19/07/2020
Government revives Tampakan mining project?
“This technically gives the company new lease to mine 10,000 hectares across indigenous territories of B’laan, Bagobo and other lumads”
MINING is an important revenue-generating industry in the country. According to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Philippines received US$ 722-million (Php 37.8-billion) from the extractive industry in 2017. This was 26 percent increase from the previous year’s US$ 536-million or Php 28-billion. Almost 74 percent of these revenues from extractive industry came from oil and gas.
Available published resources about mining identifies Tampakan Mining Project as the single largest-foreign direct investment in the Philippines. It is also the largest copper-gold resource in the South-East Asia Western-Pacific region comprising an area over 10,000 hectares. The site is about 50 kilometers west from General Santos City. The project was first granted an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) by the government in February 2013. It is owned by Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) and the Tampakan Mining Group (TMG).
However, on July 2010, the South Cotabato province had banned open-pit mining in Tampakan region. Former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez of the Duterte Administration also issued Executive Order No. 79, in 2017, which imposed a blanket moratorium on the issuance of new mineral agreements until such time that a new fiscal regime was enacted by congress. The said EO prohibits mining areas that were previously open to mining applications and the identification of “No-Go” Zones where no mining was allowed.
On June 3, 2018, newly-appointed Department on Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy A. Cimatu issued Department Administrative Order 2018-13 lifting the moratorium on the acceptance, processing and/or approval of Exploration Permit applications for metallic and non-metallic minerals. Sec. Lopez was booted out after the Committee on Appointments of congress junked her nomination.
However, reports are pouring in that the ECC of the Tampakan mining has been reinstated. In a letter by the Green group Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) to President Rodrigo Duterte last November 4, 2019 demanded that the alleged reinstatement order be made public. The group reminded the president that Tampakan’s ECC was cancelled by Sec. Lopez in 2017 because of the company’s failure to comply with conditions and permitting requirements set by the ECC. The ATM claimed that this compliance was not met by the proponent.
An online post by Kilab Multimedia alleged that the president on January 2020 renewed the SMI’s Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) up to 2032 and reinstated its ECC. This technically gives the company new lease to mine 10,000 hectares across indigenous territories of B’laan, Bagobo and other lumads in the municipalities of Tampakan, Kiblawan in Davao del Sur and Columbio, Sultan Kudarat.
Aside from environmental issues, the project has been controversial because of the reported murders on October 2012 of indigenous leader Juvy Capion and her two young sons, aged 13 and 8, in their house by the Philippine Army in Barangay Danlag, Tampakan. The lumads and the Catholic church have strongly opposed to the open-pit mining of SMI.
The group Sandugo Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self Determination has signified their opposition to the alleged re-opening of the mining company and condemns the president’s underhanded move. It said in a statement, “We are now seeing what this Terror Law is for—to further exploit the natural resources of our country while silencing those who oppose it.”
Are we seeing another heated confrontation in this part of Mindanao soon?
