far from over. Currently (as of December 16, 2010) the Supreme Court is waiting to docket the Motion for Reconsideration on the Petition by NGO, ASIN (Alliance to Save the Integrity of Nature) to revoke the consortium's MPSA. The Petition revolves around the accusations made by Subanen regarding the afore mentioned FPIC. It is worth noting that a 2nd MPSA holder in the town, "168 Ferrum Pacific Mining Corporation" is also under a similarly filed Petition alleging these same impropieties.
The saddest thing to me, is that in 1988 when (then) President Corazon"Cory"Aquino (late mother of our current President) was sitting in the hot seat a similar last minute action had to be taken to save this very same watertshed over LOGGING.
Without exception in both the poltical and military realms "Development" is absolutely equated with margins of profit. If a facet of development will not produce mid-term dividends it is consigned to the rubbish heap. GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) doesn't ponder the long term. It doesn't care what may or may not take place even one century ahead on the horizon. GRP is deeply concerned with posting short term solutions that cannot possibly sustain themselves over the long run. Instead if planting the seeds of a self-perpetuating economical facet such as Paper Production (excepting the clusterfuc* of a nightmare known as PICOP,the behemoth that went belly up in NE Mindanao some years ago), GRP instead implements a Governmental entity to more easily divvy up the island's mineral wealth. Make no mistake about it, there is nothing wrong with exploiting mineral deposits as long as it is done in a technologically, environmentally and culturally responsible manner. GRP has never done anything of the sort.
The type of "Development" GRP aims for will never serve to help neutralise the various insurgencies plaguing the island. It will merely serve to exacerbate and perpetuate the root causes and aggravate the acute facets there in. With this lovely and comforting realisation I thought it best to offer a running compendium on Developmental issues on Mindanao, most notably the aptly named variant, "Developmental Aggression," a neat little moniker that I aim to explore in another entry.
As I mentioned, Mining is being sold as "Development" and this is having some catastrophic environmental and cultural ramifications. Of course in a government revolving around sheer avarice one will always find appalling cases of sheer greed. A notable and relatively recent example is the debacle taking place on and around Mt.Pinukis on the Zamboangan Peninsula. Mt.Pinukis, like many notable mountains on Mindanao is a holy site for animist tribes, in this case. The Subanen Tribe, the tribe indigenous to Zamboanga. On October 05, 2010, in the town of Midsalip, in Zamboamga Sibugay Province, curious Subanen villagers discovered heavy equipment parked in the town's Barangay Sigapod. The equipment, used for testing claim sites, was registered to CDSI (Construction and Drilling Specialists Inc.), a mining equipment lessor based in El Salvador, Misamis Oriental Province. Upon investigation municipal officials discovered that the equipment had been leased. On October 03 to GAMI (Geotechniques and Minerals Inc.), Alpha Sibuco and Cebu Ore, 3 companies who planned to bring their leased testing equipment into the jungle on and around Mt.Pinukis.
Om October 09, in the town's Barangay Guinabor, Subanen villagers found a 2nd batch of testing equipment which sparked an impromptu demonstration, though Midsalip PNP (municipal detachment of Philippine National Police) prevented the angry villagers from destroying the equipment. By October 20 the demonstration had spread to the first site as well, in Barangay. Sigapod. On October 20 the 3 companies targetted by the demonstrators blinked and began to pull out all equipment (a process completed on October 26). When CDSI, the contractor, pulled out citing community opposition the equupment had made it to within 1 kilometer of the Test Site.
One would have thought that the equipment having been removed on October 20 would have caused the demonstrators to dissipate as well but instead, as municipal officials began uncovering more and more disturbing facts the protests continued. On October 28 almost 100 tribespeople laid prostrate on the ground in a symbolic, non-violent show of rancouer against the mining companies and the government that backs them.
The area to have been tested is a 529 hectare tract encompassed on an MPSA (Miner Production Share Agreement) issued to a consortium of the 3 afore mentioned mining companies:
GAMI (Geotechniques and Minerals Inc)
Alpha Sibuco
Cebu Ore
Issued by MGB (Mining and Geosciences Bureau) in 2009. Aside from the cultural and religious significance of Mt.Pinukis, the mountain is also the source of many wide and voluminous streams that feed the 3 main bays on the Zamboangan Peninsula and serves as a watershed fir most of Zamboanga Sibugay Province.
By November 20 the investigation into the attempted drilling on Mt.Pinukis had uncovered some startling facts. Prior to any issuance of Permits by MGB a prospective company must first obtain a FPIC (Free and Informed Prior Consent), a form signed by a tribe's "designated" leader(s) stating that the tribal leadership has been fully informed of the applicant's intentions and does not object in any notable way. It attests that this agreement was entirely free of coercion and entirely voluntarily in every way. Lumad Tribes ("Lumad" being a Cebuano/Bisaya word encompassing all non-Negrito animist tribes on Mindanao, analogous to the Tagalog term "Igorot" used correspondingly on Luzon) are by far the poorest and most under served demographic on the nation's poorest and most underserved island. Ergo, it is not difficult at all to stack the deck against Lumads when trying to wrangle their only concrete asset, land. I placed the word, "Leader" in apostrophes because in the vast bulk of FPICs Lumad leaders give away their inheritance for an absolute pittance. One cannot help hearkening back to the Dutch and their "purchase" of Manhattan Island for 24 US Dollars worth of glass beads and just as with Manhattan one finds it is inevitably a European based multi-national corporation doing the "wrangling."
IF Subanen leaders had merely traded away their birthright for glass beads that would be a great tragedy indeed. However, the Subanen of Midsalip claim that their leaders were not even consulted! The majority of protestors maintain that 1 4ubanen Timuay (where as most Lumad call chiefs by the Malay title, "Datu," Subanen use a wird in their own language, "Timuay," or, "Timway") wadnt even a Subanen, let alone a Timuay. The demonstrators claim that the man in question is a Cebuano TBisaya, a non-Lumad ethnicity).They also note with derision that 5 supposed Timuay were brothers and that Subanen Tribal Law mandates that a single generation in each family may not exceed a single Timuay. Clearly they say, the tribe has been duped. What's more they say, the entire FPIC process is supposed to be under the direct supervision of the NCIP (National Council on Indigenous Peoples). The NCIP is absolutely aware of Subanen Tribal Laws and so there has clearly been collusion during the FPIC process (or at the very least, extreme negligence).
To put the entire mining issue in the proper perspective, the entire Zamboanga Peninsula encompasses 1.7 million hectares of dry land. Using the most current MGB Tenement Map, dated December of 2008, 745,675 hectares, or 44% of the entire peninsula, is prospected. Of those 745,675 hectares, 433,801 hectares are bound in 90 Exploration Permits. Of the remaining area, 78,975 hectares are divided between 4 FTAAs (Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements) while all the rest (save roughly 500 hectares) is divvied up under MPSAs (Mineral Production Sharing Agreements). The 500 hectares excepted comprise a single working mine in Barangay Canatuan in the town of Siocon, also in the Province of Zamboanga Sibugay. Like Midsalip it is a Subanen community and just as what is now transpiring in terms0of opposition in Midsalip, Siocon faced extremely stiff opposition. Of course, in the end the Subanen there (and their supporters) lost their struggle to block the mine and did so after several of their number were tortured and murdered (the last case to my knowledge having taken place in 2004), but the demonstrators in Midsalip say they have studied Siocon intently and don't believe that their struggle will find the same pitfalls.
Of Midsalip's 28,000 hectares, 19,000 hectares are under 14 Applications for Exploration Permits. These 14 Applications cover 31 of the town's 33 barangays. 3 of those 14 Applications have already evolved into MPSAs, 1 of. Which is held by the consrtium led by GAMI, the company at the heart of the struggle in Midsalip. GAMI's MPSA was issued in 2009 amd covers 592 hectares in 3 barangays, Guinabot, Sigapod and Comarom. The struggle of course is far from over. Currently (as of December 16, 2010) the Supreme Court is waiting to docket the Motion for Reconsideration on the Petition by NGO, ASIN (Alliance to Save the Integrity of Nature) to revoke the consortium's MPSA. The Petition revolves around the accusations made by Subanen regarding the afore mentioned FPIC. It is worth noting that a 2nd MPSA holder in the town, "168 Ferrum Pacific Mining Corporation" is also under a similarly filed Petition alleging these same impropieties.
The saddest thing to me, is that in 1988 when (then) President Corazon"Cory"Aquino (late mother of our current President) was sitting in the hot seat a similar last minute action had to be taken to save this very same watertshed over LOGGING.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)