TWO days ago, I was invited by Mr. Thogs Naniong of the Philippine Information Agency to be a guest on his afternoon talk show, Agenda ng Bayan, on Radyo Pilipinas.
This program is also being aired over AM, Facebook and TV. Its reach extends beyond the geographic limitations of our Republic, leading me to greet not only his listeners at home but even the crew of the Chinese vessels in our West Philippine Sea.
I received the invite because Sir Thogs wanted to discuss the value of mining to the Philippines, given the desire of NEDA and the Marcos administration to do what it can to boost the industry’s contribution to national development.
‘… anyone who says there is no place for mining in our lives has to explain why he or she wants us to return to being cavemen.’
Sir Thogs wanted me to explain what this would mean, how it could be possible, and what the responses are to the critics of the industry who believe there is no place for mining in the country.
The invite gave me the opportunity to address issues being raised against the industry and express a few key messages, beginning with this: there can be no human progress from the era of cave dwellers to today’s age of AI and all without the products of mining — and so there should be no more debate that mining is, as I put it, one of the three realities of modern life, the two others being the classic death and taxes.
The issue, therefore, should be whether mining is being done responsibly or not, and if it is not, then there is no place for it in our day-to-day lives.
No place for anything and anyone irresponsible, period.
But mining contributes so little to the national GDP, critics say. I say in turn, make up your mind! Open up more mining projects so that the industry contribution can be bigger. But don’t expect mining, which is happening in less than 1% of the country’s land area, to contribute as much to the GDP as agriculture which happens in over 40% of our total land area.
Only a few people are enriched by mining, critics lament. But what business enterprise has enriched us all? At the same time, the communities where responsible mining operates see their lives change for the better. Bataraza is now a first-class municipality in Palawan and is the richest LGU in all of MIMAROPA, with the exception of Puerto Princesa.
And Baguio City? Let’s not forget that Baguio became Baguio because it was the mining capital of the country in the mid-1900s.
Mining causes ecological damage, critics complain. These critics turn a blind eye to the fact that population growth has required the leveling of so much forest land to create towns and cities that are a permanent change in land use. In contrast, mining is temporary land use, with mined-out areas replanted to trees, leading Rio Tuba Nickel Corporation in Palawan to coin the slogan “God gave us a mine, we gave Him back a forest.”
The Pasig River is dead, not because of mining, but because of poorly planned urban development. The damage caused by super typhoons is heightened not because of mining, but because our urban sprawl is not designed for resilience.
Mining has become the scapegoat for all that is going wrong around us.
Talking to Sir Thogs and addressing the points raised by mining critics that he narrated for me one by one made me realize, again, how deep-rooted the misconceptions about responsible mining among a large swath of our population. While I do not live under the illusions that these misconceptions can ever be dispelled for good, I live under the realization that we who bat for responsible mining as the only way to go will need to patiently answer, over and over again, each and every accusation raised against our industry — while stressing that anyone who says there is no place for mining in our lives has to explain why he or she wants us to return to being cavemen.
