Mining firm airs its side

A short item in this column advocating a total mining ban, as a companion piece to the total logging ban, drew a rejoinder from a mining company, MacroAsia, which operates in Brooke’s Point, Palawan. A multi-sectoral alliance of groups called Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) is seeking a stop to all mining in the country, initially in Palawan. In the spirit of fair play, I am giving the floor to MacroAsia.

“Our mining operations are socially acceptable, environment friendly and economically beneficial to host communities and the government.”

This, in a nutshell, is the summary of the response of MacroAsia both to the column and in a letter to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Ramon N. Santos, vice president for mining operations of MacroAsia Corp., said the mining firm is in fact a contractor of the Philippine government by virtue of an agreement with the DENR signed on Dec. 1, 2005 to develop and operate the country’s mineral resources in Brooke’s Point. Thus, the mining firm is a partner of the government in implementing the policy of revitalizing the large-scale mining industry in the Philippines, Santos said.

Santos said MacroAsia enjoys the support of the communities which have benefited from the social development projects it is now implementing pursuant to the pertinent provisions of the mining law. In fact, he added, they have not been remiss in acquiring social responsibility. The firm signed a memorandum of agreement with the Palawan Indigenous Peoples of Brooke’s Point on April 21, 2010 where the Palawan IPs consented to the proposed mining project to be undertaken by MarcroAsia in their ancestral domain.

MacroAsia explained that there are no farmlands that will be mined or to be directly affected by the mining operations, since the proposed mining areas are located in the foothills and far away from established rice farms.

As to the allegation that the company’s mining operations are within the Mt. Mantalingahan Protected Landscape (MMPL), MacroAsia clarified that its mining agreements are not covered by the MMPL declaration.

MacroAsia was registered under the name Infanta Mining with the Board of Investments (BOI) on Feb. 21, 1974 as export producer of beneficiated nickel laterite with a capacity of 300,000 WMT per year.

It managed to export three big shipments of nickel to Japan between 1977 and 1978 before it was constrained to temporarily suspend its mining operation in 1982 due to low metal prices and high smelter costs.

With the resurgence of the price of nickel due to strong demand, MacroAsia now wants to resume operations.

The company was given clearance in June 2005 for the exploration of a total of 1,113 hectares in Palawan. From August 2006 to August 2010, it conducted exploration work, from field assessment to diamond drilling, resulting in the identification of about 88 million tons of nickel laterite resources. Its total exploration investment/expenditures to date have already reached more than P264 million.

Santos said the company was committed to rehabilitate not only the areas disturbed by its mining operations but also other marginal lands surrounding the project area.

MacroAsia has also given assurances that it would observe a mining sequence designed to minimize the areas to be open at any given time within the mine life, and ensure the completion of the necessary rehabilitation work in mined areas.

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Here is the last chapter in the kidnapping of Jacky Tiu-Lomibao about which we have been writing. Lomibao was kidnapped by seven Chinese nationals in San Fernando, La Union, on Sept. 27, 2001, as she was driving her car just a few meters from her house. The kidnappers demanded a P10 million ransom, which the family paid. However, she was rescued by a combined police team, the seven kidnappers were captured, and the ransom money was recovered.

That’s not the end of story, however. The trial of the case took 10 long years. And here is the strange part of it: 10 judges, for various reasons, inhibited themselves from the case. Lomibao finally asked that the case be transferred to Manila as the judges in La Union seemed to be afraid of the cohorts of the accused kidnappers.

At last, Judge Antonio Rosales of Manila RTC 52 wrote finis to the case. He declared all the accused guilty. He sentenced six of them to each serve up to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

A seventh accused who managed to escape to mainland China was sentenced, in absentia, to a prison term ranging from six years to eight years as an accessory to the kidnapping.

In addition to the 40-year jail term for the kidnapping, three of the other accused were sentenced to an additional 17-year jail term for stealing Lomibao’s car. The judge also ordered all the accused to pay her P100,000 in exemplary damages, with interest from the date of the commission of the crime until the amount is fully paid.

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There is another criminal case that has been delayed even longer, also because the judges are inhibiting themselves one after another from the case. This is the double murder case against Mayor Lloyd Antiporda of a Cagayan town. The trial has been completed and the defendant has been found guilty, but he appealed to the Court of Appeals. It is in the appellate court where 17 justices inhibited themselves from the case, one after another, for the last 17 years, for what strange reason, nobody really knows for sure.

Appeals by the families of the victims to the Supreme Court to have the CA decide the case have produced no results.