Development Aggression for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part I: The ARMM Blows Smoke About Record Breaking Investments for FIY 2011, Telling the Usual Lies

As I had predicted- well "predicted" isn't necessarily the most apt word since I knew- President Aquino formally had former Congressman Mujiv Hataman as the OIC (Officer in Charge, as in "Appointed") Governor of the ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. I will get to that in my upcoming third and final entry on the Mujiv Hataman saga. Meanwhile, Ishak "Cocoy" Veloso Mastura, Chairman of the ARMM Regional Board of Investments has stuck his foot deep into his mouth with the just announced claim that 2011 has been a record breaking year for private investment within the ARMM. According to Mastura, there was not only a record breaking injection of capital, but investors outdid all previous years by nearly 400%. Fantastic, right? Let's examine the claim;

Ishak Mastura correctly notes that in 2011, from January 1st up until December 15th, the region saw P1,656.24 Billion, that IS Billion, you read correctly. Now, in 2010, it is ALSO true that the ARMM merely saw P91 Million. So, so far so good, neigh, perfect. Let us see just what caused this massive (nearly) 400% increase; a grand total of THREE investments:

1) EA Trilink Corporation, in the Second Quarter, landed a telecom franchise for the entire ARMM worth, and this is what is all boils down to, P1.5 Billion. Wow, great, but how did this company land it? EA Trilink is a private corporation CREATED BY the ARMM during the tenure of Governor Nur Misuari, the MNLF Chairman handed the keys to the autonomous kingdom by then-President Ramos as a way in which to seduce Misuari into signing Jakarta 1996, the mis-named Final Peace Agreement that still hasn't been implemented. The "company" was liscenced by the ARMM, becoming its sole franchisee long before cellular service even came to Manila. Setting up a small office in the ARMM Capital Complex in Cotabato City, it began funneling cash to various money laundering schemes.

Today this company has a grand total of eight employees, including office staff in Makati where Doctor Alfredo Panizales beguiles foreign visitors. Serving as CEO AND President, he is wise enough to have a token Muslim, Datu Hadji Nasser D.Sampaco as "Chairman." The company only landed it first deal in 2008 but since then has become a huge blackhole. Its course du jour is a plan to create 2,000 electronic kiosks in thirty ARMM municipalities. Using a sattelite hub in Cebu City, signals will be fed into a main centre in each of the five main ARMM provinces. So far, this involves ZERO employment opportunities. The company is bragging that it will create 6,000 long term jobs within the ARMM. How? It will hire three people for each of the kiosks. At two thousand kiosks times three employees, there will be six thousand jobs.

These kiosks will provide telephone, email, and internet services, with one employee for every eight hour shift. Forget that the Central Governments placement of these kiosks in 60% of all Philippine municipalities has so far been a resounding failure- how could it not be in a nation awash with cybercafes and the highest per capita usage of cellphones IN THE WORLD-what counts to Ishak "Cocoy" Mastura is the bottom line, P1.5 Billion. What Mastura doesn't say however, is that the entire sum comes from Government coffers. Granted, most of that will by NGO and Foreign Aid monies BUT, how can you brag about "private investment" when it is entirely Government generated? It is an intellectual shell game, Economics 101 for scam artists. Of course Ishak happens to be the son of MILF Peace Panelist Datu Michael Ong Mastura, and so one then calms down and realises that poor little Ishak is probably as clueless as the people he aims to swindle.

Ishak, ironically, began his career as Andal Ampatuan Sr's legal lapdog before joining the Manila firm of Siguion and Reina. Not able to keep up with his caseload he asked Bapa Andal for another handout and was placed at the beck and call of Andal's son, Zaldy, then the Governor of the ARMM. Before long, Ishak became Chairman of the Regional Board of Investments...and...voila.



2) Matling Industrial and Commercial Corporation, in the Third Quarter, announced that it was building a biomass electrical generation sub-station at their main cassava starch facility in the municipality of Malabang, in Lanao del Sur Province. The project, pegged at P23.90 Million will use dried cassava/rhiozome chips to power a steam turbine generator, utilising a good many advances made with regard to cassava as a biomass source. They already have a 1,500MW hydroelectric facility on the Matling River, the waterway upon which the company is centered.

As much as I would like to rip into the project, the company being notorious for shi**ing all over its employees (refer to two cases, former Financial Director Ricardo R.Coros and former Executive Vice President Armando T.de Rossi, just as examples- and they are at the top of the pyramid), I can't really frown because it is a self-centered project taking place on property owned by the company since the 1930s. Unlike the two other projects being discussed, this one is on the up and up. Ergo, chock up P23.90 Million as ACTUAL investment, although, since it is entirely internal, it isn't going to help the ARMM in any real manner.

3) Agumil Philippines Incorporated, a multi-national consortium building the latest addition to its burgeoning palm oil empire on the Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat Provincial borders, is earmarking P132 Million for the Fourth Quarter, to construct a palm oil processing refinery on a 20 hectare tract in the municipality of Buluan, in Maguindanao Province. Buluan of course is the seat of power of Maguindanao Governor, Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu. Toto, and his clan paramilitary, the Buayan sa Lanao (Crocodiles of the Lake, the "Lake" being Lake Bualan) have been at the centre of the project.

In Second and Third Quarter of 2011 "MILF Armed Contact" entries I described the shooting war between the Buayan sa Lanao and the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces as the MILF's armed wing is known. That conflict, which has been ongoing for years, revolves around the Mangudadatu Clan snatching up parcels of land, often by force, to end up on the right side of the Aguimil venture. The company, dominated by a Maylasian-Singaporean consortium holding 40% outright and most of the rest through Philippine registered shell companies, is, like so many agrobiz multi-nationals, contracting with local landholders to gain a targetted 9,000 hectare presence on that Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat Provincial border. The municipality of Buluan sits directly on that border. On the other side, Sultan Kudarat Province is also controlled by the Mangudadatu Clan, with Governor "Toto's" first cousin, Datu Suharto "Deng" Mangudadatu, sitting as Governor. The municipality of Colombio is being primed for 6,000 hectares in the project. In both Buluan and Colombio it is the Mangudadatu Clan, backed by the Buayan, who controls the vast majority of the tracts.

The refinery is being built because, until now, there are only four such refineries in existence:

1) Kenram Industrial Development Incorporated, in the town of Isulan, the capital of Sultan Kudarat Province

2) Filipina Palm Oil Processing Incorporated- Caraga Oil Refining Incorporated (FPPI-COPI), Agusan del Sur Province, in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur Province, the processor at what used to be known as Guthrie Plantation cum Guthrie Estates

3) ABERDI in Bukidnon Province

4) Agumil, in Trento, in Agusan del Sur Province


The Agumil operation utilises its own refinery, in, Agusan del Sur, a long haul of 9 hours over roads that are often impassable. However, until the project obtained at least 2,000 hectares it didn't pay to build a refinery closer to Maguindanao Province. Instead, it sank its capital into the parallel operation in the municipality of Brooke's Point, on Palawan and bided its time until it had aquired the targetted amount of land. The fact that the entire amount invested for the project goes towards enriching the Mangudadatu Clan, who of course will be constructing it as well as staffing it renders this project as well, a ZERO investment into the community, into labour pool, and into the Local Government Unit.

In fact, none of these projects offer true investments. Matling is building a powerplant for its own cassava factory, utilising a foreign consulting firm and a foreign construction firm. Agumil is building a dedicated mill to serve its own plantations, on land owned by the Mangudadatus, by a firm owned by the same clan, to service contact acerage owned by them as well. Finally, the EA Trilink "bonanza" is being paid for by Manila- IF it even materielises. Uh, thanks Ishak Mastura, for illustrating everything that's wrong with the ARMM.

Development Aggression,Second Quarter of 2011,Part V:Mount Diwalwal

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".

Development Aggression,First Quarter of 2011,Part II:Mining Woes in ComVal,Moratorium on Logging and the DENR Combats Illegal Logging

US-based multi-national Russell Mining's volunteerism and good deeds during the Pantukan Landslide that took place in ComVal (Compestela Valley Province) on Good Friday,April 23rd,2011 came on the heels of scathing attacks by anti-mining activists.Only 3 weeks prior,in mid-March of 2011,the company launched the requisite Feasability Study for the gold and copper deposits in Barangay Kingking,though many kilometers distant from the collapsed hillside that gave way early Good Friday.Most of the nearly 20 test pits have been dug in Sitios Lumanggang and Gumayan via its operating entity,Saint Augustine Copper and Gold,which is jointly owned by Russell's requisite"local partner",NADECOR,or Nationwide Development Corporation.ComVal Provincial Councilor Peter Ruwell Gonzaga is another unhappy camper,claiming that the firm is in direct violation of Provincial Ordinance #06.PO #06 mandates that all prospective miners,or mining companies,present their project plans to the Provincial Board for approval.

Also up in arms is the Mansaka Tribe,a Lumad group holding a CADT (Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title) encompassing 8 hectares within the Russell tenement.The tenement totals 1,663 hectares and is known by the catchy label,"Kingking Copper Gold Project."Not boding well for the envisioned mine is that on March 23rd the Provincial Board unanimously voted to support Governor Uy's proposed ban on mining,though for now it is only taking aim at the all pervasive small scale mining industry,so called Artisanal Mining.All the more relevant in light of that aforementioned landslide which took place exactly 1 month later,to the day.

On March 29th,2011 President Aquino visited Northern Mindanao and addressed a consortium of anti-mining advocates in Cagayan del Oro's Pilgrim Christian College.The President addressed more than 1,000 people and rationalised just why calling for a total ban on mining wasn't in the best interests of the country OR the environment.He said that IF a total ban WERE implemented small scale miners would quickly move in to fill the vacuum,as was the case on ComVal's Mount Diwalwal when a State of Emergency went into effect there almost a decade ago.Small scale mining is next to impossible to police and endangers everyone around it,including the miners,this despite asinine laws enacted in the immediate years after the fall of the late dictator,Ferdinand Marcos.These laws,like many in the Philippines,were crafted and passed without alot of forethought,or any thought at all if one wants to be accurate.

As if excessive mining and illegal small scale (Artisanal) mining aren't bad enough the island also suffers from pervasive illegal logging.With the Monsoon coming early this year and packing extra-heavy winds and rain courtesy of the La Nina weather phenomenon,landslides have been heavier than ever before.The situation has resulted in President Aquino issuing EO (Executive Order) #23,an immediate moratorium on logging in First and Second Growth forests that went into effect March 7th of 2011.

One of the more permanent benefits is the DENR (Department of the Environment and Natural Resources) is going to hire 206 new Forest Rangers whose task is to stem the illegal timber trade.DENR-Davao (DENR IX) has gotten 41 men even without the new hires via re-deployments from the AFP and PNP (Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police).The office has also released a truncated report on the illegal timber trade within its AOR (Area of Responsibility/Area of Operation),for 2010.The office has confiscated 1,086.74 cubic meters of cut lumber with a current market value of P3.2 Million (US60,000).The number is just a meaningless statistic because it only represents a couple of 10-wheeled loads.There are ship loads entirely composed of illegal timber leaving the island every day from several ports,most of which exist unoficially.Two small truck loads may be informative as far as calculating the profit margin,and more importantlY,the risk factor but in the end it doesn't even amount to a drop in the bucket.

In just 3 provinces:

1) Davao del Norte

2) Davao Oriental

3) ComVal

there was a collective LEGAL output of 112,116.99 cubic meters worth P22.01 Million (US400,000).15 timber mills and wood processing facilities that had been shuttered for involvement in the illegal trade were allowed to re-open after fully complying with laws and regulations.More than 100 others remain closed.To comply each facility must produce detailed transaction and operational records for the previous 5 years to weed out those involved with the illegal sector.

Despite the huge problems Japan is dealing with ,Japanese Ambassador Makoto Katsuna and OPAPP (Office of the Presidential Advisor to the Peace Process) Secretary Teresita Q.Deles signed an agreement whereby Japan will provide US1,022,553 (US49 Million)for 9 separate projects in Central Mindanao via the Japanese Government's J-BIRD (Japanese-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Re-construction and Development).The signing took place at the Astoria Plaza Hotel in Pasig City's Barangay Ortigas.This marks J-BIRD's 5th donation via its GGP,or Grants for Grassroots Human Security Projects.The 9 projects benefiting from the grant:

1) BLMI,or Bangsanoro Leadership Management Institute

2) SKIA,or Sultan Mohammad Dipatuan Kudarat Islamic Academy Foundation Inc.

3) WMSU,or Western Nindanao University

4) Datu Paglas (town in Maguindanao Province)

5) Mabini (town in Lanao del Sur )

6) Kauswagam (town in Lanao del Norte Province

7) Pananag Elementary School

8) Bual ARBA Multi-purpose Co-operative

9) Mindanao Child's Liberation Foundation Inc.

I need to point out that four of these projects,numbers 1,2,8,and 9 are MILF subsidiaries so that Japan is directly funding the insurgency.While it is extremely difficult to disentwine the many strands of insurgency one CAN avoid such pitfalls simply by performing due dilligence and negating any and all opportunities directly benefitting insurgent organisations.There is an argument that says that helping the MILF/BIAF controlled areas engage in sustainable development will have the concurrent benefit of lessening the rationale for armed rebellion.The prevailing argument however,one that I agree with,maintains that such opportunities should be offered only as incentives towards disarmament and de-mobilisation.

J-BIRD began in 2006 and to date has funded more than 50 projects in Central Mindanao worth US3.8 million (P152 Million).

Development Aggression,Second Quarter of 2011,Part IV:Coal Fed Energy

The Aboitiz Coal Fed Saga continues...For those not up to speed on the issue the Aboitiz Power Corporation,or APC,is moving full steam ahead (pun intended haha) with its plans for a huge coal fed energy plant on the border of Davao City and the municipality of Santa Cruz,both in Davao del Sur Province.The plant is a shoe in since local warlord and Vice Mayor of Davao City,Rodrigo"Roddy"Duterte was bribed...I mean convinced by a sound argument...and has ever since been one of the projects most enthusiastic supporters.The big"change"came after Duterte was given his own VIP Junket to the Steag State coal fed plant in the municipality of Villanueva in Misamis Occidental Province.The plant is controlled by Evonic Steag,a subsidiary of the German-based multi-national Evonik Industries.Philippine regulations and laws being what they are,Evonic was in need of a local partner,in this case Aboitiz Power Corporation which owns a healthy 34% stake in the venture.Ergo Aboitiz saw a perfect opportunity to bribe,I mean conduct an informative overnight tour complete with airfare,top accomodations (Mindanao doesn't have a single 5 Star Hotel) and the de riguer gratuity.Not even bothering to try and disguise the cash as a per diem each Councillor was given P6,000 (US130),3 weeks pay for most Filipinos.

The Aboitiz Project will (because it IS now a foregone conclusion unfortunately) involve a 51 hectare plot,17 hectares of which will lie in the Santa Cruz portion.This smaller tract will house a dedicated port to receive imported coal shipments as well as vast warehouses in which to store these huge supplies of coal until they are shipped forward to the 24 hectare portion in Davao City where the actual plant will be erected.The Davao City facility will sit in Toril District's Barangay Binugao.Like their compatriots in the adjoining Barangay Inawayan in Santa Cruz,the barangay government of Binugao were easily swayed into supporting the project.On April 15th,2011,Barangay Binugao's Barangay Council issued a Certificate of No Objection in a unanimous vote.This is very,very interesting because as of mid-February the Barangay Council was almost entirely dead set against it.How do you entirely sway a council in the span of 30 odd days?In Barangay Inawayan the Barangay Council likewise followed suit on April 19th.

Both Barangay Councils were pre-empted by the Santa Cruz Municipal Council who gladly offered their unanimously given approval of the project on March 30th.All the while the Davao City Council has been putting up its best front,acting as if they are actually weighing their options.Of course almost the whole lot of them have firmly made up their minds weeks ago,if not months past.However,at least the City Council won't be unanimously standing behind it.Some Councilors,like Leah Librado,remain vehnemently opposed to the plan.Still,in early March the Council passed the issue on First Reading and did the requisite forwarding to the Council's Committees on Energy,on Environment,and on Commerce and Trade.Each Committee must then hold Public Consultations on the issue with constituencies.

Though not often discussed the Aboitiz Project is far from being the only coal fired plant on the table.Conal Holdings Corporation is working on 2 separate projects on Mindanao.The corporation,owned by the Alcantara Clan,is planning a 100 Megawatt plant in Zamboanga City's Barangay San Ramon in Zamboanga del Norte Province.Located within the city's Freeport Zone which heretofore has been best known for being the home to the island's largest prison is now undergoing both the project's Feasbility Study as well as the requisite EIA,or Environmental Impact Assesment.Though,with Abotiz's experience in Davao City as the template there shouldn't be any difficulties both reports are due to be completed by August of 2011.Worth noting is Conal's plan to construct its own dedicated seaport on site so as to ease importation of coal to the plant.This explains the 4 month window on the EIA.In addition to the usual topographic,hydrographic and geotech surveys they also will have to do an indepth marine impact survey.

Sometime in August,or early September,if both reports make their deadline,Conal will file for its ECC,or Environmental Compliance Certificate.Indeed,Conal sponsored its own junket to the Steag State plant in which The Mayor of Zamboanga City,Celso Lobregat,his entire City Council,Chief Engineer and various department heads all spent what must been an incredibly boring day in October of 2010.In each of these junkets Steag State goes on and on about how there are no health concerns,no potential of damage to the envoronment and so on.To give one an idea about what will be spewing out of those huge smokestacks that will soon be dotting the coasts of our island,this 100 Megawatt Project in Zamboanga City plans to plant 3,750 hectares of trees in surrounding tracts.Great,right?The trees are needed to suck up all that excess,unhealthy carbon emissions.There is no such thing as a"healthy"coal fed energy plant.

There are only degrees of harm and how much these companies and politicians in their pocket plan to spend on minimising this harm.These companies operate on profit margins ergo one cannot expect them to truly put real effort into it.The question noone is really asking is why noone is putting effort into geo-thermal generation.We live on a highly volcanic island.There are already geo-thermal plants operating on the island but only to a very small degree.The Zamboanga City plant aims to break ground in August of 2012 and to go online by August of 2015.

The second Conal project is on the drawing board for the town of Maasim in Sarangani Province.An arrayed plant of 2 to 3 units,each capable of generating 100 Megawatts.Though at present the company has merely obtained its ECC,or Environmental Compliance Certificate,they hope to have the first 100 Megawatt unit online by September,2013.If all goes according to plan the second unit will go on line at the end of 2014.When the first 100 Megawatt output is secured 70 Megawatts will be doled out to Socateco II with the remaining 30 Megawatts being sold to the grid.

Perhaps the biggest plant might be the SMC,or San Miguel Corporation mine mouth coal fed plant to be built on the Daguma Coal Field in the municipality of Lake Sebu's Barangay Ned in South Cotabato Province.Having already bought 3 large coalmines on the field,which stretches into Sultan Kudarat Province:

1) Daguma Agro Minerals Incorporated

2) Bonanza Energy Resources Incorporated (Numbers 1 and 2 are co-owned)

3) Sultan Energy Mining and Development Corporation

SMC hopes to amass a massive 3,000 Megawatt portfolio nationwide within the next 5 years.The planned Lake Sebu plant is far from a sure thing despite SMC having bought up most of the Daguma vein.First,the South Cotabato Provincial Government,admirably,has taken a total oppositional stance to all open pit mining.Going so far as to implement an outright ban on such mines and in doing so sparking a feud with the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) secretary,Jesse Robredo,the Provincial Government isnt budging.Then,TAMASCO,or T'boli Manobo S'daf Claimant Organization,is among several disparate stakeholding groups that are adamantly opposing the proposed plant.TAMASCO is an entity composed of 2 area Lumad tribes (Hilltribes),the T'boli and the Manobo and represents their joint interest on an AD (Ancestral Domain) that directly abuts the SMC tract.AD refers to certain vested land rights afforded to tribes living upon their own ancestral lands.The coal field,collectively 17,000 hectares,could support a 740 Megawatt capacity plant for roughly 25 years so that SMC,or rather its subsidiary SME (San Miguel Energy),could survive without having to turn to outside sources for a good 100 years if the plant tops out at its stated maximum capacity of 200 Megawatts.

TAMASCO is deeply concerned after SME's test pits,in Barangay Ned's Sitio Tafal have pretty much scarred the entire sitio.It goes without saying that South Cotabato has alot on its plot with the world's second largest gold field sitting under the province and that Tampakan Project pressing up against the Provincial Government to try and wrangle an open pit spanning parts of 3 provinces.If more LGUs (Local Government Units,as in towns,cities,and provincial governments) were like the South Cotabato Provincial Government perhaps Mindanao might actually have some hope of of real,sustainable prosperity that betters the lives of all involved.

Finally,on March 2nd,Trans Asia Oil and Energy Development Corporation filed plans to construct a 135 Megawatt coal fed plant in Northeast Mindanao.In their regulatory filing the corporation revealed they are already performing a Pre-Feasability Study and plan to pattern it on a plant currently operating in Batangas Province on Luzon.The Batangas facility,also rated at 135 Megawatts,in the town of Calaca,is currently under construction and primed to go on line in 2014.If the Mindanao facility reaches fruition it will go on line in 2015.It plans to utilise coal from the Semirara Coal Company,owned by the Cosunji Clan.Any shortfall will be offset by importation from Indonesia.

Development Aggression for Second Quarter, 2011, Part II: More Tampakan, Aboitiz in Davao del Sur and TVI in Siocon

In Part I for the Second Quarter I devoted my entry to the recent violence and mishaps with the Tampakan Project centered in South Cotabato Province.I say"centered"because the endeavor aims to create an Open Pit gold,silver and copper mine spanning 4 provinces:

1) South Cotabato

2) Davao del Sur

3) Sarangani

4) Sultan Kudarat

In that entry I very briefly touched upon the mudslides that took place within that mining tenement but didn't offer much information.

On Saturday,April 2nd,2011 after 2 days of torrential downpour a Banlas (large scale sluice operation in local dialect) Operation was subsumed in a massive mudslide.Five B'laan Tribesmen were working inside a tunnel with an entry underneath the Banlas.Only 1 of the 5 managed to run before 2 hectares of denuded mountainside came crashing down.Of the 4 remaining miners,1 was buried up to his waist and despite internal bleeding has survived.The remaining 3 weren't nearly as fortunate.Only 2 of the men have been positively identified:

1) Ramram Payuri,of Tampakan

2) Remy Malaya,also from Tampakan

The 3rd man is still unidentified but is said to be from the town of Tupi,also in South Cotabato Province.

The landslide came only days after another deadly mudslide in the municipality of T'boli in that same province. On Wednesday March 30 in that town's Barangay Kematu another Banlas Operation came crashing down hill and covered yet another Tunnel Operation.Just as in the latter incident there were 5 men,all T'boli Tribesmen.Two were critically injured,three died but T'boli officials aren't releasing the names.Ironically it was in the municipality of T'boli that Banlas Mining first took hold in Central Mindanao.Just as the new century began small scale miners from Luzon imported the devastating method.Denuding surrounding forests to build giant sluices they set up next to rivers and directly pump enormous volumes of water over the denuded mountain slope,forcing the mud into the sluice and then into huge piles of tailings.The runoff,often containing fun stuff like mercury and cyanide,not to mention enormous amounts of sediment then flow directly into the rivers which not only irrigate the entire region but provide its drinking water as well.This isn't even touching upon the estuaries,mangroves and coral reefs which are absolutely devastated.

The deaths in Barangay Kematu were the first for the year there but death is not unusual.The last fatal incident took place in late 2010 when 2 brothers,both T'boli Tribesmen,were working a Tunnel Mine and lost their oxygen supply due to a generator cut off.Both suffocated.

With the Tampakan mudslide an aggravated provincial government,already very much anti-mining turned up the heat. South Cotabato's PEMO (Provincial Environmental Management Office) promptly recommended that Governor Arthur Pingoy Jr. issue an Emeregency Stop Work Order for at least the Tampakan tenement to try and address the proliferation of illegal small scale mining on the tract.Ideally the tenement holder,in this case SMI (Sagittarius Mines Inc.) Would ensure that its tenement remained free of such dangerous activities.Of course in this case SMI is happy to let the Governor deal with the headache since the province has banned Open Pit Mining,an issue I addressed in that previous entry,"Second Quarter 2011,Part II."

Governor Pingoy very quickly signed the order,and had the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and PNP (Philippine National Police) deploy 2 composite detachments to ensure that the Tampakam tenement stays closed for the interm. The government aims to undertake surveys via 2 agencies.The agencies,PMRB. (Provincial Mining Regulatory Board) and MGB's (Mining and Geosciences Bureau) Regional Office will inspect the tenement,then create and implement safety mechanism and regulations before the governor finally rescinds his order.Naturally this doesn't make local miners too happy.They are well aware that should the Tampakan Project eventually circumvent the Open Pit Mining Ban their operations will be promptly shut down.Every day that they aren't operating is another day in which they stand to lose their entire investment.

Complicating things are the paramilitaries that always accompany the proliferation of illegal mining on Mindanao. That particular site has 2 separate B'laan Tribal Paramilitaries operating.In fact,they are the impetus behind Governor Pingoy's decison yesterday,April 18th,to undertake an aerial survey instead of entering the tenement on the ground.Unfortunately for the governor,the skies were much too cloudy and so the 2 seater prop lent out by Japanese-owned Sumifro,a commercial banana operation in that province,touched down not long after takeoff.Nothing was accomplished.

A bit to the south,in Davao City,in neighboring Davao del Sur Province the Aboitiz Project moves even closer to realisation.For those unfamiliar with the issue,Aboitiz Power Corporation ("ABC") is aiming to build a 350 megawatt Coal Fired Power Plant in that city's outlying Toril District.To be built in Barangay Binugao,on the border of the adjoining municipality of Santa Cruz (actually partially in that municipality),in Barangay Inawayan. Despite the island being desperate to diversify its power production due to an over-reliance on hydro-power that left the island-literally-high and dry this past summer,coal fired energy naturally has more than a modicum of opposition.

The project was initially opposed by local warlord,Vice Mayor Rodrigo"Roddy"Duterte has had smoothe sailing since buying him off,ooops,silly me,I meant to say,"since convincing him with intellectualy stimulating ideation."Duterte claims his turn around came about after visiting the Aboitiz-Steag joint venture Coal Fired plant in Misamis Occidental Province in late 2010.That would be the very same plant that 2 different groups of Davao City Councillors visited after New Years.That junket has stirred up a bit of controversy in the city when it was revealed that aside from airline tickets,hotel rooms and a healthy per diem all paid for by Aboitiz,the councillors ALSO received several thousand pesos each to "buy souveiners." I mean, doesn't that make perfect sense to you? It's completely natural to visit a coal belching behemoth that blights an entire region,causing asthma and possibly even emphysema and the first thing on everybody's mind will naturally be...a souvneneir.

In any event,April 2nd saw ABC making a big deal out of its self-contrived media event,the doling out of Royalty Checks to local government officials in the town of Santa Cruz in Davao del Sur Province.Its subsidiary,Hedcor Sibulan Inc.,operates a 42.5 megawatt Hydro-Electric Power Plant in that town's Barangays of Sibulan and Darong. The Department of Energy mandates a royalty of 1 centavo per kilowatt/hour sold.ABC entered into a voluntary arrangement above and beyond this mandate with both the municipality AND those 2 barangays.Barangay Sibulan received a cheque for P1,107,552.57 (roughly 25,000 US).Barangay Darong received P563,761.28 (roughly 12,000 US).The town received P1,582,567.20 (roughly 34,000 US).

Because the tract sits within the Ancestral Domain (akin to the American Reservation allocation for Native Americans though with substantial differences) of a Lumad Tribe ("Lumad"being the local term for the non-Negrito Animist Hill Tribes).On April 2nd the Tagabawa Bagobo Tribe was given their payout in a separate ceremony.The cheque was for exactly P1 Million (roughly 22,000 US).On April 11th,Davao del Sur Province will get its share to the tune of P1.6 Million (roughly 33,000 US).

The company is also going to award a full university scholarship to 5 students from Barangay Sibulan and 1 from Barangay Darong.The students will be given full tuition,room,board and a stipend with the choice of 2 institutions, University of Mindanao at Digos City,located in that same province of Davao del Sur or CorJesu College, a local Catholic private college.

On April 5th the town of Siocon in Zamboanga del Norte Province was gifted a new 1.4km Farm to Market Road for its Barangay Siay.Siay,sitting at the foot of Mount Canatuan had been having trouble with its dirt road for years with the Monsoon making it impassable,hampering the barangay's rice farmers in trying to move their harvests into towns. Who was this generous benefactor?Why am I listing this positive accomplishment under"Development Aggression"?

The road was constructed and paid for by TVIRDP.TVIRDP is the Makati-based subsidiary of TVI's Hong Kong subsidiary. TVI, or"Toronto Ventures Inc."is a Canadian-based multi-national mining corporation that happens to hold the most land of any single mining company in the Philippines.Most of their well over 1 million hectares of land is concentrated on the very narrow Zamboanga Peninsula where virtually every community has heavily opposed the company. Mount Canatuan is home to TVIRP's flagship mine,the Canatuan Gold,Silver and Copper Mine.A 51 hectare Open-Pit operation the mine has seen much bloodshed with the last incident taking place in March when an SCAA (Special Civilian Active Auxiliries,a Force Multiplication entity funded by private businesses but armed,trained and loosely supervised by the AFP) shot a protestor to death at the entrance to the mine.I will be discussing that particular incident and the mine in depth in an entry I am simultaneously working on.

Barangay Captain/Chairman Hamulod Lambana of Barangay Siay approached TVIRDP on getting that new farm to market road in early December of 2010.Badly needing some good PR the company passed the request on to its CREDO (Community Relations and Development Office) whose superintendent Joel Alasco immediately implemented the project via TVIRDP's Social Development and Management Programme.It took the company less than 12 days to fill and grade the road using materiel not as susceptible to the heavy rains that accompany Monsoon.A big advantage is that an additional 800 hectares of rice paddy can now be mechanically harvested now that the machinery won't be bogged down on the road. Of course almost all that riceland is owned by ...Barangay Captain/Chairman Hamulod Lambana but I won't tell if you won't...

Development Aggression for Second Quarter, 2011: Tampakan Project

Of all Mindanowan mining projects, and there are a great many, all pale in comparison to Tampakan. Named for a town in South Cotabato Province, largely populated by B'laan Tribesman (a Lumad group, an Animist Hilltribe) it will stretch across 4 provinces. I use the future tense, "will," because the mine is only on the drawing board at the moment. Primed to be the world's second largest gold, silver AND copper mine, it will be the single largest investment in Filipino History, to say nothing of Mindanao.

Most worrisome is the nature of the mine. After finishing Pre-Feasability Surveys in September of 2006, the investors concluded that Open Pit Mining would be the most cost-effective method of extraction. So, a giant festering sore will rip apart parts of 4 provinces: South Cotabato, Davao del Sur, Sarangani and Sultan Kuradat. The bulk of the project is controlled by SMI (Sagittarius Mines Inc.), a subsidiary of Xstrata Copper, a multi-national mining outfit based in Switzerland. Partnering with SMI/Xstrata is Indophil Resources NL, an Australian-based multinational. Locally SMC (San Miguel Corp.) has taken a piece of the pie with just over 10% of Indophil's 33% share of the project. I will get into all those gory details in a multi-entry series devoted to the overall financing, permitting and Hearts and Mines nonsense being proffered left and right. For every tribal chief the project manages to bribe into agreement another community is irreparably torn apart. For now I will simply offer the faintest and sketchiest outline of the endeavor, concentrating on its latest news, while leaving the meat and potatoes for an upcoming in depth entry on all facets of the mine.

Interestingly, and quite suprisingly, local government officials are largely united in their vehement opposition to this huge project. Just before she stepped down as Governor last June, Daisy Fuentes (now serving in Congress) signed off on a new Provincial Environmental Code that banned Open Pit Mining. Even more suprisingly- shockingly even- her successor Arthur Pingoy Jr. has turned out to be even more principled and has dug in his heels to go mano a mano not only with the pro-development camp, but has been going head to head with Manila over this issue as well.

As if to drive home the raison d'etre for local officials' anti-mining positions, Central Mindanao took extremely heavy rainfall in late March. The extra-heavy rains led to horrifying flooding and mudslides that caused the collapse of 2 separate small scale mines illegaly operating in South Cotabato Province, one of which is within the Tampakan tenement. Illegal miners, digging for gold use whatever timber hasn't already been illegaly logged off the mountain sides to construct their operations. Then, in this case, they operate a Banlas (local word for a "large scale sluice"), pumping river water over the mountain side in huge volumes. Aside from mercury, cyanide, de-forestation and societal breakdowns the tailings then wash almost unimpeded back down the slope and into the river.

Arguably the legal mine would negate the multitude of problems associated with the numerous small scale illegal mines. Instead of trying to do the impossible, policing the illegal miners who literally and exponentially increase on a daily basis, it might be a tad bit more sensible to fight battles that can be won. Since illegal mierrs operate entirely outside of the law they are entirely unregulated. Understandably they aren't too cognisant of the environmental and societal ramifications produced by their 7 or 8 years on a mountainside. Therefore, it might make more sense to allow multi-nationals in to do their dirty work as these companies, which are entirely profit driven, won't allow poaching on their tenements. Yet, this argument falls short because as bad as small scale mining is it will not rip apart 4 provinces and render the land unusable for centuries. More over, with small scale mining virtually all profit is retained by the Philippines. With any commercial mining operation the profits are getting sucked out along with the precious natural resources.

Today, April 18, Governor Pingoy took an aerial tour of the Tampakan tenement after being warned by a local military detachment that the illegal miners have deployed paramilitary soldiers in and around their mines. Aside from the deaths related to the mudslides there has also been another round of violence related to the Tampakan project. While taking an arial tour can be entertaining it won't be able to help the governor learn anything important. Indeed, it won't be able to tell him anything about the most recent killings.

On Friday, March 24 a convoy of 5 dump trucks owned by LVE Construction were slowly moving up the muddy dirt road in Sitio Datalbiao in Tampakan's Barangay Danlag when they were ambushed. When the smoke cleared 1 driver, Osias Pizania and 2 labourers riding in his truck, Rommel Vega and Nelson Parasan were all dead. A 2nd driver was critically wounded but survived. LVE is a subcontractor for SMI, hauling soil from test sites and is owned by Leonardo Escobillo who co-incidentally is the Mayor of Tampakan. Although something like this, a municipal official directly profiting from developmental work within his own municipality, would earn the good mayor a prison sentence in most any Western nation, here in the Philippines very few people see anything at all wrong with a person in a position of power using THAT position for personal enrichment.

The usual suspect would be the NPA, the Maoist Insurgency. After all the NPA has attaccked the project a few times in the past, most recently on New Years Day, 2008. Early that morning the NPA drove up to the SMI Base Camp in Barangay Tablu, situated less than 500 meters from an AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) garrison. Disarming the camp's SCAA (Special Civilians Active Auxiliary, a Force Multiplication entity paid for by private companies but armed, trained and VERY loosely supervised by the AFP). After capturing their weapons the guerillas firebombed and burned P12 Million worth of structures and equipment. Another time, the NPA went all the way into the town proper, its Barangay Poblacion, and attacked SMI's main office in the Philippines. This time though the AFP immediately turned everybody's attention towards a tribal leader whom the AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police) refuse to name. Of course I am neither with the AFP nor the PNP so I will tell all: The ambush team was under Datu Dagil Capion who is dead set against the mine.

A month before the ambush, on February 22, tribal leader of the S'bangken band of B'laan and a Barangay Kagawad (Councillor) for Barangay Tablu where the SMI Base Camp is located, Datu Tonio Binuhay and his wife Rosanna were in their home in Purok Quezon, in the lowland barangay of Santa Cruz. Without warning brothers Ricky and Morito Puli and their cousin Gasmin Puli entered the home and killed the couple with point blank shots to the back of the head. Rosanna was 7 months pregnant at the time. Her husband was very supportive of the mine and as a tribal leader he would be able to exert considerable influence.

It is important to note that Morito Puli was ALSO a Kagawad for that same barangay, Tablu. These killings at least weren't simply connected to pro and anti-mining partisan concerns. The Puli Clan was livid over what they felt was a lowball figure offered in SMI's Crop Compensation Programme. A few meters of their corn field was plowed under as SMI sank test pipes. Tonio Binuhay was bought off by SMI with the job of administering the compensation payoffs. On March 09 the 3 Puli Clansmen were charged by the South Cotabato Provincial Prosecutor with Multiple Murder.

SMI immediately panicked, fearing outright tribal warfare and quickly shut down its operations. Since the NPA attack on the Base Camp in 2008 the company had outsourced protection to what most locals call, "Blue Guards," a private security firm. Utilising Catena Security Inc., a local subsidiary of the UK-based contractor, "G4S" (Group 4 Securicor). This switching directions with regard to security didn't benefit them a whole lot. On December 20, 2010 two of their guards were on a mobile patrol near one of their test sites in Sitio Alyong when they took sniper fire.

Aside from the violence, on March 25, SMI's Corporate Communications Manager (why can't they simply say, "Spokesman") finally reacted to the pressures faced by a long and arduous struggle to gain the necessary approvals needed to go forward with the project. Though the Environmental Code was replaced, there was no implementation mechanism. Ergo, for the past few months Governor Pingoy has had a Technical Working Group formulating the code's IRRs (Implementation Rules and Regulations). SMI's man, John B.Arnaldo says that although it is very stressful the company is pinning all its hopes on the Provincial Council which has yet to make a determination as to whether-or-not it will move for a Review of the IRRs.

Governor Pingoy though says that short of the Council recommending such a review, or a court order, the Environmental Code containing that overall ban on Open Pit Mining will go into effect just ss soon as the provincial government has the IRRs published in a local newspaper. Ironically, the IRR didn't actually have any real connection with the Mining Ban since it is a Stand alone Provision, not requiring an actual implementation mechanism. It is merely a technicality, part of the normal approval machinery.

As the clock winds down Governor Pingoy has asked for each of his Provincial Councillors to submit, in writing, a clear articulation of their position on a Review for the IRRs. To date only 1 councillor has complied, Jose Madanguit. Mr.Madanguit currently is Vice Chairman of the Council's Environmental Committee, having actually chaired it in his last term on the council. Councillor Madanguit has stated that he will not be seeking any review.

When Ms.Fuentes was Governor, the Provincial Council voted 5:4 for the new Environmental Code, with 2 Councillors absent. The day of the vote, June 02, 2010 turned into an all day debate over part of a single line: "Open-Pit Mining AND ALL OTHER FORMS OF MINING shall not be allowed in the Province of South Cotabato (emphasis being mine).". At the time SMI's man, Mr.Arnaldo, was much more complacent than he was 3 weeks ago. He said that it really didn't matter what former Gov.Fuentes and the Provincial Council DID or DID NOT do, the Philippines Mining Act of 1995 legalised Open-Pit Mining. He then arrogantly noted,"A local law cannot supercede a national law." Funny what a difference a few months makes.

In late November, Secretary Jesse M.Robredo of DILG (Dept.of Infrastructure and Local Govt.) issued a memorandum that didn't go over too well in South Cotabato Province. The epitome of hubris and everything wrong in Manila-Mindanowan relations, Secretary Robredo demanded that local government officials not implement the new Environmental Code. In response both the governor AND the Provincial Council told Robredo to mind his own business. Governor Pingoy says that after conferring with provincial legal counsel the provincial position is that DILG is a supervisory entity and I'd not legally able to dictate provincial policy.

Finally, on April 13th during an official visit to GenSan (General Santos City in Sarangani Province) President Aquino said that he is growing impatient with the provincial position. He said that normally he would give precedence to the sentiments expressed by local government but feels that in this case South Cotabato's position will only create more problems down the road. He noted, as I myself noted earlier in this entry that IF there isn't a large commercial mining entity on a particular tenement it will be innundated by small scale miners. While that is true, using it as a rationale to allow a wholesale rape of Mindanao is despicable. Instead of dealing with the issue, in this case small scale illegal mining, President Aquino would have us abandon justice in lieu of the easier path. Aquino is proving himself less a leader than his late mother and she was a terrible leader. Let us hope that he becomes a problem solver instead of a quick-fix mechanic.

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.

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.