This is to clarify the letter from Estanislao Albano Jr. of the Kalinga Anti-Pollution Action Group (“Joint visit would end ‘mining word war,’” Opinion, 8/4/16).
The poverty statistics which Gina Lopez says come from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) are also our source, and we would like to disclose that mining and quarrying sector statistics derived by the PSA from its Family Income and Expenditure Survey were from entrepreneurial activities of households involved in small-scale sand and gravel quarrying, small-scale gold mining, salt-making and the like.
The survey excluded households in large mining establishments, such that even provincial poverty rates can only be indicative of provincial poverty levels, and the PSA says poverty is prevalent in agricultural areas.
Albano therefore cannot make any conclusions with respect to the poverty levels in municipalities where our large mining company members operate.
For his information, the 10 poorest provinces recorded by the PSA in its 2015 First Semester Family Income and Expenditure Survey were mostly in the rural areas, which are predominantly agricultural: Lanao del Sur (74.3%), Sulu (65.7%), Sarangani (61.7%), Northern Samar (51.5%), Maguindanao (59.4%), Bukidnon (58.7%), Sultan Kudarat (56.2%), Zamboanga del Norte (56.1%), Siquijor (55.2%), and Agusan del Sur (54.8%).
With respect to Albano’s allegations that farmlands have been cemented by wastes from mines, we would like to say that there are no copper or gold mines in Pangasinan and La Union. If he is talking about the mines in Benguet, these mines have tailings dams where the wastes from operations are contained.
Albano may be talking about sand and gravel quarrying, where the river system can carry sand and gravel from eroded mountains that naturally happens, or from kaingin. Likewise, siltation is often caused by soil erosion or sediment spill.
Our goal as an association of large metallic mining operations is to practice responsible mining, and I believe that is also the goal of the government. Attributions of this kind which only mislead the public should be undertaken with great concern.
—NELIA C. HALCON, EVP, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines