Clean elections, no more mining disasters?

We hope, the elections in 2013 and others that will follow later, will be clean. No more massive cheating that characterized the elections during the GMA administration. This was what Sen. Koko Pimentel, chairman of the Senate committee on electoral reforms, expressed at the Kapihan sa Manila at the Diamond Hotel last Monday. Pimentel himself was a victim of cheating in the last senatorial elections and he lost about a third of his senatorial term while the protest and counter-protest was being heard by the Senate Electoral Tribunal. (The other Kapihan guest was Director Leo Jasareno of the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences.)

With the votes being counted by machines, Pimentel said, the chances of humans altering the results of the elections would be minimized. With the use of biometrics, in which the fingerprints of the voter would be recorded by the machine and compared with the prints of the person who presents himself as the voter, flying voters would be eliminated.

The senator was asked if he had any solution to squatters being brought in by candidates to vote for them during elections. The squatter problem is exacerbated by this practice.

That is correct, the young Pimentel replied. Candidates for barangay positions, for councilors, and for congressmen bring in the squatters to vote for them, when they should be the first line of defense against the entry of squatters.

To remedy that, we will make it difficult for any Tom, Dick and Harry to register as a voter. He must have resided in the place where he wants to vote for at least six months, Pimentel added, and not on the mere say-so of the barangay captain because, as you said, these squatters have been brought in by the barangay officials themselves.

They will not be deprived of the right to vote, he added. If disqualified to vote in their new addresses, they can still vote in the places where they originally came from.

Pimentel was also asked on the findings of the Senate blue ribbon committee on the case of second-hand helicopters sold as new to the Philippine National Police (PNP). He replied that blue ribbon chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and himself have already filed plunder charges against former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, former PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa, and several others with the Department of Justice with the report of the blue ribbon committee as annex.

Is the evidence against them clear?

Very clear.

Is there any deed of sale?

None. They took pains to cover their tracks, but the paper trail clearly points to Mike Arroyo as the owner of the choppers when they were sold to the PNP.

Mike’s brother, Rep. Iggy Arroyo, said the choppers were merely leased by the family.

That is not correct. The helicopters were bought and sold by Mike Arroyo.

That is not the only thing, Pimentel added. We found out that the helicopters sold as new to the PNP were not only secondhand, but were priced higher than brand new ones.

What about the rubber boats and engines sold to the PNP but could not be used for rescue during the floods because the engines did not match the boats?

That’s another criminal case. The rubber boats and engines were bought in separate batches. Probably excess stocks that were unloaded on the PNP.

I personally think that because the GMA administration was on its last days—the last two minutes, in a manner of speaking—and because administration candidates needed plenty of money to win and perpetuate and protect the GMA officials, they became careless. They probably thought that if the administration candidates win, the officials who bought the choppers and rubber boats—and other expensive things we may not have discovered yet—would not have to explain anything anyway.

The unfortunate thing for them is that the GMA candidates lost, and now there is hell to pay.

Director Jasareno was asked about the problems of the mining industry and what the bureau is doing to solve them.

The big problem is of course the rebels, both NPA and Muslim. NPA rebels raided a mining site in Surigao del Norte and torched the camp and heavy equipment, causing losses in the hundred of millions of pesos to the mining company, because the company allegedly refused to pay revolutionary taxes to the rebels.

Another problem is the opposition of communities in the mining sites, especially the tribals, because they say mining is destructive to the environment. The killing of Italian missionary Fausto Tentorio outside a church in Arakan, North Cotabato, by a lone gunman, may have its roots in mining. Father Tentorio was reported to be against mining in the area to protect the tribals there, and he may have been assassinated to remove an opposition voice for the ethnic tribes.

Director Jasareno said the big mining companies are no problem because they are mostly responsible. The problem is mostly the small-scale miners who are hardly supervised by the government. He explained that permits for the small-scale miners are given by the provincial governor, not by the Bureau of Mines.

If the big mining companies are no problem, why did the mining disasters in Ormoc, Leyte, and Marinduque happen?

That won’t happen again. We have instituted rules to prevent a repetition of that.

The bigger problem, and largely unnoticed, Jasareno explained, are the small-scale miners. The gold panners of Diwalwal for example, pollute the river with mercury, which is ingested by fish which, when eaten by humans, poison them and they die very painful deaths, as what happened in a fishing town in Japan years ago.

We should not let that happen here.