28/10/2025
๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ก๐ผ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐
Across the Philippines, from Dinapigue, Isabela to Oriental Mindoro to Balabac, Palawan, the same disturbing pattern repeats itself: communities are displaced, mountains are carved up, rivers are rerouted, and ecosystems are devastated. And when people raise questions about this destruction, the answer is almost always the same: "Itโs legal."
In Dinapigue, a mining corporation with a 25-year contract is defended by officials because it has permits. In Oriental Mindoro, dredging projects that threaten the ancestral lands of Mangyan communities are justified because they were approved by the provincial government. In Balabac, harassment and displacement of local residents are explained away because the land is now private property, as if paper titles alone can erase centuries of presence and belonging.
But here is the problem: just because itโs legal doesnโt mean itโs right. We need to stop treating legality as a moral shield. The law is not sacred by default. It is a human creation, shaped by people, and as such, it can be bent, corrupted, or weaponized. Laws are supposed to exist to protect public welfare and ensure a just society, not to enable destruction for profit. Yet in these cases, the law is too often twisted into a tool to justify violence, environmental degradation, and the systematic dispossession of marginalized communities. It becomes a procedural excuse to avoid a moral conversation.
The Myth of "Responsible Mining"
Mining companies love to talk about "responsible mining." They show us glossy brochures, stage tree-planting photo-ops, and promote their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. But these are smokescreens. They are carefully curated distractions from an industry that, at its core, is extractive and destructive. This narrative of "responsibility" is designed to manufacture public consent while the real damage continues unseen.
How can we call it responsible when entire mountains are flattened, watersheds are poisoned with toxins, and biodiversity is permanently lost? How can it be responsible if Indigenous peoples, who have cared for their lands for generations, are criminalized or even killed for protecting their ancestral domains? There is no such thing as "responsible mining" when the cost is irreversible ecological damage and widespread human suffering.
And letโs not pretend this is about genuine development. Mining does bring jobs, yes, but they are temporary ones, often low-paying and dangerous. The real wealth is funneled up the ladder, exported away, while the permanent damage stays in the soil, the water, and the lives of the communities left behind. This isn't development; it's depletion.
Follow the Signatures
If a project is causing displacement, pollution, and violence, then we must ask the hard questions: Who signed off on it? Who approved it? Who turned a blind eye? Was it the barangay captain? The mayor? The governor? A congressperson? A senator? The president?
They all have a hand in this. Every one of them has a primary duty to the people who elected them, not to the corporations that fund their campaigns. Their signatures on permits are not just administrative actions; they are moral decisions with real-world consequences for which they must be answerable.
We elected them, yes, and that is precisely why we must hold them accountable. Accountability is the price of power. If they abuse the power we gave them or hide behind the letter of the law to escape scrutiny, they have failed their mandate. They have broken their contract with the people and have no business asking for our votes ever again.
This Is About Justice
To be clear, we are not anti-progress. We are not anti-investment. But we absolutely refuse to accept a version of "development" that thrives on destruction, displacement, and division. Real development, the kind our country deserves, respects people, protects nature, and builds a future that communities can truly stand on. It is development that is sustainable, inclusive, and just.
So the next time someone dismisses your concerns by saying, "legal naman 'yan," you must ask: Legal for whom? Beneficial for whom? And at whose expense? Because when laws are consistently used to justify harm, it is not the people protecting their homes who are breaking the law in a moral sense. The real breach of public trust comes from those who wrote, bent, and enforced those laws to serve the interests of the few at the cost of the many. That is not legality; that is injustice with a permit.
OPINION | Julius Sales Rebuca
ILLUSTRATION | Kian Miguel Branzuela
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